CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week’s Made in Chicago highlights Rbel Bee Sweets, a honey snack brand that shows candy can break away from refined sugars and artificial ingredients.
“We believe that honey is better than sugar, basically, so everything we make has honey as a central focus,” said Joline Rivera, the founder of Rbel Bee Sweets.
Rivera started making gummies in her kitchen before moving into the Hatchery, a local business incubator space on the West Side.
“I have insulin resistance, and I was borderline Type 2 diabetes — and I wanted my candy,” she said. “My doctor said, ‘You can’t have refined sugar, but you can have honey.’ I decided there was a better way to make candy, so I set out to make healthy candy when everybody told me I couldn’t.”
Rivera said Rbel Bee Sweets sources some of the product’s main ingredient from bee farms in Colorado, but they also produce their own honey.
“We produce about … 1,800 kilograms every summer,” she said. “It’s quite a bit.”
WBBM ran into Rivera at a busy convention showcasing local products downtown, but she said Rbel Bee Sweets, founded in 2021, can also be found in stores throughout the Midwest, in California and online.
“No refined sugar,” Rivera said. “No artificial flavors or colors, and no corn syrup, and also no oil. Rbel Bee Sweets are made with all whole, functional foods.”
She said Poma Punch and Wild Child Cherry are the two main flavors of Rbel Bee Sweets honey gummies, and there’s also a CBD gummy option.
“We produce a honey called red belly honey,” she said. “Red belly honey is naturally infused with CBD by bees, so I always say to people, ‘We know there’s CBD in our honey, but we didn’t do it — the bees did.”
If folks happen to eat the whole bag of Rbel Bee Sweets, Rivera noted that it’s just 80 calories.
“I think that’s important because as a woman, I always felt guilty eating candy,” Rivera said. “Now, that guilt is gone.”
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