It makes me smile and it keeps my teeth clean: the VINTAGE CHEWING GUM poll

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I recently had some Dubble Bubble chewing gum for the first time in a while, and liked it so much I bought a whole bucket of it to keep around. Got me googling and found out it is 95 years old as a product (although the formulation has changed over the years obviously). Anyway, all of these gums have been around since before 1950. Pick yr favorite. Or nominate any pre-1950 brands I've missed, including non-U.S. brands I've never heard of.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Juicy Fruit (1893) 9
Wrigley's Double Mint (1935) 4
Dubble Bubble (1928) 3
Bazooka (1947) 2
Chiclets (1918) 2
Clark's Teaberry (1942) 1
Wrigley's Spearmint (1893) 1
Beeman's (1917) 1
Black Jack (1926) 0
Dentyne (1948) 0


a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:35 (one year ago)

Would love to vote Bazooka (mainly for the comics, that weird turtlenecked guy, what was his deal) but I recall the gum being like a little brick, took forever to get going.

Voting Juicy Fruit, for flavor.

henry s, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:41 (one year ago)

clark's baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FmvrAwoyL0

budo jeru, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:44 (one year ago)

I like the flavor of Bazooka, but it can take a little chewing to get going, for sure.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:44 (one year ago)

RIP Fruit Stripe. Also, I like for Big Red, for nostalgia reasons, but perhaps that's not vintage enough.

budo jeru, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:48 (one year ago)

I was bummed about Fruit Stripe. But yeah, it was 1960 and Big Red is 1975. As a sequel we could poll '70s brands, Bubble Yum/Hubba Bubba/Bubblicious/Big League Chew etc.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:52 (one year ago)

Dubbie Bubble definitely underappreciated compared to its less venerable rival brands. You see it a lot in Major League Baseball dugouts for some reason.

Josefa, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:08 (one year ago)

Chiclets vs. Wrigley's Doublemint for me

Wack Snyder (Eric H.), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:15 (one year ago)

juicy fruit or doublemint

but hubba bubba was my jam as a kid

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:18 (one year ago)

Oh, I left out Clove gum (1914), still available.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:19 (one year ago)

oh yeah! clove is good too

budo jeru, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:20 (one year ago)

Amazing that these are all still going concerns. Once you get a candy off the ground, it is hard to kill it.

henry s, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:38 (one year ago)

sidebar Q: are there any sugar-free bubble gums? Seems like all the sugar-free ones are chewers not blowers

(voted Dubble Bubble which I stay away from now thx to diabeetus)

that's when I reach for my copy of Revolver (WmC), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:42 (one year ago)

Used to be Carefree bubble gum flavor but that entire brand seems to be history

Josefa, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:43 (one year ago)

If we do a 70's era chewing gum poll I am gonna be all over Bub's Daddy. Remember those foot-long sticks of dental destroyers?

henry s, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:54 (one year ago)

At a quick glance for sugar-free bubbles, there's Extra, and it looks like Dubble Bubble does a sugarless variety too.

Not that I understand the molecular wizardry of bubble gum, but I wouldn't think sugar would be a factor in making it blow-able. It seems like it's just flavor-absorbing plastic. But maybe it's harder to get artificial sweeteners to bind to it? No idea.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 18:27 (one year ago)

Bubble Yum used to have a sugarless but I haven’t thought about it in decades so idk if it’s still for sale

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 19:58 (one year ago)

Voted doublemint bc it was my mom’s preferred gum before I started making her buy Chewels

I also thought doublemint was a real thing bc I literally didn’t know that mint was a plant that comes in different varieties. I thought they were all just flavors. Like bubble gum.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:00 (one year ago)

There's been a silent withering of bubblegum -- you barely ever see it on store shelves. I suspect it's tied to the rise of "natural" gums and fears of plastics and artificial flavors, but the ADA vaguely dental chewing gums seem to have escaped that stigma.

Bubble Yum apparently has a mascot that's a duck with a nasal piercing! Take that, bubble tape!

Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:06 (one year ago)

Also stigma against bubble blowing as rude/gross

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:10 (one year ago)

If you can let Nicholson's dated nickname slide, great moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pZYU8OGO6Q&

Developing a real gum addiction recently. I'll go through one of those 60-piece containers in four of five days.

clemenza, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:15 (one year ago)

Chewels, lol. Forgot about that one.

Fruit Stripe was the gum that your friend’s mom might have offered you, maybe something leftover from Halloween, never something you would buy on your own. But it’s sad that it’s gone. We hardly knew ye, Fruit Stripe.

Josefa, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:16 (one year ago)

Juicy fruit of these unless we are talking fruit flavored Chiclets, then it's chiclets.

but never tried beaman's, black jack or teaberry

Deflatormouse, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 02:23 (one year ago)

Black Jack was . . . licorice flavored?

Juicy Fruit ftw. I was gonna post that "Cuckoo's Nest" clip, but it's the gum from my childhood. My mom used to chew it and snap it.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 02:26 (one year ago)

i think beeman’s is clove flavored iirc
also chuck yeager’s gum of choice

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 02:40 (one year ago)

Bazooka but I also have not tried Beemans or Teaberry. The rest of these are pretty awful imo. Wrigley’s WinterFresh, imo

brimstead, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 04:45 (one year ago)

Bazooka did take a lot of jaw power to get going.

Write-in also for the stick they used to put in with sports cards.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 04:48 (one year ago)

juicy fruit was always best if you had a pack in yr pocket & you forgot & your next piece would kinda warm? is that weird to say

also not me forgetting packs in my jeans or jackets and going through the wash
rip all those pieces of gum

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 04:53 (one year ago)

Yes, I totally get that, the warm gum was softer.

I love gum, but stepping on someone else's gum drives me into a blind rage.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 04:54 (one year ago)

the gum in the topps baseball card packs was cardboard-y trash tho i always put it in my mouth anyhoo

i ride w/bazooka joe 4eva

buzza, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 05:34 (one year ago)

Wrigley's Spearmint

Honorable mention:

- Bazooka - Best gum for adding another piece every 10 minutes, rolling and smoothing it against my palate until it looks like a giant pink Superball.

- Beemans

- Clove - There should be more clove candy than just this gum and the purple Necco Wafers.

- Chiclets - Grandma gum--she always had a box of the Peppermint in her purse. I always sucked the candy shell off before biting the gum; I liked that the first taste of the shell was a thin coating of pure sugar before the peppermint flavor kicked in.

Special mention to the paper packet of mixed fruit mini-Chiclets.

i think beeman’s is clove flavored iirc

Pepsin (flavorwise, the midpoint between wintergreen and Pepto Bismal)

the gum in the topps baseball card packs

Or in Wacky Packs for us nerds.

Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 06:15 (one year ago)

https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/2064/2523/07/__57.jpg

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 22:44 (one year ago)

It's a little weird the industry hasn't come up with a gum designed to be swallowed.

Philip Nunez, Thursday, 18 January 2024 00:29 (one year ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 20 January 2024 00:01 (one year ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 21 January 2024 00:01 (one year ago)

130 years old, the winner and still champeen.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 21 January 2024 01:36 (one year ago)

Gums that inspire songs win polls, simple as that.

henry s, Sunday, 21 January 2024 04:32 (one year ago)

Weren't DubbleBubble and Bazooka Joe the same kind of gum?

m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Sunday, 21 January 2024 06:04 (one year ago)

They’re both “bubblegum flavor” and individually wrapped, but different brands and companies.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 21 January 2024 13:22 (one year ago)


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