Chewing Gum and Bubble Gum
Chewing gum and bubble gum.
Have you ever chewed a piece of gum? If you have, have you ever wondered what was in it? What could make this texture and consistency? Who came up with such a thing? I know I have! Can you believe that chewing gum can be traced back 5,000 years ago?! I thought chewing gum was just created a hundred or two hundred years ago!
Chewing gum Creating chewing gum is a short process. Gum production starts with menthol crystals and peppermint oil stirred together. Next beads made out of a tasteless rubber and wax combination is added to the mix, this forms the chewing gums elastic base. When chewing gum was first created it was all made from resin, now it’s usually artificial. Scientist discovered that adding Xylitol to chewing gum decreases the acid levels, and therefore creating less decay. Xylitol is also added to the mix along with some artificial sweetener. After some more mixing, more peppermint is added. When all of this is mixed it looks like chewing gum after being chewed. Before the gum can be hardened it needs to be cut into indivual pieces and coated with liquid and powder which created that hard sweet coating.
Chewing gum back then didn’t look like the chewing gum we see in this day and age. The Aztecs used Chicle to make the substance for their gum. Chicle is a tropical tree found in Mexico and Central America. There were also forms of chewing gum in Greece. Greeks and American Indians chewed resin made from sap of spruce trees. Gum really started being recognized in New England. Tribesmen of New England used to chew on a substance similar to gum that came from the pulp of a spruce tree to keep their whistles wet on long hikes. This spread quickly through New England but surprisingly it took a hundred years or so before someone came to claim this creation as their own and receive the profit. In 1844 a man named John Curtis started a shop in Maine manufacturing “State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum” from a stove-top plant. At
Have you ever chewed a piece of gum? If you have, have you ever wondered what was in it? What could make this texture and consistency? Who came up with such a thing? I know I have! Can you believe that chewing gum can be traced back 5,000 years ago?! I thought chewing gum was just created a hundred or two hundred years ago!
Chewing gum Creating chewing gum is a short process. Gum production starts with menthol crystals and peppermint oil stirred together. Next beads made out of a tasteless rubber and wax combination is added to the mix, this forms the chewing gums elastic base. When chewing gum was first created it was all made from resin, now it’s usually artificial. Scientist discovered that adding Xylitol to chewing gum decreases the acid levels, and therefore creating less decay. Xylitol is also added to the mix along with some artificial sweetener. After some more mixing, more peppermint is added. When all of this is mixed it looks like chewing gum after being chewed. Before the gum can be hardened it needs to be cut into indivual pieces and coated with liquid and powder which created that hard sweet coating.
Chewing gum back then didn’t look like the chewing gum we see in this day and age. The Aztecs used Chicle to make the substance for their gum. Chicle is a tropical tree found in Mexico and Central America. There were also forms of chewing gum in Greece. Greeks and American Indians chewed resin made from sap of spruce trees. Gum really started being recognized in New England. Tribesmen of New England used to chew on a substance similar to gum that came from the pulp of a spruce tree to keep their whistles wet on long hikes. This spread quickly through New England but surprisingly it took a hundred years or so before someone came to claim this creation as their own and receive the profit. In 1844 a man named John Curtis started a shop in Maine manufacturing “State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum” from a stove-top plant. At