Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish...

July 31, 2017 8:59 PM

What is the flavor in bubble gum?
posted by Night_owl (38 comments total)

... huh. You know, I had never thought to ask that question. Neat. Thank you. :)
posted by mordax at 9:05 PM on July 31, 2017

Huh. I always found it a more vanilla-clove sort of flavor. My favorite is Dubble Bubble, though, which is a little bit different than others.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:11 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dubble Bubble is apparently responsible for the biggest recorded bubble ever.
posted by Night_owl at 9:16 PM on July 31, 2017

Pink flavour.
posted by Segundus at 9:24 PM on July 31, 2017 [14 favorites]

No, it's not fruity enough to taste pink!
posted by Night_owl at 9:27 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is a variety of jackfruit that tastes exactly like bubblegum. I was so excited when I tried it and thought, this is what that pink flavour (thanks Segundus) is supposed to represent even though jackfruit is intensely yellow. It added a bit of magic to the world (for me, jackfruit is an exotic fruit). This article is very disappointing to me.

My disappointment is turned to rage by this article's layout which wins my prize for least-value-addition-through-outsize-illustration,-ever.
posted by tavegyl at 9:45 PM on July 31, 2017 [31 favorites]

Amazing. I did a whole science project on gum and I don't remember ever learning this.

Similarly, Tutti Frutti candy is done with banana, blueberry, and apple. (Also, yes do watch all the candy making videos there. Amazing candy knowledge and vintage machines!)
posted by Crystalinne at 9:49 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Way over analyzed. It tastes like... pink.
posted by Samizdata at 9:52 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Now I want some Bazooka.
posted by charlesminus at 10:11 PM on July 31, 2017

What a frustrating article. "It tastes like a lot of different things. It's a secret. Please enjoy some enormous stock photos related to gum."

WHAT IS THE FLAVOR IN BUBBLE GUM THOUGH
posted by potrzebie at 10:25 PM on July 31, 2017 [42 favorites]

Quora seems to think that it's simply "ethyl methylphenylglycidate (strawberry aldehyde) and isoamyl acetate (banana flavor)".
posted by crysflame at 10:31 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Some Belgian ales exhibit this flavour; some hefeweizens too.

It's nice to give somebody a drink and say 'here, this tastes like bananas and cloves' and they roll their eyes like you were claiming to taste autumn French sunshine in a wine and then their eyes widen and that say 'wow, it actually tastes exactly like that'. The bubble gum ester is like that - there's no mistaking it.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:52 PM on July 31, 2017 [7 favorites]

If I had a chunk of strawberry-banana Bubble Yum, and a chunk of fruit punch Bubble Yum, I could better test this "strawberry-banana-punch" theory. And now I am really wanting fruit punch Bubble Yum.
posted by queensissy at 10:56 PM on July 31, 2017

If I had a chunk of strawberry-banana Bubble Yum, and a chunk of fruit punch Bubble Yum, I could better test this "strawberry-banana-punch" theory. And now I am really wanting fruit punch Bubble Yum.

Never had it. If you get some, MeMail me a piece? Sounds lovely.
posted by Samizdata at 11:04 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

it's not fruity enough to taste pink!

I see what you're saying.
posted by quinndexter at 11:05 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

This makes me want Juicy Fruit and Chiclets and mini Chiclets and watermelon bazooka gum and that sweet tart grape gum you can get from Japanese markets and Sanrio stores and one of those delicious gumballs you can get from gumball machines still and oh man this is why I have a sweet tooth and a fair number of cavities much to my parents' never ending chagrin
posted by Hermione Granger at 11:45 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Juicy fruit tastes like regular jackfruit.
posted by benzenedream at 11:59 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_base

also:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyl_rubber
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:24 AM on August 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Frag it! All this gumtalk is making me crave Black Black and I can only get it mail order!
posted by Samizdata at 3:03 AM on August 1, 2017

that. article. layout. you. like. is. going. to. come. back. in. stylE.
 
posted by Herodios at 3:53 AM on August 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

