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Friday, September 11, 2015

Bubblicious Cotton Candy

I’m a big bubble gum fan, though not much of a chewer. I’m a purist, I like my bubble gum to be the traditional bubble gum flavor. I saw this Cotton Candy Bubblicious at the beginning of summer, though, and thought it was a splendid idea for a gum flavor.

DSC_9365rb

The pieces are ridiculously blue, the package design is wonderfully summery, and it all smells like an air freshener designed for a child’s room.

The lightly strawberry sweet scent is strong enough that I new which room I’d left this package in without even looking. It’s not chemically or unappealing, though it doesn’t necessarily smell like food.

The pieces were easy to open from the little paper wrappers and soft. The easy chew was very sweet with less of the strawberry or cotton candy notes and more of just a clean sweeteness.

However, as the sugar in the chew dissipated, I was left with the taste of the gum base, which is rather like some door mats I got at Ikea. It’s just a touch of asphalt with the berry. The longer I chewed, the more that note came out, until I was pretty sure it was a sign that the whole thing had turned into a big tar ball. Nope, when I took it out of my mouth, it was just a piece of blue gum.

So, if you’re looking for some room freshener that looks like blocks of sidewalk chalk that you’re not going to chew, these are great. But even for the type of person who chews the gum until the sugar is gone, the awful aftertaste is too much.

Related Candies

  1. Candyology 101 - Podcast Episode 19 - Summer Flavors
  2. Mike and Ike Cotton Candy
  3. Bubble Gum Flavored Peeps
  4. Elmer Cotton Candy Marshmallow Eggs
  5. Festival HiCHEW: Candied Apple & Cotton Candy
  6. Three Pink Bubble Gums
  7. Dubble Bubble Fluff


Name: Bubblicious Cotton Candy
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: Rocket Fizz (Glendale)
Price: $1.50
Size: 1.2 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Cadbury, Gum, 4-Benign, Canada

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:40 am     CandyReviewCadburyGum4-BenignCanada

Friday, January 16, 2015

Glee Lemon-Lime and Spearmint

I was traveling earlier this week. I went to San Francisco to the Fancy Food Show. Though I drove, I still carried some gums with me, as driving over a few of the passes make my ears pop and the drive can be monotonous.

Glee Gum is made with natural chicle and natural colorings, quite rare on the market these days.

DSC_7665rb
Glee Sugar-Free Lemon-Lime Gum

The chew is soft, the candy shell has a crispness that doesn’t last long. It’s not a thick shell that makes little crunchies in the gum, it dissolves quickly. The flavor is sweet with a mild but indistinct citrus note to it. It’s kind of like a lemon chamomile tea. The sweetness fades quickly, though it is rather cool on the tongue for a while, as most xylitol candies and gums are. The zest continues, and gets a little more intense after about 4 or 5 minutes ... then I think the gum is done as far as the flavor goes. The chew is still good, in fact, I prefer the chew of the sugarless Glee to the sugared kind ... it’s slightly stiffer and doesn’t stick as much.

After chewing the gum, about a half an hour later, I thought my mouth was still rather fresh feeling. Not a lingering mint, but just a sort of jasmine tea freshness. The citrus doesn’t go well with coffee, but for getting rid of coffee breath, it’s pretty good. Xylitol, as a sweetener, is actually good for dental health, so I’m trying to get into the habit of chewing in the afternoon to freshen up my mouth.

DSC_7666rb
Glee Spearmint Gum

Spearmint is a largely underutilized flavor in the confectionery world. Peppermint is the default, though as herbs go, spearmint is far more ubiquitous and easier to grow. The dark green pieces are naturally colored and quite appealing. They don’t smell like much, it’s not like sticking your nose in a half-emptied packet of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum, which always smelled so fresh.

The shell on the sugary variety is a little crunchier, though not by much. The flavor of the spearmint is mild and pleasant, but not overt like an Altoid. The chew is soft, though it stiffens up and gets a little bit sticky at times as the minutes pass. I was able to manage some moderate bubbles at time, though I was much better at cracking my gum with this version.

The sugar faded away within minutes, though the herbal and grassy spearmint notes hung around for quite a while after. After discarding the gum, the minty freshness dissipated within about 5 minutes.

When I first tried Glee Gum years ago, I didn’t care much for it. It’s certainly grown on me and it’s become my go-to gum for traveling. Partly because of the natural ingredients and partly because I like the chiclet style and simplicity of the boxes.

