We have Haribo to thank for giving the world the gummy bear. The German brand launched the very fist packaged gummy bears — called Gummibärchen — back in the early 1920s, and the world has been snacking on them for the last 100 years. In those 100 years, there have been very few innovations. Sure, there have been new flavors, different sizes and textures, but largely the shape, size and flavors of Haribo’s bears remain the same and any brands that have followed suit have surely used Haribo as their gummy muse.
It’s not surprise that gummy bears have remained a favorite — they’re unapologetically sugary, they can pull out a filling at any moment (which we guess is a good thing?), and even though they have little to no redeeming nutritional value, at the end of the day, they taste amazing and that’s all anyone really wants from good candy. Candy bowls, in the green rooms of your favorite events, recording studios and anywhere with extensive snack offerings will often have some form of gummy bears and you can bank on their presence at any store that offers candy and snacks.
Are they always good? No. So to seperate the good from the bad, we sampled as many brands as we could get our paws on. For this ranking, we paid special attention to flavor and texture as we find these two factors principal in determining how good or great a Gummy Bear is. We largely skipped any sour or low-calorie varieties, fully risking our dental work for your gain. So here they are, the world’s best gummy bears, ranked from bad to great.
14. 365 Gummy Bears
Price: $4.69 (not available online)
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Easily the strangest Gummy Bears on the market, 365’s vegan bears bear little textural resemblance to your traditional Haribo-style gummy. The berry-tasting anonymous fruity-flavored bears come in pink and red. The texture is a waxy one that is more reminiscent of extra large-sized fruit snacks than true candy. Flavor-wise 365’s bears are not atrocious, just ambiguously fruity and also sugar-forward thanks to the tapioca syrup and cane sugar combo.
Best Flavor: Dark Red
Bottom Line: There is nothing “gummy” about these bears besides the fact that you have to pick them off that part of your mouth after you eat them.
13. Great Value Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Walmart’s Great Value delivers on its namesake as these affordable gummies have a softer chew in most cases, contain artificial flavors and colors, while tasting moderately decent. We’d say they offer a great value! The flavors are cherry, strawberry, apple and lemon – each tasting unique though none are exceptional. Great Value produces very standard gummy bears and there’s truly nothing wrong with it but don’t except anything beyond the baseline.
Best Flavor: It’s a toss up.
Bottom Line: Great Value Gummy Bears are a fine way to fill your candy dish or your sweet tooth craving, but it’s doubtful you’d go out of your way for a second bag, even if you’re already at Walmart.
12. 7-Eleven Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Very closely resembling every normal size gummy bear on the market, 7-Eleven’s bears take a page from the Albanese playbook (more on this later) and include 12 different flavors. Spongier than the Haribo variety, these hibernating gummies are also slightly softer than your average bear though they appear indistinguishable in shape. Flavorwise, the variety is plentiful with 12 flavors and you’ll be sure to find some favorites but it’s also tough to say there are any that go past being one note sweet and vaguely similar to the artificial flavors those fruits are typically flavored with.
Best Flavor: Lime.
Bottom Line: 7-Eleven does a commendable job with their branded gummy bear offering though their contribution to the gummy game is a bit questionable, considering they carry several of the other brands listed here in most of their stores. The spongy texture of these bears is ideal, but some flavors end with an extra sugary aftertaste that goes a bit beyond and others have a weird off-putting aftertaste that is difficult to verbalize.
11. Bowl & Basket Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Strangely imperfect in their cut from whatever mold or machine they’re produced by, Bowl & Basket’s 12 flavors are very sweet in flavor and soft in texture. Your dentist may be quicker to endorse these not-as-chewy gummy bears, but they’re still pretty sticky. Though the flavors here are in the double digits, there is nothing particularly pleasing or mind-blowing about any of them.
Best Flavor: Grapefruit.
Bottom Line: A perfectly passable option, but this is a Shoprite store brand and not one of the good ones, as Shoprite sells a lot of the other brands listed here already.
10. Nice Gummy Bears (Walgreen’s)
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Nice’s Gummy Bears’ shape and size is identical to that of an Albanese bear (we promise we’ll tell you what this means soon), but they’re thicker and tougher in texture and a little more sugary in flavor, though not necessarily sweeter. Some of the flavors have depth beyond being one note sweet, but others are on the more generic side.
