After more than 70 years, Sunkist Fruit Gems are off store shelves. Ferrara Candy Company, which owns Jelly Belly, stopped selling the sugar-coated fruit candies on May 1, according to a Ferrara customer service representative who spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy. The good news for anyone planning a simcha: a new kosher dupe is on the way.
For kosher families, this one hurts. The soft, individually wrapped gems have been the go-to candy for showering a bar mitzvah boy, a bat mitzvah girl or a chosson at his aufruf, soft enough that nobody in the front row gets hurt. They have also filled candy buffets, synagogue candy drives and Purim mishloach manot. I still remember Fruit Gems bouncing off my head at my own bar mitzvah in the mid-’90s, a rite of passage for so many North American Jews.
A Long Run for a Simcha Staple
Fruit Gems date back to 1955, when the Los Angeles-based Ben Myerson Candy Company started making them. A 1966 licensing deal with Sunkist gave the candy its name. Jelly Belly bought the brand in 2006 and brought the line under OU certification. In 2023, Ferrara, the company behind Nerds, Laffy Taffy, SweeTarts and Lemonhead, acquired Jelly Belly.
Ferrara told eJP the decision came down to weak demand across the country. That is not how it looked from the simcha side. Jon Prince, owner of CandyFavorites.com and McKeesport Candy Co., a wholesaler founded in 1927, said Fruit Gems were one of his top sellers, at well over 1,000 pounds last year. He found out in August when he tried to reorder. “They’ve gone from being a classic candy to being a collectible,” Prince said.
The Sunkist Fruit Gems product pages on Jelly Belly’s website now send shoppers to its Sunkist Citrus Mix instead.
A New Kosher Dupe Is Coming
Nassau Candy, a specialty and private label candy maker, based on Long Island, developed Clever Candy Fruit Jelly Jewels as a replacement for Sunkist Fruit Gems. The round, individually wrapped pectin discs have the same soft, jelly-like center and crunchy sugar coating. The lineup keeps the classic orange, lemon, grapefruit and lime, and adds cherry and blueberry. It is unclear yet how similar the flavors and texture are between this and the Sunkist original.
“Jelly fruit candies have been around for a long time, but they’re getting harder and harder to come by with Sunkist Fruit Gems sundowning production,” Dana Rodio, Nassau Candy’s director of marketing and brand strategy, told Gift Shop Magazine. “With our new Clever Candy Fruit Jelly Jewels, we’re looking to keep the fun going, with all the classic flavors that shoppers have come to expect, along with some surprises too.”
The Jewels are made with no artificial colors or flavors and are gluten-free and peanut-free. Nassau even pitches them for bar and bat mitzvahs, alongside bulk candy bins and office breakrooms.
The Internet Takes It Personally
Comedian Eitan Levine joked in an Instagram reel that the move was a hate crime, but he also made a point kosher shoppers know well: “Oftentimes when something becomes not kosher, it’s not because they’ve changed the ingredients, it’s just because they don’t want to pay extra for the kashrut certification.” In this case, he notes, it’s because of fakakte private equity.
Check the Hechsher Every Time
Prince pointed to a wider trend of classic candy brands changing hands and sometimes losing their kosher certification. The Ferrara representative advised shoppers to check for the hechsher on the package with every purchase, since online product photos are often out of date.
Where to Find Them and What to Use Instead
Leftover stock is still out there but going fast. CandyFavorites and a handful of kosher candy shops still list the wrapped gems, certified OU pareve.
Clever Candy Fruit Jelly Jewels are certified kosher pareve by Tartikov. Nassau Candy is shipping them now, though the kosher symbol is not on the current packaging, but will be in the coming months.
Prince also named Sunsations, individually wrapped fruit jellies in a rainbow assortment. The wrapped Sunsations sold by CandyFavorites carry a kosher pareve symbol on every piece.
H/T to eJewishPhilanthropy.