Ah gummy worms, that bastion of candy.  As far as I know, gummy worms are exactly like gummy bears, except in a different shape.  Although gummy bears were invented in the 1920s or thereabouts, it wasn't until the 1980s that the gummy worm was invented.  The first gummy worm was the Brite Trawler, produced by Trolli.  

This heralded the beginning of a "gross out" phase in gummy candy.  I remember a teacher once admonished me for eating a black licorice gummy rat in class once.  It was apparently just a little too gruesome and distracting as she was trying to teach.  At the time I thought it was funny and cool - my candy even grossed out the teacher!  But now I just feel kind of bad for her.  What kind of person sits there eating a giant black gummy rat in the middle of class?

I have to confess, I remember that junior high incident whenever I spy a gummy rat.  And now that I'm "a little" older, I really have no interest in eating a gummy rat, or a gummy spider, or a gummy snake, or of the other fine and revolting gummy products that come out in October.

After that initial push in the 1980s, the gross out gummies seem to be confined mainly to Halloween.  Strange that the gummy worm is the only gross-out gummy candy shape to have persisted year round.  While you are eating a gummy worm, it's probably best not to reflect on the conjunction of "giant earthworm" and the long gummy candy you're noshing upon.

One interesting fall-out from that time is that gummy candies now come in a variety of shapes, although they are universally non-threatening.  At the bulk bins I could choose between gummy sharks, gummy birds, various fruit rings, dinosaurs, turtles, frogs, and more.  

Anyway, now that I'm an adult, I can appreciate some of the more subtle charms of the gummy worm.  The flavor is nothing to write home about.  I would compare it most closely to the flavor of 7-Up.  It's a gentle fruit flavor, with slight variations from one color of worm to the next, but nothing with any real impact.  

The real benefit that gummy worms have over gummy bears is in their size.  The larger gummy worm is probably about the same size as six or seven gummy bears.  (I'm just guessing here, although now I'm kicking myself for not having bought some gummy bears to compare.)  You get a lot of chewability in a gummy worm, which tucks nicely into your jaw without being too large or annoyingly small.

You can get a lot of different kinds of gummy worms these days.  Sour Patch worms have proven to be pretty popular, although I don't personally care for the sour candies.  Apparently you can even find vegan gummy worms, which are made with pectin instead of the gelatin that is used for regular gummy worms.  My searching also turned up an "all natural" version of the gummy worm, which is made with organic sweeteners instead of corn syrup.