+

New Improved Flavor! Companies everywhere seem to think that changing their products will increase sales. From the “new” Coke to putting purple horseshoes in Lucky Charms, big businesses love to change. And doesn’t it seem that the best tasting treats get changed the fastest?

In the late spring of 2008, the 117 year old Wrigley company – best known for its gum – was purchased for $23 billion by Mars, Incorporated. Mars is well known for making candy (such as M&Ms, Snickers, and Starburst) but also markets rice, coffee, and pet food.

Since acquiring Wrigley, Mars has made quite a few changes. Doing away with the traditional five-sticks-per-pack narrow rectangular package, they now offer Wrigley’s gum in a Slim Pack™ – a larger rectangle that now contains 15 sticks. Anyone could live with the new package, but the new “improved” flavor? Well, let’s just say I wish I’d stocked up on gum prior to the Mars acquisition.

Read More »

Share This

I’ve been chewing Wrigley’s Spearmint gum forever, and Wrigley’s has been making spearmint-flavored gum forever - at least since 1893 anyway. When I picked up a pack a couple weeks ago and saw “NEW Improved Flavor!” emblazoned across the top, I was scarcely worried at all. After all, Wrigley’s wouldn’t dare change the sweet spearmint flavor that has brought them success for over 100 years. Maybe they’ve made it longer-lasting, I reasoned.

When I unwrapped my happy little stick of gum, I felt a shocking jolt – my delicious off-white gum had morphed into lime green! What? White was good enough for my great-great grandmother, why not for me? Fearless, I began to chew and at first things seemed the same as always. A sweet juice filled my mouth, mmmm.

Read More »

Share This

Gum has been many things to me during the course of my life. Satisfying my sweet tooth was the main goal of chewing gum when I was younger. In my teen years and beyond, gum started taking on a more practical function of freshening breath. I still wanted something tasty, but I gravitated more towards sugarless gum… preferably spearmint. As gum also continued to evolve, more and more brands were offering smaller pieces of sugarless gum packed with a ton of flavor in order to freshen your breath as much as possible.

The problem is that sometimes these ultra-flavored gums can be a little too strong. Biting into a piece of minty gum should not accompany a breathtaking burn for the first few moments you are chewing until the salacious shock subsides. A happy medium can be achieved and this is where Orbit White Bubblemint comes in.

Read More »

Share This

We recently gave away some Wrigley gum and mints by having a Wrigley trivia contest. Turns out those questions were hard and not one single person got all of them right. The most we had was 5 correct (two people). We ended up giving the prizes to the top 5 closest to getting them all correct.

So, if you haven’t seen the quiz yet, go check it out. If you want to see the answers they are below. Highlight below to see the answers:

CBBABBB

That Wrigley librarian really knows his/her stuff! Thanks go out to Wrigley for the excellent questions and prizes!

• Wrigley Trivia Quiz
• Wrigley.com

More candy articles about: trivia, gum, mints, giveaway

Share This

Good news Candy Addicts! Our friends over at Wrigley are showing the holiday spirit and want to share some of their great products with Candy Addict readers! We’ve decided to have a Wrigley Trivia Contest to determine who gets the free goods!

There will be 5 winners, each will receive 3 Wrigley Heritage Tins (Juicy Fruit, Doublemint and Spearmint) and 3 Life Savers Orn-o-mints (in red, green and blue). The first person to submit the correct answers will win one prize pack and the other four winners will be randomly chosen from all correct winners.

Here are the details on the prizes:

Wrigley’s Heritage Tins are decorated as your favorite Wrigley’s flavor, Doublemint(r), Spearmint(r) or Juicy Fruit(r) and contain (12) five-stick packs of gum; four of each of these well loved brands. The vintage inspired tins fit wonderfully in a stocking or add flavor to any holiday coffee table or countertop. Post holidays when the gum has been chewed, the tins can be re-used to organize and store small household or office items.

Life Savers Orn-o-Mints are the perfect holiday gift or entertaining accent and are filled with iconic Life Savers candy. When decorating a tree or your home for the holiday, Life Savers Orn-o-Mints are a perfect compliment. Available in three colors, blue, red and green, the ball shaped “orn-o-mints” are a fun edition to any holiday setting. They can also be used to spice up any holiday gift when tucked next to a gift tag.

Read More »

Share This

I love this commercial. It doesn’t make me want to go out and buy Raspberry Mint Orbit Gum, but it does makes me laugh every time I see it. Here’s a transcript:

• Lint Licker: You son of a biscuit-eating bulldog!
• Stinky McStinkface: What the French, Toast?
• Lint Licker: Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your little doo-doo head Cootie Queen?
• Cootie Queen: Who are you calling a Cootie Queen, you Lint Licker!!!
• Lint Licker: Pickle you, Cumquat!!!!
• Stinky McStinkface: You’re overreacting!
• Lint Licker: No Bill, overreacting was when I put your convertible into a wood chipper. Stinky McStinkface!!!!!
• Cootie Queen: You Hoboken.

