As a kid, gumballs were a staple of my candy diet. But they weren’t just any gumballs, like those generic ones you got out of candy machines for a quarter. They were Rain-Blo gumballs.
They came in that little cellophane tube, perfect for squeezing out one at a time into your mouth. Then, as now, they came in mini, regular and “Jum-Blo” sizes, and were available in several flavor varieties, including a fruit mix in which the gumballs were actually shaped like little fruits. This wasn’t as cool as it sounds, as most of the flavors had just been given a pebbled surface, with the exception of the green watermelon’s stylish stripes. There was also an uber-sour variety called Eye Poppers, upon which I blame my adult addiction to everything ridiculously sour.
Rain-Blo also makes jawbreakers with, naturally, a gum center. I guess when you have a spherical candy as your main product, the natural next step is to pan a few layers of hard candy around the outside of it and make a jawbreaker. I remember that no matter what the original color, they always ended up tasting like wintergreen, and every fifth one or so had a weird harsh chemical taste, but somehow I couldn’t get enough of them anyway. (Hey, I like wintergreen – so sue me!)
