Local company offers pre-made gelatin shots — and we tried them

You know those television commercials offering a totally unnecessary product by making something super-simple seem impossibly hard? That's the perfect pitch for this product: Show a blond woman with a furrowed brow shaking her head as she spills gelatin powder, burns her hand on a kitchen-safe kettle, sends liquid gelatin spilling all over the counter. Give it one of those fake "old film" treatments, all in black-and-white and with specks of dirt, as if people hand-made gelatin shots some time around the time talkies were invented. And have a narrator say, "Tired of the fuss, the mess, the difficult measuring it takes to make your own gelatin shots? (The blonde nods.) 

Cut to a color shot of the blonde smiling while spending her hard-earned money to buy a box of these puppies: Gélatine Cocktail Shots from Hot Rabbit. The narrator says: "They're no fuss, no mess, with a peel-off top and six flavors you can mix and match!" It ends, of course, with our blond protagonist saying, "Thank you, Hot Rabbit. I'm ready for the Jobby Nooner on time this year!"

Seriously, is it that hard to make Jell-O shots? Is it that desirable to have Jell-O shots? You could pack some of these together with a bottle or two of Mad Dog and call it "My First Irresponsible Drinking Kit," marketing it to kids about to have their first drink: You know, 15-year-olds.

Seriously, though, we did pop these babies in the refrigerator and open them up. They're not a bad version of a gelatin shot, a little bit rubberier than your home-made version. I was able to pull mine out entirely with a toothpick and dine on it at leisure. The 10 percent alcohol content helped make the afternoon pass a bit more quickly.

Also, we note with amusement, this concoction is made in Temperance. 

For more information on these things, see www.hotrabbitshots.com.