Everyone knows about Haribo: even people who don’t know shit about candy know what Haribo is now, because it’s everywhere, and it’s good. But there’s a few other major players in the international bagged candy game that you need to be aware of as well. Trolli’s german candies are 180 degrees away from their weaker American counterparts-varied, interesting, and bold. Today though, we’re focusing on Katjes, a Dutch company that truly pushes the envelope just as much as Haribo does, and makes almost as many varieties.

Katjes is the first brand I was aware of that publicizes part of their line as being vegetarian. What’s that you say?  You thought all gummies were veggie friendly?  Well, you were right, assuming vegetarians are cool eating pig gelatin.

Yeah!

But let’s just assume that the veggies are pretty much completely not ok with that. Katjes decided to make a whole line of vegetarian gummies, and from that glorious decision, two things happened:

1. Vegetarians now had a reliable brand with several options, all adhering to the “no animal” thing

and

2. Whatever  Katjes did to remove the gelatin-whatever they had to use in its place-created a completely diffferent texture, and it’s marvelous.

 First of all, you gotta love the look of these. Bright colors, with shapes definitely out of wonder land:

Unicorns, hearts, rainbows and…something else I can’t pin. But back to the eating experience. Because there’s no gelatin, these lose a bit of the shproing we’re accustomed to in traditional gummies. More akin to a fruit jelly, these still offer chew resistance, but they give up quickly, and you can bite right through them. But you won’t want to: onnaccounta they’re so damn tasty, you’ll wanna suck ’em till the cows come home, making them last as long as possible.  Miraculously, they retain their quite tart edge all the way through

The flavors, as I’d expect, are bright, fruity and delicious.

I love these. I love everything about them, and I don’t even consider myself a Bronie OR particularly into fairies. But this bag is a special bag, and I insist that if you ever see them-like the elusive unicorn-you shoot it, kill it, and take it home.

Conversely, you could knock it out, take it home, chain it to the wall in the basement and just keep it for yourself in perpetuity. Your call.