How To Make Rosé Gummies

Take everything you love about your favorite bottle of rosé — that lush, pale pink color; the crisp, refreshing finish; a fruity, just sweet-enough edge — and now imagine it packed into a gummy bear! That collision between the candy we munched on as kids (and probably still do now) and the “it” wine of the moment makes this surprisingly easy-to-make candy even more delightful. There’s just something about biting into a gummy bear that tastes like your favorite bottle of wine.

With just a few steps and some chill time (which you could very easily pass with a glass of rosé) you can make these charming, lightly fruity, just a bit tangy rosé-flavored gummy bears.

Over the last few years, rosé wine’s fanbase has exploded. At about $15 or less, you can find a blush-colored bottle that suits almost any palate. There’s hardly a summer patio where it’s not being poured nor a restaurant without it on its list. But our collective love of rosé did stop there. It’s probably fair to say we reached peak rosé when the candy mavens at Sugarfina released a limited-edition Rosé All Day Gummy Bear box. The wine-tinted bears flew off the shelves and left a 18,000-person waiting list in its dust.

Being a candy maven myself, I set out to make a version of these gummy candies to save you and I both from the long waiting list. Here’s your complete guide to making these boozy bears at home.

• Choose a rosé: Making rosé gummies starts with picking out your favorite rosé. Pick a rose you’ll want to drink that isn’t too sweet or too expensive.
• Concentrate the flavor: This recipe skips the extra wine flavoring that some recipes call for and reduces a cup of the wine instead to make a “rosé concentrate”.
• Go for powdered gelatin: Unflavored powdered gelatin is used to set the rosé mixture.
• You don’t have to go full bear: You don’t even actually need a gummy bear mold to set the gelatin in! More on that below.

Originally a by-product of red-wine making, rosé can be made in a number of ways from almost any grape varietal. A good rule of thumb for choosing a bottle of rosé for the gummies is the golden rule that always applies when cooking with wine: Pick a bottle you’d like to drink, because you will have leftovers.

A mid-priced bottle that is slightly more acidic and dry balances against the sugar in the gummy bear recipe. The darker your rosé is in its blush, the darker your gummy candies will be too. Whispering Angels Rosé, a crisp, slightly fruity rosé, is used by Sugarfina, so snag a bottle of that if you can for the most authentic rosé gummy bear experience.

Know your drink: What Is Rosé?

Do a bit of research online and you’ll find more than one rosé gummy bear recipe that calls for sparkling wine candy-flavoring oil. I have found the flavor of these gummies was improved by cooking down some of the rosé into a concentrate. This was easier and less expensive than tracking down the flavoring oil.

These gummy bears get their texture from powdered unflavored gelatin. Most grocery stores stash it near the flavored gelatin on their shelves. Pick up a box when you think of it, as it lasts almost forever in the pantry. The gelatin must be hydrated (this is sometimes called blooming) before it can be heated or added to a warm liquid. Once the gelatin mixture begins to cool, it will also begin to set, so it’s important to set up your molds for filling before making the gummy base.

For the full experience, go with a gummy bear bold. Half the charm of this confection is the fact that it’s a boozy bear. While the gummy bear molds are incredibly cute, this recipe does yield over 100 bears. You can just as easily pour the gelatin mixture into an 8- by 8-inch dish lined with a parchment sling, then set until firm. Use a pizza cutter to cut the gummies into 1/4- to 1/2-inch squares by cutting 18 rows by 18 rows.