The Popular Brand That's Likely Behind Buc-Ee's Gummy Bears

Driving past a Buc-ee's? Make a pitstop and grab a bag of crunchy, caramel coated Beaver Nuggets to munch on during your road trip. Though the store is packed with with hot sammies, beef jerky, and more, if you're after a sweet treat that isn't crunchy, you need to load up on Buc-ee's Gummi Bears instead. With 12 different fruity flavors, these squishy fellas come in a transparent packet featuring the store's mascot, Bucky the Beaver. Got FOMO because you're miles away from a branch of this quirky Southern gas station? You don't need to miss out. It appears that the popular brand that's likely behind Buc-ee's gummy bears is confectionary manufacturer Albanese, which sells its products online.

Open a bag of Buc-ee's gummy bears and you'll see three telltale signs that indicate their origin. Firstly, each bear is the same shape and size as Albanese's version. Secondly, they come in an assorted bag consisting of the same 12 flavors, including watermelon, strawberry, lime, mango, and pineapple. Finally, (and this is the big one), there's a raised letter "A" on every gummy bear. Albanese's website features the catchphrase, "Look for the Gummi with the 'A' on the Tummy to make sure you have the World's Best in your hands." This tagline alone makes it highly probable that Buc-ee's gummy bears are indeed made by the same Midwest manufacturer, even though it hasn't been officially confirmed. 

Several shoppers on Reddit believe Buc-ee's gummy bears are made by Albanese due to their taste and appearance, but one eagle-eyed commenter said, "I agree that Albanese probably makes the Buc-ee's gummy bears ... but the nutrition information is slightly different between the 2 packages so it's likely that Buc-ee's contracted Albanese to make them with some tweaks to the recipe. It may taste very close and have only minor differences." However, the ingredients list on both Albanese's and Buc-ee's gummy bears is identical (including corn syrup and sugar, as well as carnauba leaf, which prevents the jellies from stocking together in the bag). It seems that it's simply the serving sizes on the bags — Buc-ee's 24g versus Albanese's 32g — that explain the slight nutritional differences on the labeling. 

Meanwhile, a couple of other Redditors said that many companies sell Albanese gummies as their own too, such as 7-11 and Target. This common practice is known as white labeling (a third party manufactures an item, which is then sold by retailers under their own branding). This trick saves retailers money as they don't have to spend extra on creating a product from scratch. No matter how you get your hands on a stash, consider freezing your gummy bears to elevate their texture.