Like I don’t eat enough candy to keep me satisfied, I’ve been wondering for the last 6 months or so about Vanilla Spice/Gum Drops. Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about.
I’ve never seen these in vanilla flavor. Since you folks live all over the world, I’m wondering if any of you folks have ever heard tell of anyone making these in this flavor.
I bet they’d be good.
Did you HAVE to ask that? Did you? Hmm?
It wouldn’t be so bad if they MADE them, but they don’t, and now I want them. 
They sure do sound good . . .
I’ve not seen vanilla gumdrops in the USA, and the only other country I’ve lived in was the Philippines, and I could only find them in fruit flavors there.
Why do people like gumdrops?
They’re a sugar delivery system. What’s not to like? I like the texture of the sugar coating. I like when the sugar dissolves. I like the texture of the gummy spice drop. They’re fun to bite into and they’re fun to just let dissolve in your mouth but that’s a hard skill to achieve. I like to put two gumdrops on different sides of my mouth to taste the flavors compare, contrast, and meld. I like to shove a handful in my mouth and guess all the flavors I can taste. I don’t like when my tummy doesn’t feel so good afterwards.
Mmmmmm! I like the sharp-crunchy crystal coating that dissolves juuust slowly enough to savor it thoroughly until there is a slick naked gumdrop and then you bite it and it sticks to your teeth – but not too much – and then it’s all nommy!
It has to be a good brand, though. Brach’s is best, I think. You know exactly what the flavors will be . . . no surprises.
Ok.
My husband formerly ran the family hardware store with his brother. Now, when we go in to visit, cash a check (my personal ATM sort of,) or get some supplies, we cannot leave without Jeff having grabbed a bag of spice drops from the impulse-buy rack near the check-out. It was also his late dad’s (the business founder’s) favorite indulgence.
They don’t appeal to me, so I was looking for an explanation. Thank you.
Emm, please tell The Kid that I think your opinion of gumdrops leaves me to believe that you are a Zombie. He’ll know what to do.
Ok, but I must also determine his personal attitude toward gumdrops, as I can’t recall ever seeing him eat them. They would stick to his braces for one thing. (Possible we’re both zombies…would be an interesting movie twist, like the ending of The Sixth Sense.
I don’t eat gum drops (too sweet and gummy), but my wife loves them. Why don’t you try to make a vanilla spice gum drop? I don’t know how this would work, or not, but put a drop of vanilla extract on the gum drops with an eye dropper. Lemon vanilla spice may work.
Well, there is always the option of making your own.
Substitute vanilla and water for fruit juice and I think you’d have what you want (without the Sodium silicate).
Maybe you can use flat cream soda instead of water?
Brilliant idea with the flat cream soda. I have cream soda.
Since even the gumdrops doesn’t have a vanilla recipe, I have a question. Would good ole vanilla extract work or would I need vanilla flavoring, like that flavoring that is sold in drugstores and is used by little old ladies to make that hard crack candy at Christmas time? I’m not sure I’ve seen vanilla flavoring either. Or maybe even that vanilla syrup that they sell by the coffee section of grocery stores?
I think the coffee syrup would work, but you’d need a lot of it. Probably several bottles. Basically, you’d make your candy out of it.
Vanilla extract is vanilla flavoring. Get the real stuff, though. The ersatz can be icky. It’s in the spice/salt/baking section of the grocery store. It should work if you work it into a sugar syrup. Once the alcohol base has evaporated, you’re left with vanilla flavoring. You’d essentially be making a syrup much like the coffee-flavoring syrup. Only then you’d process it into gumdrops.
Hmm, I wonder how a little coconut would do . . .
You can buy vanilla syrup of the type they use for coffee drinks. Usually in the coffee section at fancy grocery stores.
edit: Right. Like Mute says. (I don’t always read, see.)
I don’t think that you would want to do anything than use vanilla extract and water. What else would you need? If you like a cream soda taste, use it for all of the liquid, don’t worry about letting it go flat, gasses become less solute as you heat a liquid.
At this point I would think you should be asking what kind of gumdrop recipe you should use and how the different ingredients do different things, some ask for pectin, some do not, some use corn syrup, etc.
Lambchop, do you really think that mutepointe is up to this research and development?
Make some agar-agar or Irish moss custard add vanilla and sweetener.
Since you mention it. Which recipe should I use? I was going to use:
But then I got to thinking, simplest might not be the best. I’m really looking for the quiensential spice drop experience and not some pitiful home made knock-off. A great home made knock-off would be OK. I could live with that. I don’t think I’m up to this myself. I know the first batch will be a sludge.
I can’t follow a recipe. I was never taught. Grandma cooked on a coal stove and didn’t measure. My Mom cooks everything at 350 for 1 hour. I always add a little extra. I know in cooking a little extra is OK but I also know in baking that a little extra is not always a good idea. I’m guessing candy making is baking to an exponential degree.
The bummer of all this is that I am home sick with strep throat and without all the ingredients. I have almond extract but I blew all the vanilla extract the last time we had company and I made pancakes.
edited to correct the spelling of “almold”
Is that like Chinese drywall?
I thought that it was a dried blend of some of Seattle’s finest.