Related Candies

  1. Simply Gum: Fennel Licorice
  2. PUR Sugarless Gum - Coolmint & Cinnamon
  3. Tree Hugger Bubble Gum
  4. Wee Glee Gum
  5. Eat with Your Eyes: Black Licorice
  6. Choward’s Spearmint & Lemon
  7. Mentos Xtrm: Mint & Spearmint
  8. No Time & Black Black
  9. Glee Gum: If You Like Stuff Stuck to Your Teeth


Name: Lemon Lime Sugar Free Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Verve
Place Purchased: Cost Plus World Market (Farmers Market)
Price: $1.25
Size: 1 ounce
Calories per ounce: 62
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Verve Inc, Gum, Kosher, Sugar Free, 7-Worth It, United States, Cost Plus


Name: Spearmint Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Verve
Place Purchased: Cost Plus World Market (Farmers Market)
Price: $1.25
Size: 1 ounce
Calories per ounce: 90
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Verve Inc, Gum, Kosher, Mints, 7-Worth It, United States, Cost Plus

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:44 pm     All NaturalCandyReviewVerve IncGumKosherMints7-Worth ItUnited StatesCost Plus

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Candyology 101 - Podcast Episode 3 - Chewing Gum

Candyology101-Gum-v1

In this episode Lauren, Maria and I are taking on chewing gum, all its variations and waxing nostalgic about the gums of our youth.

Listen now:

You can also download the MP3 file, subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher.

Check out all the links & show notes on the Candyology 101 website.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:09 pm     CandyGumHighlightFun StuffRadio Interviews

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Dubble Bubble Snow Balls

DSC_7418rbChristmas candy is mostly about peppermint and chocolate and shiny colored foil wrapping. Holiday gum is rather unusual, so I was pleased to see Concord Confections part of the Tootsie Roll company has a variety for winter: Dubble Bubble Snow Balls.

I enjoy novelty gums for the same reason I enjoy other candy coated morsels: they’re fun to look at before eating. The Snow Balls are extremely cute. Each is the size of a garbanzo bean and rattle around easily in the theater size box. What I also liked about this particular gum was that they were white ... there was no artificial coloring (though there is titanium dioxide as a whitener), so I didn’t have to worry about anything getting into the flavor except what they intended as the flavor. The gum is made with sugar and corn syrup with no artificial sweeteners.

DSC_7450rb

The pieces are beautiful. They’re rough and white and though spherical, they don’t roll around. The bite was wonderfully soft and easy to chew, but the flavor is ... well, it’s kind of like fabric softener at first. It’s floral - somewhere in the neighborhood of violet and maybe musk. After chewing (two pieces seemed like a good portion), the crunchy shell and gum base were very soft. However, within a minute, the sugar dissipated to the point that the gum was getting quite stiff ... another two minutes and it was an unchewable lump that was less appealing than a wad of paper. My style is to switch out at that point anyway, so I just spit out the first piece and repeat.

Now, since this was bubble gum, I should comment on those qualities. It works. The bubbles can’t get that big, as the gum base is too stiff and unforgiving. But it’s not particularly sticky, which is a plus. But it’s most definitely not bubble gum flavored, and any children you give this to might be turned off by the soapy notes.

After chewing, even a half hour later, I did notice a lingering floral taste in my mouth, rather like jasmine tea.

Dubble Bubble is peanut free and gluten free ... and in this instance is also free from dyes but may contain traces of soy. The gumballs are made in Canada.

Related Candies

  1. Bubble Gum Flavored Peeps
  2. Dubble Bubble Gum Cigars
  3. Musk Beechies Chewing Gum
  4. Ball Gum Balls (Football & Tennis)
  5. Jumbo Gum Ball Eggs
  6. Dubble Bubble Chick Eggs


Name: Snow Balls Bubble Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Tootsie
Place Purchased: Walgreen's (Glendale)
Price: $1.79
Size: 2.32 ounces
Calories per ounce: 116
Categories: Candy, Christmas, Concord Confections, Tootsie, Gum, 4-Benign, Canada, Walgreen's

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:31 pm     CandyReviewChristmasConcord ConfectionsTootsieGum4-BenignCanadaWalgreen's

Monday, November 17, 2014

Simply Gum: Fennel Licorice

Simply Gum FennelI feel like there is a perfect gum out there for me, I just haven’t found it yet. So when I saw Simply Gum at the checkout at Lolli & Pops one afternoon, I bought it on impulse just because of the name of the flavor: Fennel Licorice.

Upon further reading I saw that there was more going on here than just the unusual flavor and enticing package. Simply Gum is made with real chicle instead of synthetic gum base along with organic sugar and glycerine.

DSC_7248rb

The packaging is spare and thoughtful. Inside the flip top, there’s a little sleeve that holds “post chew wraps”, so even thought the pieces don’t come in little papers, there are papers to responsibly dispose of your gum when you’re through.

Though the box is square and the nuggets inside fill the package, after I dumped them out for photographing, I found that there was a spacer bit at the bottom. As if they’d either originally specified more gum in the box but later decided for less but didn’t want to change the package, or it’s just intended to mislead the consumer. The box only says 12 pieces (there were actually 18 in my box but they’re not consistently sized), but never says how big each piece is, the weight I came up with in the stats box is from weighing the pieces.

