Brooke Thames, A&E Writer
It’s a bean; it’s a worm; no, it’s Trolli Sour Brite Eggs!
Old Main Market’s newest best-selling candy is an interesting combination of the hard and soft textures of jelly beans and gummy worms. It has a multitude of Pacific Lutheran University students cashing in their dining dollars.
With more than 500 bags of the delectable treat selling since Sept. 4, it’s an understatement to say so-called “Trolli Eggs” are a hit in the PLU community.
According to the package, the egg-shaped candies are “soft gummy centers covered in a thin candy shell.” They come in an array of watercolor-like patterns of green, orange, yellow, pink and blue.
With a sweet shell on the outside and a soft, sour gummy center, these treats offer a dynamic that is most definitely unique.
Tom Harvey, the retail operations manager for Dining & Culinary Services, said a large part of the appeal is the taste and texture of the candy itself.
“The sweet and sour is a classic combination,” Harvey said, “and getting it in small doses is dangerously addicting.”
Students agree that it’s the strange and surprising texture that lures them back to Trolli Eggs again and again.
“You think it’s a jelly bean but then you’re like, ‘Whoa, it’s a gummy worm!’” first-year Victoria Henning said.
Sophomore Suzanne Bjornson agreed.
“It’s a texture thing,” Bjornson said. “It’s just different.”
Harvey also attributed the popularity of the candy to life experience, convenience and the simple fun of eating sweets.
“We connect life experiences with flavors,” Harvey said. “[Trolli Eggs are] small, portable and easy to store. For others, [they’re] just plain fun.”
Accessibility and amusement aside, there is something that makes Trolli Eggs extremely unique. Old Main Market carries several Trolli brand candies, but none of them rank close to Trolli Eggs in terms of sales.
In the first eight weeks of the semester, 513 packages of Trolli Sour Brite Eggs were sold at OMM.
The next most popular Trolli products lag significantly behind, with Trolli Peach O’s selling 202 packages and Trolli Apple O’s and Trolli Octopuses selling only 100 packages each.
With an estimated lead of 300 bags, Trolli Eggs reign supreme.
“We fly through those things,” OMM employee and senior Alex Tuman said.
Established in 1975, the Trolli brand was registered in Germany under the Merder GmbH Company by the company’s founder Willy Merder. Merder decided to expand his existing food production company into the realm of sweets because of the success and growth of the candy production industry in the years leading up to the 1970’s.
Merder found immense success in the creation of his Trolli candy brand, a name that originates from the mythical troll creature that was popular with children at the time.
Since its creation in 1975, Trolli has been Merder GmbH’s top-selling brand, and the company has risen to be the second-largest manufacturer of gummy candy in Germany, behind Haribo.
Trolli candy has become greatly successful in the U.S., a popularity that is mirrored on PLU’s campus.
In the opinion of Sophomore Kacie Mansten, it’s the fact that Trolli Eggs are “college-friendly” that makes them popular among students.
“I feel strange as a college student eating a handful of gummy worms, but [Trolli Eggs] are a more mature way to eat candy as an adult,” Mansten said.
Whatever the appeal of Trolli Sour Brite Eggs – whether it be taste, texture or the simple fun of eating candy – the bite-sized treats are surely PLU’s most popular candy.
