Dragon Con, the year before last, someone made alcoholic gummy bears. About half a year later, a friend tagged me in a post with a recipe for wine gummies. The end result was homemade alcoholic gummy bears – made with rum. Only partially because I can’t resist a pun.

Most alcoholic gummy bears are made by buying gummy bears and soaking them in alcohol. Admittedly, the result is tasty. Unfortunately, it is also slimy. Something you would eat with a spoon, or maybe slurp. Not the best for sharing.

Wine Gummies

I tried the wine gummies and I just couldn’t get them to work. I’ll admit that part if it might be that I don’t like wine that much. The main problem was I couldn’t get the right balance of texture and flavor. If I added enough gelatin to get a gummy bear like texture, then you couldn’t really taste the wine. If I added more wine, the texture would be more like jello, or a jiggler, than a gummy.

The fun thing about working with gelatin: if you don’t like the way it sets, you can melt it down again. I ended up with some really gross wine gummies, that I melted down, added rum and orange jello, and turned into pretty decent sangria gummies.

Rum Gummies

The rum gummies don’t have the same problem as the wine gummies because they don’t rely on a liquid for the flavoring, although it still took a lot of experimenting to find that balance of texture and flavor.

Recipe

• 1 cup Rum
• 5 Tbs Knox Gelatine
• 2 small boxes Flavored Jello (two 3 oz pkgs, or one 6 oz pkg)
• 1/4 tsp Citric Acid
• 1/8 tsp Kool-Aid
• 2 envelopes True Lemon

• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Pour rum into small sauce pan
2. Slowly sprinkle Gelatin on the surface of the rum while stirring (to avoid lumps)
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir (not the corn starch and powdered sugar)
4. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is dissolved (about 15 minutes)
5. Pour into molds
6. Let set for several hours to overnight
7. Mix the corn starch and powdered sugar in a small container
8. Remove gummies from molds and toss in powdered sugar mixture
9. Let set in a shallow open container until they reach desired consistency (about a day)
10. Store in an airtight container – refrigerate if storing for a long time

Tips and Tricks

• Ingredients
  • Citric Acid
    • Don’t skip it, trust me, it makes all the difference
    • Add more if you want more sour, less if you want less
    • Can be found with the canning supplies, wherever canning supplies are sold (grocery stores, Menard’s, Walmart, etc.)
  • Rum
    • I mostly use cheap rum, but the quality of the rum does affect the final taste
  • True Lemon
    • The kind that is just lemon, no other added ingredients
    • I tried lemon jello – it tastes good, but it messes with the colors (and you have to adjust the gelatin)
    • I tried lemon juice – it will work but it takes longer for the gummies to set because you are adding more liquid. I like the results better with the True Lemon
  • Kool Aid
    • First time I tried using koolaid, I used a whole packet – that was a mistake (considering it was meant to prepared with 2 quarts of water, and I was using 1 cup of liquid…)
    • Have a small container ready for the rest of the koolaid powder
    • If I can find it, I like using True Lemon brand for the flavoring – but only the kind that is just fruit
    • If you’re not opposed to artificial sweeter, there a lot more options, but it might affect the overall sweetness
  • Gelatin
    • According to my internet research, different brands of gelatin have different properties, my recipe is made with Knox – I don’t know if proportions would need adjusted for other brands
    • You will notice that my recipe measures the gelatin in tablespoons – when I started, I used the gelatin from the grocery store that comes in little envelopes, but I switched to the bulk jar I bought on the internet because it was cheaper and more convenient
    • I had trouble with the proportions when I switched from envelopes to the jar, so I won’t try to give a conversion
• Melting
  • Keep the temperature low to avoid too much of the alcohol evaporating
  • On my stove, I use 2/10
  • You should be able to dip your finger into the liquid – it should feel hot, but not painful
  • To tell if the gelatin is completely dissolved, lift your stirring utensil out of the pan and watch the liquid flow off of it – you shouldn’t see any granules (try this near the beginning, you should be able to see the difference)
    • If you are not sure, run a clean finger over the utensil, if it feels grainy, it’s not ready yet
• Taste
  • Because so much of the alcohol will evaporate, the final flavor will be very different from the flavor of the liquid – don’t worry if you taste the liquid and it seems way too strong
    • This is also why we start with straight rum instead of a mix of rum and
• Fill Molds
  • Use a decorator bottle to fill the molds
  • It is easier of you let it cool for a little bit – holding the bottle should feel warm, but not hot
• Setting Time
  • Seriously don’t stress about this
  • I’ve taken them out of the mold after a few hours, and I’ve left them in for days
  • I recommend letting them set in the mold in the fridge, then out of the mold at room temperature
  • You can cover the gummies with a cloth, but don’t cover tightly until they have reached the desired consistency
  • Think about how you will be serving the gummies when you decide if they are done – the texture is very different if they are served cold or room temperature
• Tossing
  • I have details on how I toss my bears in my post about virgin gummy bears

Flavors

Here are the variations I ended up with.

• Strawberry = 2 True Lemon + 1/8 t Strawberry Koolaid
• Lime = 2 True Lemon + 3 True Lime
• Grape = 2 True Lemon + 1/8 t Grape Koolaid
• Orange = 1 True Lemon + 4 True Orange
• Lemon = 5 True Lemon
• Blue = 2 True Lemon + 1/8 t Raspberry Extract

I actually went through a lot of variations on amounts of gelatin, manner and amount of sweetening, and manner and amount of flavoring. I have a mini notebook I keep in my kitchen that I call my recipe notebook – I have all of my variations written out. There are pages of variations for the gummies.