Happy Thought for 30 October, 2026

Have a Happy Thought:

Sometimes, but not always, you can judge the proverbial book by the proverbial cover.

 

Specifically, candy that tastes delicious often looks very pretty.

Even more specifically, Jolly Ranchers have both vivid colours and flavours (and yes I recognise the irony of using the UK/NZ spelling of words to describe a very American candy).

In fact, Jolly Ranchers’ colouring is so vivid that most of the flavours fluoresce under UV light – like those brand new white shoes or even your freshly brushed teeth under a blacklight.

 

Take Blue Raspberry flavour. In “normal” light, it is blue. But put it under UV light, and it shines a bright pink.


Image: Janelle Shane: "Blue raspberry Jolly Rancher h…" - The Wandering Shop

 

 

Here’s five flavours shown under UV light (top image) and then under normal lighting conditions (bottom image).

Image: Janelle Shane: "It turns out Jolly Ranchers ar…" - The Wandering Shop

 

What’s really fun is that a few of the flavours, like grape, continue to fluoresce even after the UV light is taken away – like a glow-in-the-dark t-shirt from the early 1990’s.

To see video of this, hop on over to this site to watch the videos: Jolly Rancher fluorescence.

Image: t-shirt for the band KISS from 1990

 

This does raise the question of why these candies fluoresce (glow under UV light). It’s because of the dyes that make them such pretty colours in the first place. And it’s probably the fact that they fluoresce that make them have such bright bold colours even in normal daylight (because of the UV contained in everyday sunlight).

 

Bonus fact: the original company that made Jolly Ranchers started out as an ice cream store in Colorado, that branched out into other sweets because it was too hard to sell ice cream during a Colorado winter.

 

Image: Aspen, Colorado in the wintertime. Credit: Original Aspen gallery

 

 

Thanks to Janelle Shane of the AI Wierdness blog and author of “You Look Like a Thing and I Love You” for bringing this to us.

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