Gummy bears

Gummy Bears are a rubbery-textured confectionery, roughly 2cm long, shaped in the form of little teddy bears.

History

The Gummy Bear originates from Germany where it is hugely popular under the name Gummibär (rubber bear). The German company Haribo from Bonn first produced bear-shaped sweets in 1922 and introduced its Gold-Bear product in the 1960s. The success of Gummy Bears has spawned many gummy animals and objects: worms, frogs, hamburgers, cherries, cola bottles, sharks, apples, oranges, and even gummy ampelmenn. Many knockoff gummy bears are available on the market. Trolli is a well-known knockoff gummy manufacturer, and was the first to introduce gummi worms in 1981.

Ingredients

The traditional Gummy Bear is made from sugar, glucose syrup, starch, flavouring, food coloring, citric acid and gelatin. There are also some types of Gummy Bears made with pectin instead of gelatin, making them suitable for vegans.

Depending on the production method, it may be similar to the British confectionery Jelly Babies.

Large sour bears are larger and flatter than Gummi Bears, have a softer texture, and include fumaric acid or other acid ingredients to produce a sour flavor. Some manufacturers produce sour bears with a different texture, based on starch instead of gelatin.

On screen

In the final scene of the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a girl on the schoolbus, played by Polly Noonan, offers her downtrodden principal, Mister Rooney, a gummy bear.

Want a gummy bear? They've been in my pocket all day they're real warm and soft

In the 1980s Disney produced a cartoon series called Adventures of the Gummi Bears. The bears on this show, however, were not gummy whatsoever.

In the 2001 film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Gummy Bears are used to represent power, as well as that of a dramatic change over Gummibär and the East Berlin lifestyle. The scene in this musical leads up to the song, "Sugar Daddy."

In the film Jack, Robin Williams' character (who has a disease that causes rapid ageing), offers gummybears to his teacher, played by Jennifer Lopez. She accepts the red ones.

In restaurants

At the end of a meal at Michaelangelo's Restaurant Cafe, in San Francisco, guests are treated to novel albeit unsanitary treat -- a communal bowl of gummy bears.

Breast implants

The consistency of gummy bears has been proposed as ideal for breast implants. "Gummy Bear breast implants" have been on the market since 2005. [1]