Haribo Goldbears, the world’s first gummy bears | Hacker News Reader

Haribo Goldbears, the world’s first gummy bears

smithsonianmag.com

165 pointsprismatic110 comments

There used to be a policy that children could collect a bag of chestnuts and exchange them for free Haribo at the factory or office in Germany. It was nominally to feed the deer or horses on the Riegels’ estate. I went to school in Bad Godesberg as a kid, and getting ahold of conkers was much easier than convincing my parents that stopping at the factory was a good decision.

According to german Wikipedia, this still happens but has moved from Bonn to Grafschaft. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haribo#Verschiedenes

I now like Albanese the best, but I will always have a special respect and affection for Haribo. Happy Birthday to them!

Albanese over Black Forest?

Personally, yeah. But this is a rare case where I am happy to respect and celebrate all preferences, because what really matters is brand-agnostic gummi bear supremacy. Black Forest are great too

And for some reason that I literally can't understand, the original gold bears are almost unavailable in UK. British people seem to only like starmix(with those foam-like gummies) and tang fastic with its sour coating. I've only been able to find regular gold bears in the halal version in the "world foods" section at some supermarkets. Like, I get that countries get their regional versions, but why isn't the classic available here???

> And for some reason that I literally can't understand, the original gold bears are almost unavailable in UK

Like someone else has mentioned you're more likely to find them in corner shops and in the discount stores like Home Bargains and B&M.

But in my opinion they're probably not readily available because they're just not very popular. Gummy Bears are a bit boring and bland compared to the other sweets available.

Growing up I'd sometimes get a 10p mix up from the corner shop after school and there's no way I'd have wasted a penny on a gummy bear when I could have gotten a giant strawberry, a ufo, a black jack, a fruit salad, a fried egg, or best of all a foam shrimp/banana.

> Gummy Bears are a bit boring and bland compared to the other sweets available.

Oh this is absolutely true, even limited to candy with gummy textures there are so many good options -- Trolli worms, Starburst gummies, Sour Patch, Nerds clusters, Mike & Ike, Sweetarts gummies.

The thing these all pretty much have in common is incorporating a more sour/acidic taste to varying degrees so that is probably a turn-off for some but it's hard to argue with the result being incredibly flavorful.

If you're trying to find them in supermarkets you'll struggle, I see them all the time in the corner shops though, where you'll also find a much better crisps selection.

Huh. I see them here in the US just about everywhere. I've seen them at gas stations, grocery stores, and convenience stores. I eat way too many gummy bears probably.

Yeah, but same is true almost everywhere else in Europe - I can walk into any shop, any fuel station, and buy original Gold Bears in any size. But in UK the original flavour is a rarity(like I said, I can see everyone just burying Haribo Star Mix instead)

I'm finding it harder and harder to find the originals, now they have mostly the ones with the soft centre (Budapest, Hungary).

I find that hard to believe -- Goldbears are in every second shop in Ireland. Where are we getting them from if not the UK? Jungle Mix is superior anyhow.

This sounds like shrinkflation? Those foam gummies take up more space with less sugar. Even if they're less liked, most people aren't going to put in any effort to source some sweets.

They're available on Ocado, I buy them at least once a month.

Maybe in UK most of the people don't eat pig (gelatin). Haribo is not vegan and contains pig substance.

Most British people eat pork, beef and gelatin. I mean, if you chose to eat the most British food possible for a day it might be a full English breakfast (sausages, bacon) for brunch, roast beef and yorkshire pudding for dinner and maybe a nice jelly trifle for pudding.

Also Haribo bears are available everywhere. This whole thread is very odd.

I literally can't find them in any Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Aldi, Lidl or Morrisons(here in North East of England). Please tell me where you live if they are available "everywhere" for you.

Why would most people in the UK not eat pig?

It was just an idea...

I know, I asked to try and understand the rationale behind it.

Rather than "most people in the UK" it could be a "what's the most universally accepted product across the globe"?

There are several major products that are Kosher or Halal despite the biggest market being the West. Snapple Ice Tea is a good example of a Kosher product.

The only rationale I can think of is if you are going to mass produce some food product, better to start with something you can sell everywhere, than start with a Western version and then change (or add to) your product line later.

> There are several major products that are Kosher or Halal despite the biggest market being the West. Snapple Ice Tea is a good example of a Kosher product.