DSC_7249rb

The nuggets are just that, a rope of the brown-sugar hued gum is snipped into pieces. They’re a little smaller than a regular portion of gum, but not by half. When I chewed it, I wanted maybe 1.5 times as much.

The pieces don’t stick together, they have a little rice powder on them (kind of like a corn starch). They smell like fennel, just like sticking your nose in a bottle of fennel seed. The chew releases the sweetness quickly, and instead of becoming more firm, like most gums do, this became thinner. It was too thin really. It’s like riding a bike in the wrong gear, my jaw is going too fast for this gum. I’m just spinning and the gum is squishing around.

Aside from the texture, I love the flavor. It was earthy and substantial. The licorice flavors weren’t overly sweet or metallic. The mineral notes weren’t rusty. Instead it tasted rather of beets. I felt like it freshened my mouth, yet still went well with coffee or tea. The flavor lasted quite long and though the sugar was gone, fennel and licorice have a natural sweetness that lingers. But the gum base was just too squishy.

So, if you’ve been looking for an all natural gum that chews better with a glass of iced tea than hot tea ... well, this is your gum. I might try another flavor, like Maple, just in case the particular batch I got was anomalous. However, it’s pretty expensive, at $3.50 a box.

Related Candies

  1. PUR Sugarless Gum - Coolmint & Cinnamon
  2. Glee Sugar Free Gum
  3. Fruit Stripe Gum
  4. Hollywood Chewing Gum
  5. Wee Glee Gum
  6. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
  7. Sugar Coated Fennel
  8. Short & Sweet: Gums


Name: Fennel Licorice Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Simply Gum
Place Purchased: Lolli & Pops (Glendale)
Price: $3.50
Size: .45 ounces
Calories per ounce: 80
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Gum, Licorice Candy, Organic, 6-Tempting, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:57 am     All NaturalCandyReviewGumLicorice CandyOrganic6-TemptingUnited States

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Eat with your Eyes: Fruity Gumballs

Filled Fruit Gumballs

I’m always attracted to these beautifully crafted gumballs at the mall in the vending machines. I finally broke down and bought some, just because they’re so pretty. I’m not going to review them because, well, they weren’t good enough to even warrant 300 words.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:26 am     CandyGumHighlightPhotography

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

PUR Sugarless Gum - Coolmint & Cinnamon

Pur Sugarless Gum - Cinnamon & CoolmintI’m a bit of a picky chewer, when it comes to gum. Part of it may be that I’m just such a minority in my tastes that it’s not profitable to make the kind of gum I might like.

I mostly chew gum made with sugar, not because I necessarily want sugar in my gum, but because it’s so hard to find sugar free gum that’s not made with artificial sweeteners like aspartame (NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame potassium (AceK) and saccharine. It’s very rare to find a gum like the PUR line that is sugarless but also made only with xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol. Xylitol has been around for years and is often used in sugar free mints and gums, though usually in combination with artificial sweeteners. It has a light ans sweet note to it, but like most sugar alcohols, it also has an odd cooling effect on the tongue (which is usually a desirable feature for mints).

The PUR Gum is is gluten free, nut free, dairy free, vegan and free of GMO ingredients. I’ve tried the other flavors that were introduced when the gum line launched about three years ago:  Peppermint, Spearmint and Pomegranate Mint. I liked them quite a bit, though they’re not easy to find.

Coolmint Pur Gum

The pieces are simple chiclets, rounded rectangular pieces, a little rustic and uneven, measuring about 3/4 of an inch long and about 1/3 of an inch wide. A serving, for me, is two pieces. (With actual Chiclets it’s usually 3 pieces at a time.)

The chew is very soft at first, with a very cool note on top and a strong sweetness before the other flavors kick in. The sweetness is not the same as sugar, it’s less round, cool on the tongue and rather slippery.

The flavor is very odd. At first it was a bit on the wintergreen side, which some people find medicinal ... or repulsive. There are other notes to it, a little hint of eucalyptus and then another more balsam note, it reminded me of mastic, which is a resin that’s also used a chewing gum in the Mediterranean. (If you’ve never had mastic, it’s also similar in its flavor profile to tea tree oil, which is not meant to be eaten but is found in many natural personal care products.)

The wintergreen notes dissolve away and all that seemed to be left was that sort of resin note with a hint of something like jasmine tea. It’s pleasant, at least for me and did definitely freshen my mouth after eating some curry for lunch.

Cinnamon Pur Gum

Cinnamon is predictable and comforting. It’s woodsy and a little on the clove side of spicy, but has a wonderful warming hotness to it. The intense and rounded flavors dissipate pretty quickly, but the lingering flavor is just sweet and with the lightest tough of cinnamon.