Hilarious.

Share This

William Wrigley Sr., the founder of Wrigley, was born on this date, September 30, in 1861. Let’s take a few moments to appreciate where we would be right now without the wonderful products from Wrigley: Doublemint, Big Red, Juicy Fruit, Winterfresh, Extra, Freedent, Orbit, Eclipse, Hubba Bubba, Big League Chew, Altoids, Life Savers, and Creme Savers - to name a few.

Candy Addict was started on October 2, two days after the birthday of William Wrigley Sr. - coincidence? I think so.

NOTE: Wrigley donated a BUNCH of candy/gum/mints to our giveaway. A BUNCH! So go enter!

• Wrigley website

More candy articles about: gum, Altoids, birthday

Share This

Okay, I confess. I am addicted to gum and mints. I can’t help myself. I pop one after I eat, while I am driving in the car, at my desk, and in the movie theater. My addiction knows no bounds. I am having one right now! Don’t judge me. I know I am not the only one who loves the feeling of minty fresh breath anytime, anywhere. For people like me, Wrigley is here to help.

There have been many developments in gum technology over the years. We have seen gum that whitens, gum that fights tooth decay, gum that gives you more energy and gum that comes in six feet of bubble tape (for you, not them). Adding to this growing market of dual-purpose gum, Wrigley has developed a patent for metallic gum.

Read More »

Share This

(image from American Sweets)

Just a little over a year ago I wrote a quick article about the announcement of Stride Gum by Cadbury-Adams. On January 9. 2007 we had our 12th comment on that article and the first one that mentioned eating the wrapper:

Can you eat the Stride bubble gum wrapper? Someone is telling people that it is edible…Is it?

Chew the wrapper? Where did this come from? I know you can eat the inner rice paper wrapper of Botan Rice Candy, but chew the wrapper of a gum? I dismissed it as the ravings of a lunatic Candy Addict, but then we kept getting more and more comments sparking a debate on the chewableness of the wrappers. We currently have 64 comments on that article - most of them dealing with whether or not you can chew the wrapper.

I did some poking around and there are many instances online of people either saying you can chew the wrapper or people asking if it’s true. At the time of this writing, even the Stride Gum wikipedia page says the wrappers are made of rice paper and can be eaten.

So, I finally decided to do something about this. I contacted Cadbury-Adams, the makers of Stride, to get to the bottom of this. I posed one simple question: “Are Stride Gum wrappers intended to be chewed?” This is the official response I received:

While Stride(r) gum is designed to be chewed for a ridiculously long time, our gum wrappers are not. All of our gum wrappers are made with materials that comply with FDA regulations for food contact materials; however, none of our chewing gum wrappers are designed to be ingested. While there’s nothing toxic in them, gum wrappers aren’t intended for ingestion and gum wrappers should not be eaten. Should you have any questions or concerns about your children ingesting gum wrappers, please contact your doctor or other health care professional.

(note that the above official statement goes for all of Cadbury-Adams gums - not just Stride)

So, there you go. Myth debunked. Can you chew the Stride gum wrappers? Yes - just like you could eat/chew any piece of paper (though it’s not recommended). Should you chew the Stride Gum wrapper? The official word says no. The wrapper is not intended to be chewed or eaten and will not add anything good to the gum (though it won’t hurt you). Just enjoy the gum as they intended it - wrapper-free!

• Stride Gum website

Buy Stride Gum online:

• at CandyDirect

Share This

UPDATE: ok, the contest is closed and we have 54 entries. I’ll be drawing the winners shortly….ok, winners drawn - comments #14 and #37 are the winners! Congrats! You’ll be getting your gum soon!

I totally forgot to add this to the review. Wrigley’s sent me so many packs (12 of each flavor) that I figured I should share with my readers. Seriously - who needs 540 sticks of gum?. Leave a comment on this post and use an email address you check (I will see it but it won’t be posted on the site) and I will randomly draw a name or two to win some packs of the new 5 gum.

I’ll leave the comments open on this post for a few days - maybe til next week. if you can leave a comment on this post, I’m still taking entries. Free gum - no strings attached (I’ll even pay shipping) - what more can you ask for?

UPDATE: US residents only please! Shipping out of country is expensive.

• Review of Wrigley’s 5 Gum

giveaway, freebie, freebies

Share This