There are a lot of products that are by default Kosher and Halal and just added the sticker on top for advertising. What could you add to Ice Tea to make it not kosher other than preparing it in non-kosher equipment (which is possible, but unlikely in the case of ice tea)

Sure but for Snapple, it’s kosher certified. So the company went through the trouble to get it approved. I do agree that tea is probably easier to get certified, but it takes extra effort to get that status.

I feel the same about "extra effort". When I lived in New York City, many vegetarian restaurants would go out of their way to get kosher and halal certified (by conservative clerics). The owners would prominantly display the certificate at the entrance, plus the menu would share the same information. In my view it was two things: (1) virtue signalling (fine by me), and (2) appeal to a more customers who might not "naturally" be vegetarian. I knew many Orthodox Jews at my office. If their favourite Jewish Kosher lunch/dinner place was closed, they would check for kosher veg options.

This is a good point too. Kosher and Halal have an appeal beyond just the religious. The standards for those certifications also points to a certain quality you might not otherwise get.

Nice point: I would find it hard to believe that any cleric would certify Kosher / Halal for a dirty, low quality, hole-in-the wall.

It’s still not the case that Snapple started off with something kosher to grab the market share. It just happens that they had a product that is easy to certify. The effort was likely small compared to the advertising benefit.

Right, but that's my point. If I were to launch a new product and I had the choice between ingredient A and ingredient B, and ingredient A meant I could get an easy kosher certificate, why not choose A?

Nobody in the UK would care about that, unless your Jewish/Muslim or Vegan/Vegetarian.

About 4-5% of the UK's population are Muslims, 2% are Jews and 1.5% are Hindus which means they are forbidden to eat beef-based gelatine. The problem is that food declarations do not have to specify from which animal(s) the gelatine was sourced, and many manufacturers don't bother with halal/kosher certifications due to the extra work involved (the certifications usually have to meet strict ultra-orthodox standards, whereas many people don't care about the specifics but only about the kind of animal).

As for the number of vegetarians and vegans, the UK reports 11% who live at least vegetarian or stricter per [1].

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find vegetarianism and religion correlations for the UK, but in any case it's safe to assume that anything between 11 and 19% of the UK's population are in one way or another following ethics that refuse gelatine-based products. That is not "nobody" at all.

[1] https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/f...

> but in any case it's safe to assume that anything between 11 and 19% of the UK's population are in one way or another following ethics that refuse gelatine-based products. That is not "nobody" at all.

That doesn't even come close to being a safe assumption; it's wildly overoptimistic.

Kind of like claiming that, since Buddhists are forbidden to kill insects, and almost everyone in Thailand is Buddhist, killing insects is rare in Thailand.

We already know that most vegetarians are happy to eat meat. Compare https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/626S/4690004 , finding that two out of three self-described vegetarians had eaten meat within the past one day. They are even less likely to be worried about incidental animal products in candy.

That 11% figure included 'partly vegetarian'.

A more useful study "puts the size of the vegan population at about 2-3% and the vegetarian population at about 5-7%" [1].

From the article, it appears that only 2% of vegans, and 3% of vegetarians surveyed did so for religious reasons.

[1] https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2022/...

They way I read it, they aren’t saying there are no religious people or vegans. Just that nobody cares except them.

Yes, exactly that. It is unlikely to be a concern outside of the groups I mentioned.

But why were they renamed from Dancing Bears to Goldbears? The name has always puzzled me, since I would expect it to refer to a yellow candy, when in fact yellow is only one of the multiple different colors of gummi bears mixed in the package. I wonder if it used to be different; the article doesn’t say.

German Wikipedia suggests that they renamed purely for branding. (Perhaps the dancing bears were too generic and couldn't be trademarked?)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haribo

However this German newspaper says something about dancing bears being seen animal abuse, and thus bad marketing:

https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/rhein-kreis/geliebt-und-gef...

(Google Translate is your friend, if you don't read German.)

https://www.spektrum.de/magazin/faszinierende-chemische-expe... suggests that they didn't just change the name, but also the recipe:

> The gummy bears were invented in 1922 by the Bonn entrepreneur Hans Riegel, who christened his creation »Dancing Bear«. It was not until 1960 that the colorful fellows were renamed »Goldbears«. The dancing bears were significantly softer than their successors: Instead of the gelatine used today, a mixture of animal proteins, they consisted mainly of the plant sap gum arabic, which contains various polysaccharides (multiple sugars). Numerous companies now produce gummy bears and other fruit gums in many variations.

