Chocolate-Covered Cinnamon Bears

More than half of Utah is Mormon, which translates to over 1.5 million citizens who eschew coffee, alcohol, and cigarettes. Sugar, however, is not restricted. This may explain why the state’s candy-eating rate is twice the national average—everyone needs a vice. Or perhaps it’s that Mormons’ proclivity for large families skews the demographics in favor of sweets—more kids equals more unbridled sugar fiends. But maybe, just maybe, it’s the chocolate-covered cinnamon bears.

This particular gummy treat is so popular that the bookstore at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, regularly runs out of one-pound bags of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. These bears are spicier, waxier, and significantly bigger than the average gummy bear, but enrobing them in a sweet layer of chocolate seems to create an irresistible balance. Utahns can’t get enough of the flavor pairing, and they’ve recently become something of a state signature.

Salt Lake City’s Sweet Candy Company began selling the cinnamon-flavored red gummy in the 1920s, but the chocolate-covered edition wasn’t born until the 1990s. Sweet’s president says the creation was inspired by one of their guiding principles: to cover things in chocolate. And according to the company, though their factory produces almost a million pounds of cinnamon bears per year, supply barely meets demand.