Bertie Bott
Chapter 10
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Bertie Bott was born in 1935 and is the creator of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a member of Hufflepuff and was classmates with former Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. After graduating from the school with N.E.W.T.s in Alchemy, Charms, and Transfiguration, he went on and began his career as a confectioner. Bott started off his career by selling and making preexisting popular candies in the wizarding world. However, later, he attempted to create the next “big” candy by starting to experiment with different ideas.
Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans were invented accidentally. Bott had an idea to create tasty sweets from different foods. He decided to use candy similar to Muggle jelly beans as his base. While some of the flavours of these jelly beans included fruit flavours much like the Muggle version, Bott was planning on setting his candy apart by including flavours of cooked dishes like mashed potatoes or desserts such as strawberry and peanut butter ice cream. Unfortunately Bott accidentally knocked a pair of dirty socks into the concoction, creating a dirty sock flavoured jelly bean. However, instead of simply tossing the bean in the trash and mourning his lost pair of socks, this gave Bott an idea. He saw the marketing potential in selling a candy that was “a risk with every mouthful” and proceeded to create batches of disgusting flavours that appeared similar to the delightful ones. This turned out to be a huge success and now Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans are one of the most popular sweets in the wizarding world, sold at the low price of six Sickles a box.
The portrait of Bertie Bott can be found in a hallway on the fifth floor. He is often seen eating his own beans from a bag. He is also known for stopping passing students and having them guess if the bean that he is about to eat is a normal or revolting flavour (such as lemon or rotten egg). While Bott is proud of his own creation, he mentions that he does also enjoy other wizarding confections if asked (especially Fizzing Whizzbees).