(via Google Translate)

Dancing Bears/Tanzbären is a super sad and kinda offensive name. Just look up photos of some actual dancing bears and read how they used to be treated.

Never occurred to me that there were actual dancing bears. I was imagining some sort of fairy tale reference.

That's probably the reason, and it's pretty funny reason when one of the main ingredients is bovine gelatin :)

Which is a by-product of steaks and leather.

Do you think gelatin being a byproduct of other animal slaughter-based products makes it better than sourcing it by melting down hooves? (I’m not a vegan, just curious of the intent behind this comment)

Maybe it was better received in Germany at the time?

I'd be surprised if they didn't make studies and test groups

They renamed in 1960. Not sure whether studies and test groups were a thing in West Germany at the time?

Hard to say how it looked in Germany specifically, but consumer research models where established at that time and inspired the focus groups we have today.

I→C→A→B→S

Where formed in the beginning of 1960s.

Input (Advertising, word-of-mouth etc)

Cognitions (Belief/perception of brand)

Affect (Likeness/preference of the brand)

Behavior (Purchase of the brand)

Satisfaction (post-purchase evaluation)

I did a bit of research and posted it at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31566775

Also, still the best.

I don’t really like them, too hard and the flavors lacking in my opinion. Albanese 12 flavor gummy bears though… those are my jam.

https://www.amazon.com/Albanese-Candy-Flavor-Gummi-Assorted/...

Funny... I find the Albanese rather sickly sweet and dry.

This comment is extra amusing for Australians given our recent election.

The version with real juice ("Saft") is the best IMO.

Idk, personally I (and the kids I'm giving those) prefer other Haribo candies, like Tropi Frutti, Color-Rado, and wildly strange seasonal creations, especially if made of natural ingredients only.

Everything with a white, soft belly is great!

Why, thank you so much.

Have you had Black Forest bears or worms?

"When I die, as I will, choking on gummy bears, please tell everyone that I died by a bear attack to preserve my dignity. Thank you."

Thank you OP! I love it when even without a click to a possibly tracker laden URL I can learn something just from the headline of an HN post served over HTTPS :-)

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2JGNJ5ZPJT4YC

(NSFW)

This one was my fave: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RZFIYJTPVUZ94/ref...

> Needless to say, I missed my flight.

The L.A. beast ate a 5 pound bag. The results were... as expected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMjgaa5j_LE

In what way was that NSFW?

read the comments

I mean, what do you think I did? It is a link directly to a review of a product.

There is nothing in that review that is NSFW. If I ever work for a company where this is considered NSFW, then consider my notice of it being NSFW also my 2 week notice of leaving that company.

I don't recall seeing reviews of such length and style for a product on Amazon. Is it only Haribo Goldbears that elicits such heartfelt, eloquent and entertaining reviews?

a classic

For some reason I always thought Haribo was a Japanese product because of the name.

Actually they have been ''globalized': They moved from Bonn (as still in the name) a few km across the state border to to Rhineland Palladia. At least that is what I saw driving by on the highway. I guess to save taxes.

Another funny thing is that as a vegetarian I realized quite late that this is a meat product (gelantine). It remains the only "meat" I eat kind of regularly because, as mentioned somewhere, they are still the best.

Gelatine is a by-product of pig bone marrow which we have in surplus compared to pig meat consumption. Not one animal more will die when you decide to buy and consume a product containing gelatine. I mean, I respect the goal, but there's better choices to be made. If you want to avoid all products remotely containing pig (by-)product its a tough call. See e.g. book "Pig 05049" by Christien Meindertsma. She also gave a TED talk.

The demand for gelatine would contribute to the pig meat revenue stream, offsetting costs and thereby (at least ever so slightly) decreasing the cost of pork, leading (in theory) to increased consumption.

Whether that effect is large enough to be noticeable is questionable, and I definitely agree there could be "better choices", but it's not exactly right to say that it has no impact.

If its like with whey, its in such abundance that they pay people to buy it. Either way, the revenue stream would be very little higher because of the huge abundance. You're much better off simply eating less pig meat.

AFAIK it wasn't taxes, but they wanted to expand but weren't able to build the expansion in their Bad Godesberg location, so they moved to the Grafschaft.

That would probably make you a gelatinarian, not a vegetarian.

