10.14.08

Fabulous Find: Corn-Free Lollipops

Posted in Allergy, Corn-Free, Fabulous Find, Food, Musings at 10:20 am by trueepicure

When you have a food allergy, sometimes even the simplest things are not safe to eat. Many people are shocked when I tell them that I can’t eat something as seemingly benign as a lollipop or hard candy. Sadly, most candy is off-limits for me because of the corn syrup and/or the citric acid. I’m not sure if this is good or bad news (definitely bad for my teeth), but thanks to YummyEarth, I can now eat tasty, fruity lollipops, and you probably can too.

I had heard of YummyEarth a while back when I was doing some research on corn-free citric acid. Most cheese recipes call for citric acid and most citric acid is made from corn. Yummy Earth is one of the few places that I’ve encountered that use citric acid derived from beets. YummyEarth doesn’t sell citric acid by itself, but I was heartened to know that somewhere it is at least available. (I have since found citric acid that I think I can use for cheese. I still have to verify this, so don’t go out and buy it on my recommendation - yet.)

I’m not a huge lollipop person, so I didn’t think to order any at the time. Hubs, however, recently went on one of his exploration missions to Whole Foods, and returned with all manner of foodie-goodness. In addition to the fabulous salmon filets and other savory treats that he brought home, Hubs came home with a huge bag of lollies that are what we like to call “Eva-Safe”. YummyEarth lollipops and candies are made with real sugar, tapioca and brown rice syrups instead of corn syrup, and they use citric acid made from beets. YummyEarth lollipops and candies are apparently also free of many of the typical food allergens, so if you’re gluten or dairy free, you should check out their products.

We tried the lollies that night, and boy were they good! They actually taste like fruit (probably because they use real fruit flavors) and they more or less taste like the fruit that they are named after. Googly Grape actually tastes like grape and Sour Apple Tart actually tastes like a sour apple. I haven’t tried some of the more exotic-sounding flavors like Ginger Zest, Tickled Pink Grapefruit, and Chili Lime Lambada, because the bag we bought doesn’t seem to have them, but I look forward to trying them in the future.

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