Sugar Savvy

File this under “Too much information”

In my last post, which was about the new Wrigley’s 5 gum, I made the confession that I’m slightly addicted to another gum by the same company: Wrigley’s Extra. I described how I create “cocktails” with the gum, chewing 2-3 sticks of different flavors, simultaneously. It’s gross, I know. But not as gross as an addiction to crystal meth - or cigarettes, for that matter. Just to put it in perspective.There are several flavors of Extra that I enjoy. Peppermint, Spearmint, Polar Ice, Wintermint. But the one that I can truly not live without is pink Extra. It is called “Classic Bubble”, and has THE BEST and most long-lasting bubblegum flavor of any bubble gum I’ve ever chewed. No matter what other sticks I include in my gum cocktail, Classic Bubble is fairly certain to be the foundation of the mix.

Let’s start with the color. They get the pink JUST RIGHT. It’s the exact color bubble gum should be. And it has gotten me thinking: when and why, exactly, did the color pink come to represent bubble gum? There’s no logical or natural reason, as in the case with Spearmint, for example. Spearmint is, of course, a green plant. Hence, Spearmint gum is always green in color.

Which brings me to the flavor of bubble gum, which is of an ambiguous and decidedly non nature-based origin. And in being so, pink seems to be a (happily) arbitrary color choice. I don’t mind, though. People always tell me I look good in pink, even though I don’t wear it that often. It looks good against my skin, they say.

But I stray from my point. Which is…

What IS that flavor? I f-ing love it! I don’t even know (or want to know, really) what I’m chewing (and inadvertently ingesting – those juices do go down the pipe, after all). Not only do I love the taste, I love the smell. So here’s another admission: When I unwrap a stick of Classic Bubble, I smell it first. I take a big, deep whiff. It reminds me of something…something from my childhood, I know, but I’m never sure what, exactly. It’s sort of a mix between marshmallows, cotton candy and vanilla. It also has hints, it just occurred to me today, of Strawberry Quik. Then, after I smell it, I put just half of a piece in my mouth. After that, I’ll add a half stick of, say, Polar Ice, which offers a nice, brisk counterpoint to the (even for me) intense sweetness of the Bubble. Then, I bookend the mint with the rest of the Bubble. And so on.

No, I cannot justify my love for an activity so unattractive as chawin’ on a substance chock-full of God only knows what ingredients that clearly have no basis in anything even remotely natural. I don’t drink pop. I don’t eat trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. I don’t smoke and I don’t watch reality TV. But I do chew (way too much)weirdly chemical pink sugarless bubblegum.

There, I said it. (And now that I have, is there anyone else out there who loves Extra like I love Extra? I’m thinking of starting a support group.)