Every Day Is Special: July 15

July 15 – Gummi Worm Day

Posted on July 15, 2014

What's five centimeters long, two different colors, and two different flavors—and shaped like a worm?

Not a lot of bi-colored worms show up in our food supply, so I'm pretty sure the only answer is Gummi Worms. Today is the day to buy a pack and use these crazy candies to make a creative dessert.

Usually, when people create a dessert featuring Gummi Worms, they think about the fact that worms live in dirt. Of course, the dessert version of dirt tends to be crumbled chocolate cookies (Oreos count!) or crumbled brownies. Some people go for the mud version of dirt and use chocolate pudding or mousse.

I haven't seen people using the idea of Gummi Worms as fishing bait or as a play on the “can of worms” idea. Another common image of a worm is a worm's head appearing out of an apple. I wonder how to do that with a Gummi Worm.... (thinking hard...)

Anyway, hopefully you can have fun with creating something “dirty” and “wormy” and delicious. If you need help with ideas, check out Food-dot-com.

You can do other fun stuff with Gummi Worms, too. For example, do an experiment to find out how many pennies a Gummi Worm can hold before it breaks. How far can a Gummi Worm stretch before it breaks?

Also, I've heard that Gummi Worms grow when held underwater. Try it...

Did you know...?

Gummi Bears were invented about 60 years Gummi Worms! A man named Hans Riegel, the founder of Haribo, invented the Gummi Bear and named it from the German word for rubber.

There are a LOT of different
Gummi candy shapes!

According to Wikipedia, other COMMON shapes for Gummi candy (aside from bears and worms) include bottles, frogs, hamburgers, sharks, toy soldiers, full-size rats, large human body parts such as hearts or feet or faces, and Smurfs.

OMG! Who has been making...
buying...EATING!!!
full-size Gummi Rats???

The only thing worse than full-size Gummi Rats is Road Kill Gummies. These were Gummi candy shaped as partly flattened squirrels, chickens, and snakes.

Ummm...what???

Thankfully, the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals complained about the Road Kill Gummies, and Kraft Foods decided to stop producing them.