1850
A Kitchen Daydream
In a candlelit Bonn kitchen, confectioner Wilhelmina Beck simmers cherries and honey late into the night, chasing one impossible sweet — a candy that springs back when you bite it.
Build your own gummy bear
Pick a flavor, set the mood, add accessories — we pour it, squish it, and ship it.
Cherry · Happy
1 Pick a flavor
2 Set the mood
3 Accessorize optional
Your bear$5.99
Hand-pouredSmall-batch, real fruit
Endless combosAny color you dream up
Ships immediatelySquished fresh to order
Happiness firstOr we re-pour it free
A very sweet history
How a late-night daydream in Bonn became the little bear you are about to build.
1889
The Gelatin Spark
Wobbly gelatin desserts sweep across Europe. A young apprentice scribbles a wild question in the margin of a recipe book: what if you made them chewy — and shaped them like tiny animals?
1920
Haribo Is Born
Hans Riegel opens a one-room sweets workshop in Bonn. A copper kettle, a sack of sugar, and a bicycle for deliveries. The name is his own initials: HAns RIegel BOnn.
1922
The Dancing Bear
Inspired by the trained “dancing bears” at the town fair, Riegel pours the very first fruit-gum bear — the Tanzbär — small, upright, and impossibly cheerful.
1935
Bears Go to School
Little paper bags of bears become a lunchbox legend across Germany. Children trade them like treasure — two greens for one red, and never, ever the last one.
1960
Enter the Gold-Bear
The bear slims into its modern, grinning Goldbär shape. Five flavors, one silhouette — and a smile that would go on to circle the globe.
1981
Worms Join the Party
Gummy worms wriggle onto shelves and prove the gummy could be anything at all. The bear, generous as ever, welcomes the newcomers to the jar.
1982
Crossing the Atlantic
Gummy bears land in America and become an overnight sensation — movie-night royalty, backpack contraband, and the undisputed champion of the pick-and-mix wall.
1997
The Sour Revolution
A daring dusting of citric acid launches a thousand puckered faces. For the first time, a gummy bear could make you wince and grin in the very same bite.
2012
Small-Batch & Wild
Tiny studios start hand-pouring gummies with real fruit juice and colors nobody had dared to try. Craft candy is born, and the bear gets a fresh coat of imagination.
Today
Build Your Own
Now it is your turn. Pick a flavor, set the mood, add the accessories — and we pour, squish, and ship a bear that has never existed before. The story continues with you.