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Monday, September 01, 2008
Big Bite Gummy Bear
While I’m a big fan of excess in the right circumstances, I was puzzled about what could be so great about a giant gummi other than the fact that it weighed over 12 ounces and was four inches tall. One of the great things about gummi bears is the variety and the fact that you can put a whole one in your mouth, or several at a time for flavor combos. But this had a lot going for it, first, the price wasn’t bad. At $3.99 for 12.3 ounces (350 grams) it was at least what I considered a fair deal. Yeah, it’s made in China (not one of my favorite gummi-producing countries) but the ingredients looked decent enough to get this just for the sheer joy of photographing it.
They come in five flavors: Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Grape, Green Apple and Orange. Obviously I chose orange, mostly because I thought it would photograph best but also because I think orange is a good flavor. The packaging is spare and still great. It’s basically the mold for the bear, a hard clear plastic shell, sealed with cellophane tape all around. When done with the bear, the little plastic box can be re-filled and closed up and even has a little loop hole at the top for hanging. The nutrition facts are a little odd. They think this package holds only one serving, which is 1120 calories. He’s a little shiny and filmy on the outside, as many gummis are. (This one has carnauba wax.) The gummi itself is very soft and pliable, quite bouncy and stretchy. The big question after opening it was serving suggestions.
I trotted out the giant gummi yesterday when we had friends over for the block party on our street. Ernessa is a huge gummi fan, so she was quite smitten with the idea of a large gummi. Her husband, Christian, is one of my few licorice buddies (though he’s a fan of the salted stuff) ... it’s good to have candy friends. So I served it up on a paper plate and we debated whether to cut him down the middle (there’s a seam) or across. I decapitated him. (There was talk of just picking him up and taking a bite but that’s the candy-equivalent of double dipping.) A few slices of the head and we were all enjoying a piece of the gummy. It’s very soft, more like a piece of firm Jell-O than a gummi bear. It smelled great, like fresh orange juice. The texture as very smooth and melted in the mouth better and didn’t require a lot of chewing, it was almost like a piece of intensely flavored Turkish Delight. It had a lot of zesty notes to it, a good tingly tartness and of course a sweet and mellow background flavor. I was pretty impressed with this bear. I was expecting nothing more than flash and style and no substance. I can say that at least in the orange flavor they delivered a really good gummi bear experience. The ingredients list both pectin and gelatin, which is what I owe the even texture to. I’m not sure how well this would do sitting out of its little clear plastic housing. It sat up well for the photos, but I don’t know how it’d do in humid or really hot conditions. They’d be a fun hostess gift, a great addition to a gift basket or Christmas stocking or if you could find a good deal in bulk, a party favor (and maybe place card holder). As something for one person to eat, it seems a little silly, but it’s definitely a fun thing to share with others. On the whole I prefer the variety and look of the regular-sized ones. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:26 pm 
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICEAll content (text and photos unless otherwise credited) is copyright 2005-2008 by Cybele MayPlease do not use my photos on your own site without permission directly from me, they represent what I ate in preparation for these reviews and are not to be used for other purposes. Design by Hop StudiosPowered by ExpressionEngine
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I bet the case would look cool filled with regular gummy bears.
As something for one person to eat, it seems a little silly, but it’s definitely a fun thing to share with others
but, but, but - you said it’s one serving! How could you share when it’s just one serving?
Just kidding. What I really wanted to say is that nobody brought anything nearly so cool to our block party yesterday. Maybe I should ask them to arrange another block party, just so I can take one of these!
I’m still laughing at the decrapitated bear!
I am laughing so hard at this. I can’t even get through to the bottom of the post. *falls over*
I hope you used appropriate sound effects while you were decapitating the bear--makes the whole affair so much more festive. . .
Seriously--I’m scared of this bear. And I don’t know if it’s because it’s a giant glob of chewy stuff (I’m not a huge fan of gummy anything, except chewing gum) or because it’s made in China. You’re a brave soul.
Now if they could just package that nice orange flavor you describe in a texture my palate could handle....
I’m not smart enough to think of it, but someone needs to make a LOL of this RIGHT NOW.
Assuming Cybele doesn’t mind, of course. We could leave in the watermark. But it could be hilarious, no?