There’s no weird bitter note, either, which I think is often caused by artificial colors. There are no colors here, so it’s all about the gum flavor. The xylitol sweetness lasts for a while, I’d say the pieces are satisfying for about 15 minutes. After I tossed the gum, I still had that lingering warmth of the cinnamon for at least a half an hour. It definitely cut through coffee breath.

I’d probably still stick with the Peppermint (from the original review) for a gum to keep in my desk, but for travel, I think I would go with the Coolmint because I really felt like chewing the pieces longer than the other flavors. It’s a little expensive and the packaging takes up a lot of space for such a small amount of gum. (I might like it if the blister pack was scored so I could just tear off a few of them to keep them in my little case that I take on airplanes.)

The gum is not easy to find, and not cheap. I’ve seen it at natural food stores and grocers, such as Sprouts and Erewhon.

Related Candies

  1. Oak Leaf Refresh Triple Mint Chewing Gum
  2. Glee Sugar Free Gum
  3. Tree Hugger Bubble Gum
  4. Hollywood Chewing Gum
  5. PUR Gum: Xylitol Sweetened
  6. Wee Glee Gum
  7. Mentos Cinnamon
  8. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
  9. Canada Wintergreen


Name: PUR Gum: Coolmint & Cinnamon
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Frey
Place Purchased: samples from Pur Gum
Price: $1.75
Size: .44 ounces (9 pieces)
Calories per ounce: 101
Categories: Candy, Frey, Gum, 7-Worth It, Canada

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:04 pm     CandyReviewFreyCinnamonGumMints7-Worth ItCanada

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Oak Leaf Refresh Triple Mint Chewing Gum

Oak Leaf Mint GumsI don’t chew gum often, but when I do, I chew it a lot. It’s particularly hard to find gum that’s still sweetened with only sugar and not artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucarlose. I enjoy gum as a candy, which means that I chew all the sugar out of it and before the flavor has much chance to fade, I swap that piece out for a fresh one. (It’s probably a style of consumption that gum companies should welcome.)

I love chiclet style gum because primarily because it’s attractive, but also because it has texture to it; the crunchy shell has its own flavor and goes with the pleasing experience of chewing until the sugar is depleted. I can line up the pieces like Skittles or M&Ms on my keyboard. I got a huge sample bag of Oakleaf Refresh Triple Mint Chewing Gum from SweetWorks late last year and have been making my way through the bag. This is the kind of gum you’d find in a quarter twist vending machine, a little handful of pieces for some of the change in your pocket.

Wintergreen - these white pieces have little speckles of blue on them, some of the time. The flavor is clean and soft, with a good note of wintergreen. It’s not overpowering, but definitely strong enough that others nearby may think you’ve been rubbing lineament into your joints. There’s a little numbing tingle towards the end, as wintergreen can have that sort of effect. The flavor lasted longer than the sugar, but did taste a lot more medicinal after the sugar was gone.

Oak Leaf Mint Gums

Peppermint - is a nice medium blue. I don’t really need this much food coloring in my gum, as the point of minty gums is to act as a bit of a digestive but mostly to freshen my breath.  don’t want my tongue looking blue when I’m done with it. It’s fresh, it’s not terribly strong but very sweet. I found it comforting but not challenging.

Spearmint is a pretty rare flavor in gum these days, so it’s nice to see it here. It’s green, for some reason spearmint is green and peppermint is blue (or red and white). The flavor is good, it’s peppery at first and quite strong, but mellows out after chewing and mixing with the sugar.

Of the three flavors, I preferred the wintergreen, but I’m usually mindful of not smelling like wintergreen in social situations or closed spaces. So the spearmint was my go-to flavor of the variety, especially since I can get peppermint chiclets in the form of actual Chiclets that don’t have blue food coloring. But since I already have these, they’re being consumed.

I did find that they stuck to one filling in my teeth (just that one old amalgam, even though I have other fillings). It’s hard to rationalize the large amount I have, but it works for my consumption style. It would be nice if they came in boxes like Chiclets or perhaps a tin like Altoids. The company that owns Oak Leaf, SweetWorks was recently purchased by the Swiss company called Frey which makes chocolate but also has their own line of gums, so maybe they’ll start doing some more gum packaging.

Related Candies

  1. Glee Sugar Free Gum
  2. Tree Hugger Bubble Gum
  3. PUR Gum: Xylitol Sweetened
  4. Ball Gum Balls (Football & Tennis)
  5. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
  6. Tiny Size Chiclets
  7. Gold Mine Gum
  8. Razzles


Name: Refresh Triple Mint Chewing Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Sweet Works
Place Purchased: samples from SweetWorks
Price: $3.99 retail per pound
Size: 16 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, SweetWorks, Inc, Gum, Mints, 6-Tempting, Canada

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:50 pm     CandyReviewSweetWorks, IncGumMints6-TemptingCanada

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