These Gummy Worm Day Comics Will Stick With (And To) You

by The GoComics Team

July 15, 2017

Gummy Worm Day is one of those food-based holidays that has you searching for "How It's Made" videos. According to the internet, gummies are basically just sugar, glucose syrup, starch, flavoring, food coloring, citric acid, and gelatin. But how do the Wonkas of the world -- or in this case, Haribos, Trollis and Mondelēz International, Inc.'s -- form semisolid shapes from the untamable mess of such a sticky compound? It turns out we have Haribo founder Hans Riegel Sr. to thank for cracking the secret when he invented gummies in 1920. The secret is apparently starch-coated molds, which keep a melty mixture of sweet gunk from sticking as they cure into an intended shape. It works for all manner of sculpted gummies, but the simplicity (and wobbly similarity to the real thing) of the worm makes it an apt animal to candy-ize.

Celebrate Gummy Worm Day by altering the lyrics to Disney's Gummy Bears theme song, which you will hum infectiously while reading these gummy worm comics.

FoxTrot By Bill Amend June 12, 2005