Oh, I should have been more specific. I mean the picture with the HUGE gummy next to the regular one. Or the decapitated one. Either is good, if you’re clever enough.
I love this! So cute!
I bought the cherry bear for my brother at World Market and I have to say I was quite impressed myself. One of the best gummi’s I’ve had actually, very tasty and tangy, plus the texture was perfect to me. The case works great as a storage container as well!
Thank you for reviewing this. I, too, saw it at Cost Plus World Market and was very curious about it. I had wanted to purchase strictly for photo ops. Since it’s actually tasty, it’s that much more appealing. I’ll be trotting off to Cost Plus stat.
Wow! Am seeing all manner of gummibearzilla movies in the future! Lucky it tasted good too so when the hero blows it up al the people covered in gloop will at least be happy about that!
I’d like to take on the challenge of eating that bear. I guess I could always reseal the rest.
I bet the gummi gut from that would be something wicked.
Fran - as soon as I’m done with it I will fill it up and take a photo!
Tricia - for the record, we ate the gummi bear and a nice Ritter Sport Knusperflakes in the house ... out at the block party I took a huge tub of Soft Now & Laters and some gumballs for the kids.
MaliceAlice - please feel free to take the bear photos (whichever you like) as long as you leave the little watermark on there. My personal fave is the big & little one, just because there’s such a huge difference in their sizes.
Michael - glad to hear another first-hand experience. I think my next flavor to try might be blue raspberry or maybe grape just because there really aren’t grape gummi bears.
Anne K - if you do get one and take pictures, come back over and pop a URL in so folks can see other views!
trashalou - ooh, stop motion animation! (Touching him does remind me a bit of that slime stuff from the 70s.)
Patti - I don’t know what the “nut status” is on this product (it doesn’t say on the package) but it’s definitely a great alternative to the big chocolate bunny or chocolate orange for holidays for kids.
hi cybele! i love your site! i was wondering which cost plus i could get these giant gummi bears at. i tried looking in the cost plus near where i live and they didn’t have any! =(
Now if Albanese would make one, I’d sooooooooo have to try it!!! Creative idea!
That picture is just disturbing! How could you do that to such a cute little bear? The candy looks delicious, though!
That sounds WOW its big its edible and its a gummy bear cant get much better than that folks!
=0D
I think it’s much cuter than the normal sized gummi. It has a nice chubbiness to it. i’ll have to run out and try one.
I saw these a few weeks ago at World Market too! I didn’t buy one, but I think I will the next time I’m there.
I want one. Is there a site you can order them on?
omg! lol i seriously just bought one of these yesterday! i look on here and boom...you’ve reviewed it. its really exciting to see a pretty decent review. I wont get to try the one i got (blue raspberry) because i purchased it for my sister who wont be here until saturday. I did, however buy my first pack of hi-chew (i love cost plus world market!) because i’ve heard such great reviews from you. green apple. YUM!! the texture was something unlike anything the boyfriend or i had every had. LOVED IT!
Lol I got bored and decided to look up gummi bears, and then I stumbled across this blog. Then later I stumbled across this, and thought you’d like to know of the 7lb (I believe is the size) of it. But you may already know it it. But they have a 7lb pineapple one XD http://www.candyship.com/
Since you can get a 5lb bag of original Haribo Gummis for about $15 (see the site below), I dont see why you would spend $4 and get 12oz of one flavor from China. Doesn’t make sense to me.
http://www.squidoo.com/GummiBears
Your blog is one of my all time favorites and I’ve been a faithful reader for quite some time.
I just referred to this post in my own blog, and gave an extra recommendation for your site in general.
http://shewalkssoftly.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/gummi-lights/
Thanks for all of the wonderful posts. Keep it up!
I just stumbled upon your blog and am really enjoying it! I wanted to comment on the giant gummy bear. Maybe it’s the mom in me, but that thing is totally a chocking hazard waiting to happen! I just know if my kids got ahold of one of those, they’d bite ginormous chunks off of it like a starving lion at a zebra carcass.
I meant choking, obviously. LOL
Laurin - you’re right about the choking hazard - the package doesn’t have any warnings about not giving it to kids under the age of 3. It definitely requires adult supervision for the portions part of it (or just don’t let little ones have this until they’re older).
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