Gelatin is a by-product, eating it supports the profitability of animal slaughter. Yet still, there seems to be some distance between eating it and the behaviour of that one guy in Scott Pilgrim who loses his veganchad super powers because "Chicken's not vegan?".

It's an animal product, plain and simple. To base ethics on whether the product is in the critical path for profitability doesn't seem much different from vegan chicken eaters.

Nope. If you eat it I don’t think you can really be a vegetarian. You cannot launder food until it becomes vegetarian. If an animal was killed off for you to consume a product, it is not vegetarian and consuming one won’t make you vegetarian. To me it’s no different than “vegetarians” who still indulge in bacon because it happens to be really tasty.

It is not too late though to give up gelatin based gummy bears and eat ethically the rest of your life.

Or we can choose to reply as sanctimonious radicals. I'm experienced at working that angle too.

If someone only wants to be vegetarian when it’s convenient, they should just say that.

There are innovations for vegan ones

Some Haribo products without gelatine/collagen from pig are marked as "halal" for consumption by muslim people.

Some products have this label due to fish gelatin.

The halal haribo I had last week had beef based gelatin in it, instead of pork (I guess), so this one at least was not vegetarian.

If you get the jingle lodged in your brain, you'll never forget or escape their profound Germanness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9YuOuP44Rc

Is is somewhat remarkable how many successful candy companies are German or have German roots. I wonder why. My own great grandparents, who were German, worked as chocolatiers.

It's certainly not the only thing but it helps to have developed things like an urban, non-agrarian middle class fairly early. It churns out more specialized artisans and the customers for their wares.

I would guess that having an established pork processing industry also helped as a ready supply of gelatine byproduct.

Chemistry and food are very similar and Germany was/is the world leader in that.

Most chemists can read German as a result.

Lol no.

For the benefit of those of you who don't speak German, the lyrics of the jingle are "Haribo makes children happy, and grownups as well".

They have also made official rhymed translations into other languages. The English one is "Kids and grownups love it so / The happy world of Haribo".

Yup, the french one : "Haribo c'est beau la vie / pour les grands et les petits".

Not once ever have I been able to open a bag that easily!

Many people used to think that Nokia was a Japanese company too.

Finnish tire and paper product company Amongst its early origins

Not stranger than card manufacturers turning video game giant or pencil brand making plasma TV. It's fun to see how companies evolve.

Apparently Nokia's first product was toilet roll!

And rubber boots

They make the best snow tires

AFAIK Western-style sweets/candies aren’t very popular or common in Japan, at least historically.

What about Kit-Kat? That's a British chocolate bar that the Japanese seem to have taken that to their hearts at least.

Exception that confirms the rule?

And the Japanese relationship to KitKat is pretty different from ours :) I agree it's quite peculiar :D

In case someone overlooked it in the article, the name HARIBO comes from HAns RIedel BOnn (company owner's name and location of company).

Not Riedel, Riegel, with a g, which would ironically be a literal translation of the "bar" in "chocolate bar" which they don't make.

Immortalized in the name of the fictional chocolate bar company Riegel Klotz, where Riegel is the product, Klotz is the former family name (but describing the shape of the product just as well) while the current name of the family is Drögel with would roughly translate to "Bland Bar".

Doesn't the "L" of the "KLOTZ" neon sign also flicker at some point, strongly evoking the connotation "KOTZ" ("PUKE"), just as Evelyn Hamann feels slightly overwhelmed after tasting too many Klotz-Riegel?

I just love how Loriot managed to combine immature puns and insinuations and profound character studies into surreal pieces of art that cause whole families to laugh until one cries. May he rest in peace.

Never noticed (or never committed to memory after noticing), but yeah, how could that opportunity be left untapped. He was a perfectionist engineer of jokes, the entertainer equivalent to that proverbial Scala coder who'd rewrite the entire thing if he came up late with an idea to monadify away yet another side effect. May he rest in peace, and may upcoming generations memorize that movie just like we did (it was already twenty years old when I started falling for it)

Wow, I got this wrong for at least ten years.

And I got Riegel Klotz wrong, for a similar time: thought that it was Riegel Drögel, when it's in fact Riegel Klotz and Riegel Drögel only appears in a few lines. Only corrected myself through Google-checking my writing here.

Always seemed Mexican to me for some odd reason.

Similar to Jarritos maybe? Colourful sweet things with almost-rhyming names.

Oddly enough, the first time I ever had gummy bears was at the Smithsonian.

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