# How are wine gums made?

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## Summary

Wine gums are firm, chewy gums of glucose syrup, sugar, starch and gelatine, moulded in five shapes stamped with wine names. Despite the names, no wine.

## Description

Wine gums are chewy, firm, pastille type sweets that originated in the United Kingdom. Every brand has its own recipe, but the basic method is the same as for other gums.
What goes in
A published ingredients list for a 400 g bag of Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums, recorded on Open Food Facts, gives glucose syrup, which contains sulphites, sugar, starch, gelatine, malic and acetic acids, colours from plant sources, flavourings, vegetable oils, and carnauba wax as a glazing agent. Here, the first ingredient is glucose syrup rather than sugar: see are wine gums gluten free?
How they are made
Cook. The glucose syrup, sugar, starch and gelatine are cooked together, with the acids, colours and flavours added.Mould. The hot mixture is deposited into moulds. Gelatine fruit gums can be made on starch moguls: see what is starch moulding?Set. The gums are left to set firm.Finish. A glazing agent, here carnauba wax, and vegetable oil give a light shine and a coating: see glazing agents explained
The shapes and the names
Wine gums usually come in five shapes: kidney, crown, rhombus, circle and oblong. Each is labelled with the name of a wine. Maynards use port, sherry, burgundy and claret, while other makers have used names such as rioja, merlot, or even rum.
No wine inside
Despite the names, wine gums usually contain no alcohol, and depending on local law or the maker's practice, packs may say that the sweets contain no wine: see do wine gums have wine in them?
A teetotal story
Charles Riley Maynard began making sweets in a kitchen in Stamford Hill, London, in 1880, with his brother Tom, while his wife Sarah Ann served the customers. The business became a company in 1896. Around the turn of the century his son, Charles Gordon Maynard, suggested making wine gums. His father, a strict Methodist and teetotaller, took some persuading that the sweets would contain no wine, but came round to the idea, and Maynards Wine Gums were introduced in 1909.
Diet
The gelatine means classic wine gums are not vegetarian or vegan, and in 2016 Maynards Bassetts' owner said its gelatine could be beef or pork: see are wine gums halal? and are wine gums vegan?

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