Clouds, sponges or hams? The sweet job of baptizing jelly beans

This month, a discussion that is a classic in Spanish social networks has become popular on Twitter: what do you call this bauble?

My girlfriend and I have another discussion.
What do you call this?
RT:
Fav Ham : Cloud
Don't fail me friends pic.twitter.com/iKFBdpJplr

The dispute of the clouds / hams arises from time to time on social networks and usually generates a torrent of responses. Before @ aaronpp14 popularized it again on Twitter - she has more than 7,000 retweets and 47,000 likes since May 16 - others did. The page dedicated to nostalgia I went to EGB, for example, asked the same question on Facebook three years ago, and with the same success: more than 9,000 people answered. It also occurs with licorices (also known as saras, pastas, palotes ...), flash (or polines, or poloflash ...), etc.

Since consumers can't agree on these names, we've asked the companies that make them. How do you name a bauble? What is taken into account when baptizing them? And most importantly: do you know that later the public calls them under different names? Two large jelly makers, Fini and Vidal, tell us what the process is since they choose the name of a bauble ... Until the public arrives and sometimes changes it.

If you are wondering if there is a person dedicated exclusively to naming sweets to leave everything behind and dedicate yourself to it, the answer is: no. Both from Fini and from Vidal explain that it is a process in which many company workers participate. "At Fini we decide on the names at the news meetings, which take place once a month and in which people from the marketing, R&D, management department participate ...", tells Verne Marta Casado by phone , marketing director of the company.

Several candidate names come to that meeting and, according to Casado, "it is democratically chosen" which will be the one that will finally have in the market. In this meeting, of course, eating sweets is welcome: the vote is made after having seen and eaten the goodies that are going to be named. "We do as when a child is born, sometimes we had a name in mind and when we look at it we say: it does not have the face to be called that," says the marketing director.

The name proposals can come from any department. "It is a horizontal process and very little hierarchical, everything is debatable and defensible," explains Casado. As an example, he says that the name of one of the most identifiable products of the brand was the idea of ​​Antonio Andrés Sánchez Bernal, owner and President of the company: the Camel Balls, the chewing gum balls filled with liquid caramel.

There are no two without three 🤷🏽‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/ip46Oc6n8Z

And what is valued to baptize a candy? José Ramón Pastor, commercial and marketing director of Vidal, lists by email to Verne some of the factors that they take into account or that may serve as inspiration:

Asked about the specific case of the delicacy known as a cloud or ham, Vidal tells us about his particular experience: “When we started producing marshmallows [original name of this delicacy, which comes from the United States] they were already known to the public as clouds , due to its light and soft characteristic, like touching a little piece of heaven, ”says Pastor. “We continue the trend by naming that generic product as a cloud, although the official name of those produced in Vidal was Churumbito Fantasía [...]. A name change was made recently and all of our marshmallow are under the Dulcinubes brand. ” Pastor affirms that he does not know the origin of the name "ham" to refer to this sweet, although some users on Twitter affirm that it is for its color, much more similar to that of york ham than that of a cloud.

Why do we have different names for the same product?

Both Fini and Vidal are aware that, regardless of the name they put on a jelly bean, some products end up being renamed by consumers. The most popular case is that of the aforementioned clouds, which in many areas of northern Spain are known as hams and, in the south, as sponges, but there are more. From Fini they put another example from their own catalog: octopuses. “Whenever we post a publication about them, we get responses from surprised people because they have always been called spiders,” says Marta Casado.

all my life thinking they were spiders ... 😨😨

What is going to be an Octopus ... God, you are breaking my childhood ... my family had a chuck shop ..

But, What are you telling me!! They were colored spiders !! # we have been deceived !! 😱

José Ramón Pastor, from Vidal, explains that these name changes occur due to the way in which sweets have traditionally been sold in kiosks and bazaars: in candy bars, in bulk and without visible marking. "Many customers have known them by their generic name or the most widespread among consumers, instead of the name that each manufacturer assigns to it," he explains. Continuing with the clouds, in Vidal they have been traditionally called churumbitos and currently appear in the catalog as Dulcinubes, while Fini calls them Sponges. And you, probably, clouds or hams. Or sponges. Or marshmallows . Or marshmallows. Or "give me two of those and don't give me a bag, I'm going to eat them now." They'll be just as good to you.

Before rushing to your nearest store because you've gotten a tremendous hunger reading this, don't leave us in doubt. What do you call them

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