Pop Goes Bubble Gum

Who doesn't like to chew gum, it makes our mouth's feel good. and it tastes good. Kid's have always loved bubble gum and like to blow bubbles. I write this for my grand-son Drew, he is grown but still likes to chew bubble gum.

The bubble gum has gone through a lot over its long history. In the early 1900s, a man named Frank Fleer tried to come up with the perfect bubble gum recipe for his candy company. He experimented with a lot of gum recipes to find it. His first bubble gum however turned out to be too sticky and his recipes never sold.

In 1928, Walter Diemer was working as an account for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, what he was doing in his spare time was playing around with new gum recipes. His latest batch was less sticky than regular chewing gum and it stretched more easily. He took his discovery to a grocery store to test it, all the gum sold out in one day. Walter brought his invention to the Fleer Company, it was named and marketed as "Double Bubble" gum. Before long the folks at the Fleers Company was teaching salesman to blow bubbles., to demonstrate exactly what made this gum different from all other gums. The only food coloring in the factor was pink, Walter used it, that is why bubble gum today is pink and when the final cut for the gum was done it was sprinkled with powdered sugar. This is probably why it tastes good when put in your mouth. Walter Diemer stayed with the Fleer for decades, eventually becoming a senior vice president. He never received royalties for his invention, his wife told the newspapers that he did not seem to mind this, knowing what he'd created was reward enough. Sometimes he'd invite a bunch of kids to the house and tell them the story of his wonderful accidental invention and then he would hold bubble-blowing contests for them.

People have enjoyed chewing gum-like substances in many lands and from very early times. Some of these materials were thickened resin and latex from certain kinds of trees. Others were various sweet grasses, leaves, grains and waxes.

Bubblegum has come a long way from Bazooka Bubble gum, did you know the average American chews 300 sticks of gum a year. In the United States, total retail sales of chewing gum (including bubble gum) is over $2.0 billion. Over the years we all know lots of different brands of bubble gum, they are; Bazooka, Bazooka Joe, Double Bubble, Hubba Bubba, Big League Chew, Bubble Yum to name a few. There are also different flavors, baseball cards with sheet of bubble gum included and even Trident makes bubble gum. In the Guinness Book of World Records we have a person, Chad Fell, he blew a bubble gum bubble measuring 20 inches.

I have found many articles, through Google, about bubble gum, I thought I would share a little of the bubble gum history, but I enjoyed knowing more about my grand-sons favorite gum.