Oh no! No more Sunkist Fruit Gems! But wait! They’re back!
We had planned to report the sad news that Sunkist Fruit Gems, the synagogue simcha staple thrown at bar and bat mitzvah kids across the country, were discontinued.
But before we could get the story published, the harsh decision no longer to produce the Gems was reversed, and they’ve been granted new life. (The effects of teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah, maybe?)
Last week, we reached out to several local rabbis for their reactions to the original news.
Rabbi Howard Tilman of Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, where, coincidentally, Beth’s granddaughter just had her bat mitzvah, yes, complete with Sunkist Fruit Gems, replied.
“Sunkist Fruit Gems always seemed like they had been specifically engineered for the sacred purpose of being thrown at synagogue simchas,” he said. “They checked every box. They were kosher-certified, gluten-free, vegan, and individually wrapped, which made them easy to distribute and, importantly, unlikely to leave a mess in the sanctuary. They were heavy enough to fly through the air, but light enough to not hurt if they hit you.
“Within hours of the news breaking, several email chains and conversations have already begun about how we might secure as many Fruit Gems as possible while supplies last. We may never truly be able to replace them, but we’ll try to move forward as best we can.”
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker of Chabad of Hackensack also answered us.
“When I read that Sunkist Gems were being discontinued, my first reaction was: This is clearly antisemitism!” he said. “After all, does anyone besides Jews actually eat these things? They practically could have printed ‘Synagogue Edition’ on the package.
“But joking aside, maybe this is our opportunity to find something a little healthier to throw at b’nai mitzvah children. Sun-dried apples? Little bags of raisins? I say go for it!”
But then, just days after the announcement that the Fruit Gems were being discontinued, Sunkist said that it had found a new family-owned candy company to bring them back.
“We hear you, Sunkist Fruit Gems fans!” Sunkist’s PR team wrote on Instagram, according to eJewish Philanthropy. “The good news: Sunkist Fruit Gems are not going anywhere.”
This was the culmination of a wild week in the candy world. And it was a week where we learned how complicated the candy world can be.
Sunkist, it seems, owns the brand, but it does not manufacture it. Until a few months ago, that job was done by the Ferrara Candy Company. But to go back further, Fruit Gems were first produced in 1955, by the Ben Meyerson Candy Company, which made a pioneering licensing deal with Sunkist in 1966. Jelly Belly Candy bought it in 2006, and manufactured it until 2023, when it was acquired by Ferrara. It had a hecksher all that time.
So when Ferrera chose to discontinue it, for what it said was lack of demand, that seemed to be that.
But the Jewish community was loud, and Sunkist didn’t give up. “We have been encouraged by the overwhelming support and enthusiasm shown by Sunkist Fruit Gems fans in recent days,” it said in a press release, and it kept looking.
And then it found Candyrific. (Someone somewhere has a great job making up these names.) The plan is to get them back on the market sometime next year.
Sunkist says that the revived Fruit Gems will continue to be certified kosher. That means that bar and bat mitzvah kids’ friends will continue to hurl the gooey, plastic-encased treats (to be fair, some of us like them far better than others of us do), their little brothers, sisters, and cousins will continue to run up front to pick them up, and everyone will be happy.
Beth Chananie and Joanne Palmer