Red Vines is a brand of red licorice

candy Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a Confectionery, confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum ...

manufactured in

Union City, California Union City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population in the 2020 census was 70,143, up from 69,628 in the 2010 census. It is located approximately south of Oakland, from San Franci ...

by the American Licorice Company. Red Vines Original Red Twists are also sometimes referred to as red licorice despite containing no licorice root. The original Red Vines were raspberry-flavored, but in 1952, with a slight formula change, the Red Vines Original Red Twist flavor was introduced.

Development

The American Licorice Company introduced raspberry-flavored vines in the 1920s. In the 1950s, the name was changed to Red Vines and the company's branding was reimagined around this identity, with "Original Red" eventually overtaking licorice as the most popular flavor. In the Union City factory, wheat flour,

corn syrup Corn syrup is a food syrup that is made from the starch of corn/maize and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soften Mouthfeel, texture, add vol ...

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a Transparency and translucency, colorless Weak acid, weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in Citrus, citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, ...

, flavoring, and

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is blended in vats, then poured into barrels and cooled for 24 hours, after which it is extruded through a machine that forms the final candy. The factory can produce up to 1,000,000 pounds per week.

Twizzlers rivalry

Red Vines and similar candy Twizzlers have a perceived rivalry such as displayed in the '' Parks and Recreation'' episode " Ben's Parents," in which characters are divided over which is better and whether families from different sides of the question can appropriately marry.Parks and Recreation Review: Twizzlers vs. Red Vines
by Lisa Palmer. ''TV Fanatic''. November 9, 2012. Accessed March 26, 2021. According to the

brand manager A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

of Red Vines, "The taste and the texture are very different and the rivalry between Twizzlers and Red Vines is very fan-driven. The rivalry is imilar tothe Montagues and Capulets. It's existed for so long that people forget how it started utit's not driven by either company." He speculates that the rivalry is essentially regional, as Red Vines are more popular in the West and the Great Lakes region "but brand awareness tends to drop off once you go east of Denver," while Twizzlers, being "headquartered in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

" trends stronger there and in the East Coast and

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

August 2012 recall

In August 2012 the

California Department of Public Health The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is the state department responsible for public health in California. It is a subdivision of the California Health and Human Services Agency. It enforces some of the laws in the California Health ...

announced a recall of one lot of Red Vines' black licorice candy due to lead contamination. Only the one-pound packages marked "Best Before 020413" were recalled. Testing found that candy in the contaminated lot had as much as 0.33 parts per million of lead resulting in up to 13.2 micrograms of lead per serving. This was more than double the limit of 6.0 micrograms of lead per day from all dietary sources for children under 6 years old.

In popular culture

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

science-fiction drama television series ''

Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts and music * "The Fringe", or Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * Purple fri ...

'' frequently refers to Red Vines throughout its five-season run, as it is the preferred candy of the character Doctor Walter Bishop. In the season 2 premiere, " A New Day in the Old Town," he is even seen eating Red Vines while conducting an autopsy. After the TV series was renewed for a fourth season on March 24, 2011, co-star Josh Jackson publicly stated his appreciation of Fringe fans for sending Red Vines to Fox in an effort to campaign for a renewal. The large tub of Red Vines is seen on many episodes of '' Law & Order: SVU'' on Captain Cragen's desk. Red Vines were airdropped into 89th Academy Awards ceremony by host

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967), known professionally as Jimmy Kimmel, is an American television host, comedian, writer, voice actor, and producer. He has been the host and executive producer of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-n ...

. Red Vines is mentioned in an SNL Digital Short from 2005. In the music video " Lazy Sunday," Andy Samberg raps: " Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals crazy delicious." Red Vines are frequently mentioned in Team StarKid's 2010 musical, ''A Very Potter Sequel'', as they are the preferred snack of Ron Weasley. This was later referenced in 2011, when Joey Richter and Joe Walker, two actors from the musical, performed a series of tests on the official Red Vines YouTube channel, to see what Red Vines could and couldn't do. Red Vines is also the name of an

Aimee Mann Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released ten studio albums as a solo artist. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects, often d ...

song from her 1999 album '' Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo''. The chorus talks about "...Cigarettes and Red Vines," as something to occupy one's time while helplessly watching other events. In the '' Parks and Recreation'' episode " Ben's Parents", the characters are divided over whether Red Vines are superior to Twizzlers. In ''

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened o ...

'' episode " He Dead", Red Vines are brought up by

Shawn Spencer Shawn Spencer is a fictional character and main protagonist on the American television comedy-drama ''Psych'' and the sequel film series of the same name played by American actor James Roday Rodriguez. Taking advantage of his eidetic memory a ...

, who asks for individually wrapped Red vines and a laptop (preferably made of Red Vines) as a reward for investigating the murder of Warren Clayton.

References

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External links