Mazel Tov, Now Duck: Sunkist Fruit Gems Are Gone

By Howie Silbiger

There are certain products that somehow become part of Jewish life without anybody ever deciding that they should be. Sunkist Fruit Gems were one of them. They were at bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, aufrufs, Purim parties, synagogue events and in mishloach manot for decades, usually bought by the pound and generally taken completely for granted. They are now gone.

Ferrara Candy Company discontinued Sunkist Fruit Gems on May 1, reportedly because there was not enough national demand to justify continuing to make them. The announcement did not exactly make international headlines and most people probably had no idea anything had happened until wholesalers started running out and customers discovered they could no longer order them. Apparently national demand did not take into account the number of Jews who have spent the last several decades throwing them at each other in synagogue.

Fruit Gems were never created for Jewish celebrations and nobody deliberately adopted them as some sort of communal candy. They just happened to be almost perfectly designed for the job. They were kosher, individually wrapped, relatively inexpensive, available in bulk and, unlike a great many other candies, could be thrown across a synagogue without knocking somebody unconscious. That combination was apparently enough.

Over the years they became so common at Jewish celebrations that some synagogues actually specified Sunkist Fruit Gems in their bar and bat mitzvah instructions, recommending them because they were kosher, wrapped and soft enough to throw. They showed up in synagogue kitchens, Hebrew schools, Purim packages and at countless simchas where children waited patiently for the announcement of Mazel Tov before attempting to hit somebody in the head with one.

The candy itself had been around for decades. Fruit Gems were produced by the Ben Myerson Candy Company in Los Angeles under licence from Sunkist until Jelly Belly acquired the company in 2006. Jelly Belly continued producing the candy and maintained its Orthodox Union kosher certification. Ferrara Candy Company then acquired Jelly Belly in 2023, and now they have killed the Fruit Gem.

For Ferrara this may simply have been another product line that did not sell enough nationally. For at least some candy wholesalers, however, the demand was still very real. Jon Prince, owner of CandyFavorites.com and McKeesport Candy Co., told eJewishPhilanthropy that his company sold more than 1,000 pounds of Fruit Gems last year. He found out in August that he could no longer order them and says the remaining supply is quickly disappearing, which means there are probably boxes of Sunkist Fruit Gems sitting in synagogue closets across North America that have suddenly become considerably more valuable than anybody expected.

There is already a replacement. Nassau Candy has introduced Clever Candy Fruit Jelly Jewels, a kosher, individually wrapped soft jelly candy available in orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime, cherry and blueberry. It is clearly designed to fill the hole left by Fruit Gems and, assuming nobody objects to changing several decades of Jewish tradition without calling a meeting first, it will probably do the job.

The candy throwing will continue. Children will still crawl under synagogue seats collecting whatever they can find after the Mazel Tov. Purim baskets will still contain something brightly coloured that nobody remembers buying. Chassanim and bar mitzvah boys will continue learning that standing at the front of a synagogue while several dozen people throw things at you is apparently considered a sign of affection.

But Sunkist Fruit Gems, after decades of distinguished service to Jewish celebrations and Jewish projectile warfare, are finished… What’s the opposite of mazel tov?