Chewing Gum: Its History and Types

Chewing Gum is a mixture of natural or synthetic gums and resins, sweetened with sugar and corn syrup or any other sweeteners. Also added is color and flavors such as, Watermelon (everybody's favorite), grape, orange, cherry, raspberry, Strawberry, even pineapple. The first chewing gum was patented was in 1869.

The basic material for all chewing gum is the natural gum called Chicle. It is obtained from the sapodilla tree. Chicle is kind of expensive and hard to buy. Now they are trying different ways to make gum without using chicle. They found a substance called polyvinylacetate, it has been widely used in many products instead if chicle.

When chewing gum is manufactured it is melted, washed, and filtered when it is still in the crude state. Then the gum is blended with other natural and synthetic resins, waxes, and plasticizers. They are added to control the stickiness and chewing characteristics. The compound is heated, mixed into uniform, cooled, and made into block shapes. Now it is packaged and is ready to sell.

Chewing gum starts with a mix of 22%-25% gum base, 50%- 60% powdered sugar, 12%-20% corn syrup, and 1%-2% colors and flavors. Then it is heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, thoroughly blended, then cooled and put on to a belt, rolled to the right thickness, then cut, wrapped, and packaged. Bubble gum is a lot different than regular gum because it is made with more rubber latex for greater strength.

Sugar coated gum is made by whirling small cubes in copper pans with sugar syrup, powdered sugar, color, and flavor. This mixture makes the colorful sugar shell. Substituting sugar alcohols for plain sugar makes sugarless gums. Some examples of sugar alcohols are xylitol, Mannitol, and Sorbitol.

Popular new types of chewing gum include a soft chunk bubble gum, which has a better bubble blowing consistency, and a chunk gum filled with flavored liquid. The chewing gum sales totaled about $796 million in 1981.

For my experiment I took a piece of gum and chewed it for one minute. Then I blew five bubbles and recorded each one. After I have done five of them I took the top two and averaged them together. I only took the top two because it could have been my fault that the bubble wasn't that big. The materials that I will need are five packs of gum and a ruler to measure the size of the bubble. The first gum I used was Fruit-a-burst because I knew that it wouldn't do very well. It only got 2 inches big. The second I did was Big Red also because I knew that it wouldn't do very well. That only got about a half an inch. I could barely get a bubble at all with big red. The third one I did was Bubble Yum. That did all right and I blew about a three and one fourth inch bubble. Next was Bubblicious. I blew a couple of pretty big ones with that. Up to four and one half inches with Bubblicious. Next I used Hubba Bubba. That came close to Bubblicious. It got four inches big. I was right when I said that Bubblicious would get the biggest bubble. I thought that bubble yum would be in second though but it wasn't. In the second experiment I take the same kinds of gum and time how long they will last.

The materials that I will need are five packs of gum, a stopwatch, and a Television. I need the television so I don't get bored while I am chewing the gum.

The first gum that I used was Big Red. I chose it because I thought it wouldn't do very well. It did do the worst with only seventeen minutes. The second one I used was fruit-a-burst. It was one of the best ones with twenty-five minutes. When I was done with that I tried Bubblicious. It did pretty well with twenty-two minutes. Fourth I used Bubble yum. It did the best with twenty-seven minutes. Last I used Hubba Bubba. It only got nineteen minutes.

I guessed right again. I thought that Bubble Yum would last the longest just because their website had me convinced that it would last the longest.

There are many different types of chewing gum. The gum industry is trying to lure us in with these gum Checkbooks and gum wallets. They even have gum cellular Phones now. They are trying to get all these little kids to wine to their parents so they can get that gum CD player. I think that all of those are pretty stupid.

With all these different kinds of bubble gum that you can get, I personally think that Fruit-a-burst gum is the best gum to have in school. It has great taste but it doesn't have the best bubble blowing ability, but you don't need that because you can't blow bubbles in class. The Bubble gum CD player and cellular phone didn't do very well because they cost too much. While you are sitting at home I think that bubblicous is the best because it has good taste and you can blow good bubbles with it.