Best Flavor: Blue Raspberry
Bottom Line: Nice Gummy Bears turn out to be a quality pickup if you’re ever at a Walgreen’s, but they are far from the best.
9. Favorite Day Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Target’s Favorite Day Gummy Bears offer a variety of flavors. Here is the deal though, the texture is not as soft and chewable. This is a tougher bear. Texture aside, Favorite Day executes on a pretty high level and most of the flavors here are well-done, our favorites include Orange, Pineapple, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon and Peach. A peach-flavored gummy bear – why isn’t this more of a thing?
Best Flavor: Peach.
Bottom Line: Target’s Favorite Day Gummy Bears are one of the best from a corporate mega store. But they can’t compete with the more dedicated brands that we’ve ranked higher.
8. California Gummy Bears – California Fruit Mix
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Softer than a traditional gummy bear but still gummy, California Gummy Bears are one of the only brands where the bear is shaped like an actual animal and not just a bear with superb posture sitting upright like it’s in a chair. Since they are California gummy bears and the state is known for that style of bear, the shape seems very on-brand, while also being cute and colorful due to the different flavors.
Unfortunately, despite the great shape and decent soft texture, the alluringly appealing flavor variety does not fully execute on the deliciousness spectrum. Pink Grapefruit and Tangerine bears lack any sour note that typifies real citrus nor does Peach or Mango have any signature tang. Ultimately, these come off like a missed opportunity to offer interesting flavors.
Best Flavor: Raspberry.
Bottom Line: The well-designed branding and packaging cast California Gummy Bears as a premium product and though they don’t deliver completely on flavor, they do in all other categories that count.
7. Haribo Goldbears – Wild Berry
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Perhaps my eyes are getting old but the difference in color between Strawberry and Blueberry, as well as Raspberry and Cherry are difficult to decipher with Haribo’s Wild Berry Goldbears. Raspberry and Wild Cherry both have a slight tang, making them more dynamic in flavor than their blue-ish counterparts that are mainly just sweet. All of the Wild Berry Goldbears flavors have the same signature bouncy Haribo texture, beloved by snacking consumers and floss companies, alike.
Best Flavor: Wild Cherry.
Bottom Line: The Haribo Goldbear is a textbook gummy bear, and their Wild Berry collection offers many popular berry flavors. If that’s your speed, then you can’t go wrong with picking up this less common variety of Haribo’s Goldbears.
6. Haribo Goldbears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Haribo Goldbears are literally the gold standard when it comes to gummy bears. The bears offer a familiar blend of flavors, with that signature chewy molar-testing texture the brand is known (and beloved) for. The Goldbears are sure to satisfy any gummy bear hankerings. Though the flavors are artificial, they’re exactly what you expect from a gummy bear and are distinct enough to satiate lovers of cherry, lemon, pineapple and orange.
We don’t have anything bad to say about Haribo Goldbears, they’re dependably consistent and if you want to switch it up, they offer a sour version as well as bags with other flavors.
Best Flavor: Orange.
Bottom Line: There is nothing innovative about Haribo Goldbears, but who needs gimmicks when you have the original recipe? There is no wow or shock factor, but these don’t disappoint in any way. They are the gold standard. The foundation that all other bears are birthed from!
5. Black Forest Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Black Forest makes their gummy bears with real fruit juice, and they genuinely have a juiciness to them. Despite their juiciness, all flavors finish sugary sweet and the soft chew of the gummy has a bit of a fruit snack feel to it. These are just facts, not knocks, each flavor does specifically taste of its real fruit self, the lemon is citrusy but not tart, the cherry has the full body flavor of real cherry and the apple is slightly earthy and sweet, as most real apples usually are. If you like your bears tasting natural, you’ll love these.
Best Flavor: Cherry.
Bottom Line: Black Forest Gummy Bears have a juicy finish and mouthfeel that few brands offer, and though they taste great, they’re mostly sweet and have an addictive soft chew texture that is atypical of gummy bears. For that we can’t give them the top spot, but they are solidly top five.
