| Quick Gummy Facts |
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| A History Of Gummies |
| Gummi candy comes from Germany, it was invented by Hans Riegel in the 1920s, when he made the first gummi bear. He was the owner of the Germany company Haribo. Haribo made the first gummi candy in the U.S. in 1982. Another German gummi candy manufacturer called Trolli made the first gummi worm in 1981. Gummi Worms are the most popular gummi candy ever made. The average brite crawler (the #1 gummi worm) is two inches long. |
| Edible gelatin is the basis for gummi candy. It gives candy elasticity, the desired chewy consistency and a long shelf life. Gelatin allows the formulation and stabilization of foam for light and fluffy sweets. Gelatin goes back to the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs. |
| The roots of the gummi's family tree are planted solidly in German soil. But the little-asked (until now) question lingers: Who was the first to manufacture gummies in America? Gummies have been available in the United States for some time. Haribo (an acronym for Hans Riegel, the creator, who hailed from Bonn, Germany) gummi bears were created in the 1920s. American high school students who happenedto take German were exposed to the treat long before gummies were available on a wide-scale basis in the states. Haribo began manufacturing gummi bears in the United States in 1982. But the German-based Trolli Candy Co., which opened a factory in Iowa in the mid-80s, also claims to be the first to have produced the gummi in America. Haribo purpots to crank out 709 million gummi bears daily. With American companies such as Hershey, Brach's, and Heidi flooding their gummi creations into the market, Americz is awash with gummies. The fruitful proliferation of gummies has rendered the gummi as accessable as a candy bar, with a variety as vast as chewing gum. (And humans can digest gummies much faster than they can chewing gum, which will stay in your stomach for seven years). Gummies can be found every few blocks at inner-city 7-11s as well as in the countryside general store. They are on hand in a cany boutique ($7.16 per lb.) or at a truckstop (20 oz. for $1.50). We have spent many hrs. contemplating the pros and cons of bears versus worms, tart vs sweet, sugar coated vs glossy. If you like gummies but have not had the time to ponder the factors that separate the below-average-rip-off from the sine qua non of gummies, stop eating that sub-par jellied perfume and did into the real thing! |
| First of all, there are lots of ingrediants. Here are some things you will find in your favorite gummies: Frusctose, corn syrup, sugar, sorbitol, gelatin, citric acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, "artificial" and/or "Natural" flavors, red dye #40, yellow dye #5, yellow dye #6, blue dye #1, beeswax, coconut oil, carnauba wax, mineral oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, pear concentrate, and confectioners glaze. So how do all these ingrediants come together to form an end result that is sheer gummi heaven? Well, the process involves a lot of complicated science and finely calibrated instrumentation. Suffice it to say that gelatin combines with various noncarinogenic sweeteners and FDA-approved dyes, and let's not forget the lubricating agents such as mineral, coconut and soybean oils to yeild the delicious gummi candy that fairly beckons to be eaten. |
| How are gummies made? |