A lot of people enjoy gummy bears but they probably don’t give too much thought to where the sweet treats originated.

Justin Dodd talks about how the first jelly candies like Turkish Delight used flour or starch to give them their texture and they appeared in what is now Istanbul, Turkey, in 1777.

Turkish Delight candies later spread in popularity in Europe but companies decided to use gelatin to make jelly candies because they couldn’t quite master making them with starch or flour.

In 1920, a German man named Hans Riegel created the Haribo company and they were the first to make jelly candies into the shape of bears because dancing bears were a common sight at festivals in Germany.

Follow the Food History YouTube page by Mental Floss for more great videos.