I Ranked 16 Haribo Flavors, the Best Gummy Candy Ever

Haribo has been making candy for over a century, so they've had a long time to get it right. The German company expanded to the U.S. in the 1980s, and by 2022 were selling $449 million worth of gummy candies here. 

Since debuting the Haribo gummy bear, the company has expanded to everything from sour ribbons to Smurfs. But can any of them beat the infamous Goldbears? I headed to my grocery store and grabbed every bag of Haribo gummy candies I could find, then tried them all so you don't have to. Here are all 16 Haribo gummies I tasted, ranked from best to worst (yes, gummy candy can actually be bad). 

This story was updated in November 2023.

Goldbears blow all other Haribo gummies — not to mention most other gummy bears — out of the water. They're uniquely dense to chew, so it takes a little bit of work to get through a handful, like a built-in safety to save you from a stomach ache. 

The flavors are surprising to first-timers (or anyone that hasn't been paying attention), but none are out of place or terrible. Red is raspberry. Clear is pineapple. Green is strawberry?! Take that, upstart green apple. Haribo claims to have invented the gummy bear in 1922, and their longevity is no surprise.

I don't really know what cola is flavored with, but I do know I like it, especially in gummy form. There's no actual fizz in Haribo's Fizzy Cola, but there is a sugar coating on the outside that's more tangy than sour. These supple soda bottles give your jaw much less of a workout than Goldbears, but they've still got some real bounce when you chew them.

I've had Coke Icees from gas stations in the past, and these embody that same slightly watered down, non-carbonated cola flavor that's a disappointment in drink form, but great in gummies.

Gone are the boring ribbon-shaped candies of yesteryear. Now, instead of grandma's hard candy clump, they're gummy, sour, and actually fun to eat. Sour Streamers are the most sour of Haribo's lineup; they're no Warheads but they'll still appease any sour lover. 

The thick coating of sugar lends a nice crunch without being gritty, and the flavors are strong and identifiable even without the ever helpful flavor listing on the back. Plus I just love how they're all neat and perfectly lined up.

Sour Goldbears taste exactly like the regular Goldbears except slightly sour, because Haribo's sour coating isn't particularly sour (keep in mind my favorite candy is Sour Patch Kids, so baseline from there). They're still leaps and bounds better than most Haribo gummies, but I can't help but think they're lacking in some way because the sourness is so tame. 

Haribo Berries feel like a real gummy candy texture innovation. A soft, sticky center is coated in little hard sugar balls, so you get a mix of crunch and chewiness. (Nerds has a couple similar products that are reminiscent, like Nerds Rope and Nerds Jelly Beans.) 

Red and black pieces are in the bag, and they have distinct flavors instead of one generic "berry." In a sea of pretty standard gummy candy forms, these are unique.

Smurfs are still a thing? Could have fooled me, but here they are. The white and blue or red blobs (I guess they're supposed to represent a blue Smurf body and a giant white or red hat?) are raspberry and strawberry flavored, according to the package. Not sure I would have been able to pick up on any specific flavor — or shape, for that matter — without the package, but they're still good in that generic gummy way. 

Confession: I don't like peach-flavored stuff. If these were most any other fruit flavor, I would rank Haribo Peaches higher. But even still, they're solidly mid-pack because the texture is so satisfying to bite into. They're smooth, soft and almost slippery inside, so they're even fun to roll between your fingers. Plus they're way pretty. 

We're not done with Smurfs yet! There are two Haribo Smurfs gummies for some reason. They're the same flavors, but these have a lot more definition due to the lack of sour sugar, so you can at least make out that they're cartoon characters. They're fine, that's about it. And as I suspected, their entire head is clear or red, not just their hat.

I could have SWORN Haribo's cherry candy was called Twin Cherries, and a quick Google search shows that it did exist in the past. But now they're Happy Cherries for some reason, though I don't like them as much as I liked twin cherries. The cherry flavor is decidedly more cough syrup and less Kool-Aid now, and no one wants that. 

It's weird that these non-sour Happy Cola gummies fell so far down the list compared to the sour Fizzy Cola ones, but these are tooth breakers. They're more solid and dry than the Goldbears, and much larger, too, so you've really got to gnaw your way through these. I don't know if it's the texture playing tricks with me or what, but the cola flavor is less pronounced, too.

Haribo Starmix is for indecisive people, but that's about it. It's got Goldbears, Happy Cherries, Happy Cola, Twin Snakes, and some ring-shaped gummy candy that I can't identify. Once you know which of those things are your favorites, you'll probably never go back to this random mix ever again. 

Why did you make these green and white frogs peach-flavored, Haribo? It makes no sense. How about lime, strawberry like your green Goldbears, or even green apple? The white frog belly has an interesting creamy, foamy texture (why don't any of these companies put that in their gummy cola?) but otherwise it's just a chewier, less satisfying, uglier Haribo Peaches gummy. 

I didn't think these Haribo Dinosaurs would be a problem at all, but they're like those generic, unmarked bags of gummies you got from the creepy neighbor's house during trick-or-treat. The company really bit off more than they could chew with the flavor combos, too: banana and strawberry, black currant and strawberry, and mango mandarin and melon. They taste like five day old fruit salad. Stick with the basics, Haribo.

While the sourness and flavors of Haribo's Sour S'ghetti matches that of the much better Sour Streamers, these are so dried out that it's like eating crunchy, uncooked spaghetti noodles. There's no need for these to exist in a world that already includes Sour Streamers.

I love the idea of Twin Snakes. There are two little gummies that you pull apart like string cheese, and one is sweet, and one is sour. The problem is that the sour side isn't made sour by the usual sugar-like coating. Instead, the sour permeates the gummy and feels like battery acid on your tongue. They turned fun interactive candy into a game of Russian tongue roulette. Absolutely terrible. 

Ginger-Lemon is the worst Haribo flavor. Imagine a Halls honey lemon cough drop without the menthol. Voila: you now know exactly what these monstrosities taste like. GTFO, Haribo.