The Ample Hills Ice Cream Cookbook (from the best ice cream shop in the city hands down, accept no substitutes) has a recipe for its bubble gum flavor ice cream, and the flavoring they have is thus:

2 parts vanilla
2 parts orange
2 parts lemon
1 part raspberry
1 part cinnamon

Developed by an ice cream maker who loved Swanson's bubble gum ice cream as a kid, and wanted to develop a version that had all-natural flavoring. I trust their judgement.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:24 AM on August 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

I don't know what it tastes like, but Nadiya showed me it shouldn't be in actual food.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:55 AM on August 1, 2017

I always thought circus peanuts had a bubble gum taste to them.
posted by klarck at 5:21 AM on August 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

My disappointment is turned to rage by this article's layout which wins my prize for least-value-addition-through-outsize-illustration,-ever.

This is one of those AMP pages, I guess, and it doesn't render correctly for me (ludicrously large photos) in Firefox. The underlying original does.
posted by Western Infidels at 5:48 AM on August 1, 2017

Or at least there was a difference between the AMP version and the underlying version at one time. Not reproducing for me anymore.

This derail brought to you by Google and Double Bubble.
posted by Western Infidels at 6:03 AM on August 1, 2017

What is the flavor in bubble gum?

And why does it disappear when I leave the gum on my bedpost overnight?
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:32 AM on August 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Still not sure what is in it, but you can get the flavor here. That is one of the flavors we put on face masks to make kids accept them better while breathing in anesthetic gasses. One of the more popular flavors, in fact.

Tangentially related: Dubble Bubble was the source of the money for the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, mentioned on Metafilter here and here.
posted by TedW at 7:20 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

And why does it disappear when I leave the gum on my bedpost overnight?

When you chew it in the morning, is it too hard to bite?
posted by Night_owl at 7:33 AM on August 1, 2017

Nice that they verified that it doesn't stay in your GI tract for seven years, but still isn't digested. Now I'm wondering if anyone who swallowed a big wad ever blew a fart bubble when it came out the other end.

yes, there is a part of me that is forever twelve
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:46 AM on August 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's Big Red flavor, isn't it? Or vice versa?
posted by Devoidoid at 8:48 AM on August 1, 2017

Nice that they verified that it doesn't stay in your GI tract for seven years, but still isn't digested.

Any word on watermelon seeds?
posted by thelonius at 10:17 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

pretty sure that that's still how babby is formed
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:33 AM on August 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Juicy Fruit always frustrated me because I feel like its primary flavor is banana, and a banana is the least juicy fruit there is. No accuracy, anywhere.

As for bubble gum, I always reverted to a description from Beverly Cleary's Henry and Beezus: when Henry finds boxes of abandoned bubble gum and starts selling it at school, someone asks, "Do you have any flavors besides cinnamon-peppermint or whatever it is?" That's bubble gum to me.
posted by dlugoczaj at 2:15 PM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nthing the fact that bubble gum tastes exactly, precisely, like jackfruit. Not a little bit like it, but exactly like it.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 2:17 PM on August 1, 2017

This subject is evocative of when I bought a bottle of uncolored birch beer and discovered, thanks to the absence of the usual ruddy birch beer color to establish my sensory expectations, that birch beer is basically wintergreen and licorice soda. I still love it, but having seen the wiring under the controls is a bit like knowing where all the loops in "Tomorrow Never Knows" came from. You can never be innocent again.
posted by sonascope at 4:55 PM on August 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

Butyl acetate.

Butyl acetate.

Once you smell it, you know it.

It's Butyl acetate.
posted by yesster at 11:38 PM on August 1, 2017

It tastes like Bazooka. Putting jackfruit on the shopping list.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:00 AM on August 2, 2017

I always thought circus peanuts had a bubble gum taste to them.
posted by klarck at 8:21 AM on August 1

aha! The great peanut controversy! One member of the household says the circus peanuts taste like bubble gum, the other says they taste like bananas. And now i find that bubble gum is (somewhat) banana flavored???
posted by rebent at 9:33 PM on August 4, 2017