The Origin of Gummy Love

Turkish delight has been around, most likely, for hundreds of years. One of the earliest sightings of its recent iteration, gummy-style candy, is Jelly Babies, today England’s most loved candy. The gummy-like candy originated in 1864 and was made by an Austrian confectioner at Fryers of Lancashire, England. Legend has it that the confectioner was trying to make candies shaped like a little bear, but they looked more like an infant. So they called the candies “Unclaimed Babies” for the babies that were dropped off at orphanages or left at hospitals at the time. In 1918, at the end of World War One, British company Bassetts made their own Unclaimed Babies, this time calling them “Peace Babies.” Production fizzled during World War Two and made a peacetime comeback renamed “Jelly Babies” – a more-or-less generic name that had been used throughout its 19th and 20th century existence.

Another related candy, the jellybean, was likely made by Boston confectioner William Schrafft. He panned a soft candy, likely a derivative of Turkish delight, giving it a sugar shell, which he sent to Union soldiers during the Civil War. By the late 1800s, jellybeans were common fare and recognized as an American creation. One New Zealand company, for example, listed having American Confections which were jellybeans and another favorite, caramels.

Why the name “jellybean”? In popular culture, “jelly bean” came to represent a goofy person – a loser. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a story “The Jelly Bean” in 1922, in which he wrote: “’Jelly-bean’” is the name throughout the undissolved Confederacy for one who spends his life conjugating the verb to idle in the first person singular—I am idling, I have idled, I will idle.” Blues singer Ma Rainey, depicted the cheating man she loved in her song “Jelly Bean Blues,” in the 1920s. The 1930s Big Band song, "He's a Curbstone Cutie (They Call Him Jelly Bean)"

contains lyrics describing a “jelly bean” as a silly, inconsequential person who thinks much of himself.

The zippier, multi-flavored, multicolored Jelly Belly was invented by candymaker David Klien whose idea was to infuse the entire jellybean with flavor, rather than the shell. The name came to him when he was watching the TV and the characters were talking about someone named “Jelly Belly.” They were really talking about the blues singer “Lead Belly.”

Gummy Candy

Gummy candy evolved in 1922, built on three traditions. One was the tradition of soft candies dating back, quite likely, to Turkish delight. Second was the popularity of gummy candies themselves. Papers in 1915, for example, described these treats as being “cheap” or “little gummy candy” perfect for decorative Easter collections. The third is the significance of bears and, by default, candy bears, popular in Europe since the late 1800s. In 1896, one article describes the popularity of bears, including candy bears, in Berne Switzerland, which, according to the author, is much like Germany. “The confectionary stores are full of candy bears and the baker’s shop full of gingerbread ones. It gets almost monotonous.”

It was in nearby Germany that Hans Riegel, founder of the company Haribo, united gummy candy and candy bears. The appeal of the bears was said to be Riegel’s fascination with the actual dancing bears starting in the Middle Ages although, more likely, it was the popularity of bears overall. Gummy candy grew in popularity throughout the 20th century, making an entrance in the United States only in 1982. The American Candy company, Jelly Belly, got there first, introducing their own gummy candy in 1981.

A seemingly endless array of gummy candies are available today, such as gummy sushi, gummy soldiers, gummy skulls, and for a brief time, gummy road kill. Gummies have also returned to candy’s original raison d'être, now used as a vitamin. Swedish Fish are a newer candy, created by Swedish Company Malaco in the 1950s for an American demographic. As if underscoring the similarities of gummies and jellies, the company calls their candy “fish-shaped fruity-flavoured jelly sweets.”

Another fish-inspired gummy, the blue gummy shark, demonstrates in its own way, the connection between gummies and culture. Gummy sharks are the name of an actual sharki that lives off the coast of Australia where its candy self was introduced.