Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Patricia Odell

Do you know what happens when you combine one cotton candy jelly bean with one lemon jelly bean?

You get pink lemonade.

It may sound somewhat complicated, but fans of Jelly Belly Candy jelly beans have for years mixed and matched its 50 “official” flavors to create new taste sensations.

Web sites and chat rooms across the globe attest to the interest in new recipes so others can try them.

And now, the company has legitimized these efforts with the Jelly Belly Recipe Game. “We thought there was an opportunity to play this up a bit and give consumers a formal place to submit their recipes and be considered by us,” says Rob Swaigen, director of marketing for Jelly Belly.

The promotion appears on 6 million packages of Jelly Belly beans with game pieces hidden inside, carrying codes needed to enter the contest. People have through Aug. 31 to create recipes at RecipeGame.com for a chance to win a grand prize of $10,000.

At the site, players drag beans to a plate to create a recipe and then give it a name. Later this year, eight finalists will be posted for consumers to view and pick the winner.

An instant-win component on game pieces features 100,000 prizes, including a 12-month membership to the Bean-of-the-Month club, a Jelly Belly bean dispensing machine, recipe books and 1.7-ounce bags of jelly beans.

So what will happen with that winning recipe?

Swaigen says those plans are still under wraps.

“We'll definitely make something big out of it,” he says.

Over the last few years, Jelly Belly has ramped up its promotions, creating larger, more integrated efforts, often focused during the first quarter where Easter falls. The marketing for the recipe game is no exception.

In-store, print ads, Webisodes and a major sampling effort — a staple of Jelly Belly's marketing — run during the promotional period. Half-ounce sample bags of premixed recipes are being handed out at events and by storefronts.

“There is no substitute for tasting Jelly Belly jelly beans,” Swaigen says.

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