Rob Wunder and Sergio Bicas had three things in common: they both had a sweet tooth (especially for lollipops), they had both just become dads, and they both wanted their children to be able to enjoy delicious treats made only from stuff we would be proud to cook with at home. Today, their company, YummyEarth, proudly handcrafts 22 delicious flavors of lolllipops and hard candies made with real fruit extracts. Instead of artificial color, which is so common in all kinds of candy, organic black carrots and organic pumpkin are used to give these lollipops a pop of fabulous color.
I’ll tell you straight up that I’m not normally a fan of hard candy. It’s too sweet and it tastes phony and one-dimensional. So when I first heard about YummyEarth, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Sure, almost all of their offerings are certified organic, but I was certain it would be more of the same old, same old. I was wrong.
Take their Mango Tango Lollipops, for instance. These “lollies” are a beautiful bright orange and really do look like the flesh of a mango. More to the point, they taste like it! They aren’t simply sweet; there’s a definite tang in the flavor, just as you would get in the fruit itself. The same holds true with their Pomegranate Pucker variety. The flavor is complex, and your taste buds don’t get saturated with sweetness. If you’re watching your calories, the lollipops are just 22 calories each, which makes them a very modest indulgence, albeit one which will give you plenty of flavor in exchange.
By the way, if you feel silly eating a lollipop as an adult, you can get these same flavors (and a number of others) as twist-wrapped hard candy drops. I like the sound of the Wild Peppermint and Hopscotch Butterscotch, but I haven’t tried those yet. If you enjoy spicy foods, try the Chili Lime Lambada and Chili Mango Mambo Lollipops (at this writing, those are available as lollipops only). And if lollipops or hard candy aren’t your thing, YummyEarth, under the YumEarth Organics label, makes certified organic Sour Worms and Gummy Bears. YumEarth Naturals, meanwhile, offers Sour Jelly Beans that are the real deal, sweet and sour at the same time, as well as all-natural Gummy Bears.
Something I especially like about these products is that they’re suitable for a lot of people who have different special diets or dietary wants. These products are certified kosher parve by KOF-K. Everything YummyEarth makes is gluten-free. The lollipops, gummies, and jelly beans contain no high fructose corn syrup (hurray!), no soy, no wheat, no peanuts, and no tree nuts. As is typical for candies of these types, these are also free of eggs, dairy, and MSG. All flavorings and colorings used are 100% natural. Most products (the gummies and the pops) contain organic fruit juice and Vitamin C.
It isn’t a secret that too much sweetener, whether it’s cane sugar or evaporated cane juice or brown rice syrup, isn’t healthy. But kids are going to be kids, and sometimes, adults want a sweet treat, as well. To my mind, YummyEarth candies are a big step up from giving anyone a conventional lollipop or jelly bean, as those are too often formulated with artificial flavors, artificial colors, and the like. If you can’t find these sweets locally, online ordering is available.
The segment above, from Planet Green’s G Word, lets you peek into YummyEarth’s factory and shows you just how proud (and happy) Wunder and Bicas are of their organic candy production. It’s sweet, in both meanings of the word.
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