Actually they have been ''globalized': They moved from Bonn (as still in the name) a few km across the state border to to Rhineland Palladia. At least that is what I saw driving by on the highway. I guess to save taxes.

Another funny thing is that as a vegetarian I realized quite late that this is a meat product (gelantine). It remains the only "meat" I eat kind of regularly because, as mentioned somewhere, they are still the best.

Gelatine is a by-product of pig bone marrow which we have in surplus compared to pig meat consumption. Not one animal more will die when you decide to buy and consume a product containing gelatine. I mean, I respect the goal, but there's better choices to be made. If you want to avoid all products remotely containing pig (by-)product its a tough call. See e.g. book "Pig 05049" by Christien Meindertsma. She also gave a TED talk.

The demand for gelatine would contribute to the pig meat revenue stream, offsetting costs and thereby (at least ever so slightly) decreasing the cost of pork, leading (in theory) to increased consumption.

Whether that effect is large enough to be noticeable is questionable, and I definitely agree there could be "better choices", but it's not exactly right to say that it has no impact.

If its like with whey, its in such abundance that they pay people to buy it. Either way, the revenue stream would be very little higher because of the huge abundance. You're much better off simply eating less pig meat.

AFAIK it wasn't taxes, but they wanted to expand but weren't able to build the expansion in their Bad Godesberg location, so they moved to the Grafschaft.

That would probably make you a gelatinarian, not a vegetarian.

Gelatin is a by-product, eating it supports the profitability of animal slaughter. Yet still, there seems to be some distance between eating it and the behaviour of that one guy in Scott Pilgrim who loses his veganchad super powers because "Chicken's not vegan?".

It's an animal product, plain and simple. To base ethics on whether the product is in the critical path for profitability doesn't seem much different from vegan chicken eaters.

Nope. If you eat it I don’t think you can really be a vegetarian. You cannot launder food until it becomes vegetarian. If an animal was killed off for you to consume a product, it is not vegetarian and consuming one won’t make you vegetarian. To me it’s no different than “vegetarians” who still indulge in bacon because it happens to be really tasty.

It is not too late though to give up gelatin based gummy bears and eat ethically the rest of your life.

Or we can choose to reply as sanctimonious radicals. I'm experienced at working that angle too.

If someone only wants to be vegetarian when it’s convenient, they should just say that.

There are innovations for vegan ones

Some Haribo products without gelatine/collagen from pig are marked as "halal" for consumption by muslim people.

Some products have this label due to fish gelatin.

The halal haribo I had last week had beef based gelatin in it, instead of pork (I guess), so this one at least was not vegetarian.

If you get the jingle lodged in your brain, you'll never forget or escape their profound Germanness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9YuOuP44Rc

Is is somewhat remarkable how many successful candy companies are German or have German roots. I wonder why. My own great grandparents, who were German, worked as chocolatiers.

It's certainly not the only thing but it helps to have developed things like an urban, non-agrarian middle class fairly early. It churns out more specialized artisans and the customers for their wares.

I would guess that having an established pork processing industry also helped as a ready supply of gelatine byproduct.

Chemistry and food are very similar and Germany was/is the world leader in that.

Most chemists can read German as a result.

Lol no.

For the benefit of those of you who don't speak German, the lyrics of the jingle are "Haribo makes children happy, and grownups as well".

They have also made official rhymed translations into other languages. The English one is "Kids and grownups love it so / The happy world of Haribo".

Yup, the french one : "Haribo c'est beau la vie / pour les grands et les petits".

Not once ever have I been able to open a bag that easily!

Many people used to think that Nokia was a Japanese company too.

Finnish tire and paper product company Amongst its early origins

Not stranger than card manufacturers turning video game giant or pencil brand making plasma TV. It's fun to see how companies evolve.

Apparently Nokia's first product was toilet roll!

And rubber boots

They make the best snow tires

AFAIK Western-style sweets/candies aren’t very popular or common in Japan, at least historically.

What about Kit-Kat? That's a British chocolate bar that the Japanese seem to have taken that to their hearts at least.

Exception that confirms the rule?

And the Japanese relationship to KitKat is pretty different from ours :) I agree it's quite peculiar :D

In case someone overlooked it in the article, the name HARIBO comes from HAns RIedel BOnn (company owner's name and location of company).

Not Riedel, Riegel, with a g, which would ironically be a literal translation of the "bar" in "chocolate bar" which they don't make.

Immortalized in the name of the fictional chocolate bar company Riegel Klotz, where Riegel is the product, Klotz is the former family name (but describing the shape of the product just as well) while the current name of the family is Drögel with would roughly translate to "Bland Bar".

Doesn't the "L" of the "KLOTZ" neon sign also flicker at some point, strongly evoking the connotation "KOTZ" ("PUKE"), just as Evelyn Hamann feels slightly overwhelmed after tasting too many Klotz-Riegel?

I just love how Loriot managed to combine immature puns and insinuations and profound character studies into surreal pieces of art that cause whole families to laugh until one cries. May he rest in peace.

Never noticed (or never committed to memory after noticing), but yeah, how could that opportunity be left untapped. He was a perfectionist engineer of jokes, the entertainer equivalent to that proverbial Scala coder who'd rewrite the entire thing if he came up late with an idea to monadify away yet another side effect. May he rest in peace, and may upcoming generations memorize that movie just like we did (it was already twenty years old when I started falling for it)

Wow, I got this wrong for at least ten years.

And I got Riegel Klotz wrong, for a similar time: thought that it was Riegel Drögel, when it's in fact Riegel Klotz and Riegel Drögel only appears in a few lines. Only corrected myself through Google-checking my writing here.

Always seemed Mexican to me for some odd reason.

Similar to Jarritos maybe? Colourful sweet things with almost-rhyming names.