Several months ago I was dumbfounded at my local pharmacy. While waiting to pick up a medication, I walked around idly a bit, looking at the shelves. And there, amongst the non-proscription medications, paper products, and toys, I saw some candy. But not just any candy, but something called "Winosaurs." Which advertised itself as being a gummy candy made with real wine. There was a "21+ contains alcohol" notation, as well as information on the back label noting the candy had an ABV of less than 5%. So obviously I had to buy some. I tried the blackberry kind, and the strawberry rhubarb flavor.
Some folks who are American but not New Jersey residents, or those from some other countries, might be saying something like, "So what? Why so shocked?" It wasn't because of the candy aspect. Well, not entirely. That was weird, but the main issue that surprised me was seeing an alcoholic product being sold in a pharmacy. I should explain. In New Jersey, people who are 21 or older can legally buy alcoholic products in restaurants with liquor licenses, or bars, or liquor stores. Unlike other places, you can't buy it other businesses, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, or pharmacies. Or so I thought, anyway. Evidently either the law against this has been relaxed somewhat, or my local pharmacy is brazenly flouting a law, and risking being shut down. And that's not all. My home town has historically been dry, probably because it got its start as a religious summer camp. Up until very recently no alcohol could be sold anywhere in town, nor consumed in any restaurant, store, etc. A few years ago it became legal for customers to bring their own bottles of wine into town restaurants to drink during their meals. Then, in the past few years two so called nanobreweries opened, which are like microbreweries, only smaller. (They can brew only a certain, very limited amount of beer.) Finally, just in the past year or so two new businesses opened--one's a restaurant that sells alcohol to customers, and the other is just a regular tavern. So the New Jersey versions of Carrie Nation are presumably screaming and gnashing their teeth in the Afterlife.
Now let's get to the subject of candy being made with booze in it. Back on February 22, 2020, I talked about using a shot glass made out of candy, but it still didn't have any alcohol in it, until I added some. But apparently adult style candies are at least a semi-popular thing. A brief online search revealed a variety of candies with a kick, from chocolates, hard candies, lollipops, cotton candies, and gummies. Infused with several different kinds of liquor, too--whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila, and even champagne. The history of candy with alcohol in it is quite nebulous. Several sources noted that the French started dipping sour cherries in chocolate as far back as the 1700's, which were called girottes. The French didn't usually add alcohol to these, but apparently Americans began soaking their sour cherries in liquor before adding the chocolate, apparently in the late 1700's and early 1800's. A more detailed contender for a first is in 1920's Germany. Reportedly, at the time proper ladies weren't supposed to actually drink alcoholic beverages. So brandy maker Hugo Asbach started making and selling chocolates filled with brandy, to reach this large untapped demographic. The candies were popular (apparently with men and women), and other European nations experimented with their own takes on this phenomenon. As an aside, making chocolates filled with booze is very tricky. Chocolate is porous, meaning if you put liquid alcohol in it the liquor will evaporate. Chocolatiers learned that one way to combat this was to pour the liquor into molds made from corn starch. The corn starch binds with the water in the alcohol to form a crystal layer of sugar. This layer then traps the liquor inside. So then you could carefully dip the resulting corn starch molds with liquor inside into chocolate, and your candy was done. (There are other methods as well--some folks use something called chocolate ganache or syrup to trap the liquor inside, but it seems like corn starch is the most prevalant strategy.)
As for the candy I tried, Winosaurs are made by Saucy Confections. As so often happens, their official website was a bit lacking on the company's history, but other online sources indicated that this business is located in the Syracuse area of New York. Couple Mary Rose and Alex Zaranski were looking for gifts for their guests at their wedding, which was being held at a winery. Because of the location, they thought it would be fun to come up with wine-infused candies. Since these candies were evidently a hit, they went into business selling the dinosaur-shaped, wine-soaked gummies. (According to one source, the company started in 2018.) Alternate flavors of Winosaurs beside the two I had are sangria, moscato, red blend, rose', peach bellini, and strawberry moscato. Saucy Confections also sells humorous dinosaur-themed drawings, greeting cards, and a tumbler. Interested American customers should know, though, that only 29 states currently allow Winosaurs to be shipped to them. (And clearly not all other countries will allow them to be transported, too.)
Saucy Confections Winosaurs, blackberry flavor: These were greenish-black. Some wine-ish odor. They were obviously dinosaur-shaped pieces, about 1inch (about 2.5 cm.) long, but alas, I couldn't identify the different species because the gummies were all stuck together. Apparently they'd partially melted during transport. The taste was pretty good--sweet, good blackberry flavor. I didn't really taste the alcohol in them. So a decent candy overall.
Saucy Confections Winosaurs, strawberry rhubarb flavor: These were about the same size as the blackberry ones, but were once again stuck together in a a big mass. They had a orange-pink color, and a stronger wine-y odor to them, almost like cough syrup. The taste was kind of weird--sweet and sour. I could taste the booze in these. I didn't like this kind as much as the previous. But, to be fair, I like blackberries (the fruit, and the flavoring) much better than strawberry rhubarb. I like strawberries, but rhubarb is pretty bad--it's only barely tolerable to me if it's heavily sweetened in a pie. Anyway, these weren't terrible, just kind of "meh." But, I like the concept of alcoholic candies, and I'll try to get some more types and brand if I can. And post about them, obviously,
I'll wrap this up by briefly covering some weird and/or amusing state liquor laws in my U.S.A. (Incidentally, I didn't absolutely confirm most of these, so I'm not 100% that they're legitimate, or still in effect. Many of these are surely leftovers from decades or centuries ago, and probably aren't still enforced. Also, I didn't do much checking because I kind of want them to be real, since some of them are so ridiculous.) In Alabama, it's apparently illegal to include provocative or profane labels on alcoholic beverages. In Alaska it's technically not legal to enter a bar while intoxicated, or become drunk in one. Also, you're not allowed to give alcohol to a moose! In Arkansas if you're caught drinking while between the ages of 18 and 21 (for foreign readers, the legal drinking age in all 50 U.S. states, with some exceptions like if you're on a military base, is 21) in addition to the other usual punishments you're required to write an essay about alcohol. No word on how long this essay has to be, or how much leeway writers are allowed about the subject matter, etc., which I'm curious about. In Colorado you can be cited for drunk driving if you're riding a horse--in this case the equine is legally a vehicle. Note to circus and zoo employees in Missouri--if you give alcohol, or other intoxicants, to an elephant you're risking arrest. (Which, makes sense, for a lot of reasons.) Folks in the great state of New Hampshire are forbidden from drinking in graveyards. Most (all?) states will arrest people for operating a boat while drunk, but in New Mexico it's also illegal to be intoxicated while water skiing, kneeboarding, wakeboarding, etc. In Wyoming, it's not okay to be drunk in a mine, and women can't drink within 5 feet of the bar. (I'm picturing women taunting police officers by carefully measuring off just past 5 feet, and then standing there and drinking away.) But my favorite odd law is allegedly for the Pennsylvania town of Newtown. Where men need to have written permission from their wives to buy alcohol. (So many questions--what about single people? Can the wife scrawl out a quick note in the store, or does it have to be longer, or typed, or even notarized? How are the store owners supposed to know the handwriting of every potential customer in the area? I do enjoy that this appears to be against men, and not women, for a change. But do married lesbians also need a note from their wives? This is so weird and bizarre I kind of support it, just for the silliness and chaos it would cause it were actually enforced!)
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