4. Yum Earth Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Bearing (sorry, had to) flavors like Peach, Mango, Cherry and Strawberry and with 90% organic ingredients, Yum Earth’s Gummy Bears are the direction the future of candy should be headed. Yum Earth proves you can choose not to consume genetically modified or artificial ingredients and still have a delicious candy snack, as these bears are wonderfully chewy, texturally bouncy, and very satisfying. The flavors are equally tasty too, each distinct and some with citric acid to mimic the sour notes of the actual fruits.
Best Flavor: Peach.
Bottom Line: Yum Earth’s Gummy Bears come in snack size packets that are small enough to sneak into lunches or desk drawers, whatever suits your fancy, and very easy to justify due to the portion control. They also taste great, which is the most important thing.
3. Albanese Gummy Bears
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
We’ve been alluding to this brand constantly, so if you’ve been scratching your head throughout this ranking, it’s about to pay off. Albanese set a new standard: 12 flavors, soft and squishy, skinny, but taller than your average bear. These bears offer a texture and aftertaste that slightly resembles Jello — in a good way if that’s possible — Albanese’s staple Gummy Bears are the prototype for soft but perfect gummy texture. Albanese’s bears also contain juicy fruity flavor that none of its copycats has been able to duplicate, even if they attempt to copy Albanese flavor for flavor.
Best Flavor: Pineapple.
Bottom Line: Often imitated but never bested, Albanese blew our minds the first time we ever sampled them and we’ve been hooked since (though our favorites are their Sour Gummy Bears, which are identical to these but with the citric acid/sugar outer layer to up the ante). Albanese has clearly put Haribo and other Gummy Bear brands on notice with their 12 flavor Gummy Bears concept.
2. Trader Joe’s Organic Beary Tiny Gummies
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Trader Joe’s Tiny Organic Beary Gummies are so small, you could argue that these aren’t gummy bears at all, but instead gummy cubs. Small size aside, we’re counting them! The Beary’s texture has a great bounce, though slightly softer than the usual bear. Strangely, the Beary flavors are not listed on the packaging, but they’re all individually very fruity and flavorful. We’re tasting cherry, apple, grapefruit, apricot, and possibly others. Part of the fun is trying to figure out the flavors, I guess. I certaintly enjoyed it.
Best Flavor: Grapefruit.
Bottom Line: Trader Joe’s Organic Beary Tiny Gummies are some of the best Gummy Bears out despite their miniature size. Ultimately, the size doesn’t diminish the experience, in fact it increases the joy because you can easily combine or eat handfuls without feeling any guilt or shame. Not only that, but these are also some of the best-tasting gummy bears, and at the end of the day that’s what matters most.
1. Albanese True To Fruit Exotic Fruits
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
First off, kudos to Albanese for even having the chutzpah to call on very niche and unusual flavors for their “Exotic” Fruits Gummy Bears (e.g. Asian Pear, Blood Orange, Alphonso Mango, Crimson Cranberry etc.). Albanese is a brand known for having double digit flavors, and while this pack comes up a bit short, they’re still delivering eight flavors, which is more than Haribo could ever dare to offer (shots fired).
Flavor-wise, the Exotic Fruits bear a juicy nuanced profile for each individual flavor that taste just like the actual fruits they represent and that’s not a surprise because Albanese utilizes real juice concentrate in its recipe.
The mere fact that Albanese has a cranberry-flavored gummy bear is already pretty unique, but the way the brand executes on that mix of tart and sweet flavors typical of real cranberries just can’t be beat.
The more typical gummy bear fruit flavors like raspberry are bursting with juicy sweet goodness but an also slightly sour flavor, more dynamic than any raspberry gummy bear you’ve tasted. Even the Queen Pineapple flavor has a piquant note that mimics the more bitter parts of the fruit – there is nuance and complexity to every single flavor in this bag. We’ve truthfully never had a brand like it.
Texturally, they’re identical to the artificial version of Albanese Gummy Bears, offering a slightly soft bounce to the bear than what is historically typical, as well as an easier chew. But we’re going to let flavor take precedent over texture here. These can’t be beat.
Best Flavor: Rubus Raspberry.
Bottom Line: Very few gummy bears on the market have as genuine and dynamic a flavor as these Albanese True To Fruit Exotic Fruits Gummy Bears. The nuance, the complexity, the flavor blend — we’ve never had a bear offer so much! Yes, they’re that good.
