Jell-O Shots Are Out; Boozy Jelly Cakes Are In

Post-college, Jell-O shots are often treated like your old Myspace page — better left in the past. They're cheap (currently $1.50 for a 6-ounce Jell-O package at Dollar General) and the high sugar content works to mask the taste of inexpensive alcohol. But the artificial flavor isn't exactly worthy of a five-star cocktail. Trying to eat Jell-O shots from a flimsy plastic cup often leads to sticky fingers and awkward attempts to get the gelatin out using your mouth.

Enter boozy jelly cakes, a sophisticated evolution of the Jell-O shot with all the same fun, a major upgrade in taste, and none of the plastic cup messiness. Solid Wiggles, which was founded in Brooklyn, New York, by pastry chef Jena Derman and master mixologist Jack Schramm, has created gelatin-based alcoholic treats that look like they belong in an art museum or behind a glass case in a bakery.

Rather than being served as shots in individual plastic cups, Solid Wiggles' creations are made as large-format cakes, which are then cut into individual shots for serving. The unique form factor and beautiful aesthetics aren't the only things that set these jellies apart; they're also made with higher-quality ingredients. All in all, they're a major upgrade over your college Jell-O shots.

Quality comes at a price; in this case, it's $114.95 for one of Solid Wiggles 6-inch jelly cakes with free U.S. shipping via Goldbelly. If that seems steep, consider your college Jell-O shots didn't have Jack Schramm's touch. With years of experience as head bartender at top New York City bars Existing Conditions and Booker and Dax, he uses innovative techniques like milk-washing and clarifying juices to create next-level flavors.

Schramm and Jena Derman carefully choose each ingredient for their jelly cakes, including organic fruit purees and small-batch spirits from local New York distilleries including Supergay Spirits and Faccio Brutto Spirits. The company's jelly cakes feature another thing you've probably never seen in your Jell-O recipes: intricate designs of flower petals and geometric patterns. The duo uses syringes to inject milk jelly into the gelatin, creating shapes in each hand-crafted jelly cake.

These boozy jelly cakes are 5% alcohol by volume, roughly equivalent to the alcohol content of a standard beer. This means that while they pack a pleasant punch, they're not overly strong, so you can enjoy the taste and the slight buzz without being overwhelmed by the alcohol. 

Another hot trend in the Jell-O shot world is making people question whether the shot counts as food or a cocktail. If you browse the snack menu at Café Mars in Brooklyn, New York, for example, you'll find Jell-Olives, which look like a Halloween googly eye (really a Castelvetrano olive) floating inside a blood-red block of Negroni cocktail jelly. In 2023, the fruit basket menu item at Washington D.C.'s Silver Lyan was all the rage, featuring lemon wedges that looked so real you'd never guess they were Jell-O shots.

Being extra makes anything more interesting, and that's the idea Oma's Hideaway in Portland, Oregon, is embracing with its Jell-O shots. The classic way to extra-fy a dish? Add edible glitter and boba. You'll find both atop the restaurant's tropical-flavored Jell-O shot. If you're feeling fancy, head to White Limozeen, a rooftop bar in Nashville, Tennessee, for its eponymous champagne Jell-O shot. These shots come in brownie-sized pieces and are covered in carbonated crystal candy for an added burst of fun and flavor. While the plastic cup Jell-O shots of our college days are out, these new, creative, and classy boozy jelly shots are very clearly in — all shapes, sizes, and sparkles included.