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 were never sold.
In 1928, Walter Diemer was able to discover the bubble gum recipe by accident. He was experimenting with different gum recipes when he stumbled upon a mixture that started to form bubbles. He took this discovery and brought it to a grocery store to test it. All the gum was sold in a single day.
Walter Diemer brought his invention to the Fleer Company and was named and marketed as “Dubble Bubble” gum. To help sell the gum and help people understand, Diemer taught the salesmen how to blow bubbles using the gum. The salesmen in turn taught the people who bought the gum. It was a huge success and for many years the Dubble Bubble gum was the only bubble gum on the market.
The Topps Candy Company started manufacturing bubble gum at the end of World War II. The company introduced the famous Bazooka Bubble Gum. This was named after the musical instrument that was created in the 1930s by Bob Burns. As an added gimmick, the gum had “Bazooka Joe” comic strips on the gum wrapper which contributed to its popularity. Also as incentives for children, the Topps Company included gum to the Bazooka Joe baseball cards in 1953.
Each type and brand of bubble gum, may it be bubble or chewing gum, has its own unique formula. But generally, these steps are followed in making gum. The ingredients are placed in large steam-jacketed kettles where they are cooked at high temperatures until melted and become as thick as maple syrup. While maintaining the high temperature, the syrup is passed through mesh screen filters. They are then moved into vacuum strainers. After this, the hot liquid mix is poured into a machine that has slow revolving blades. It is here that sugar, flavoring and corn syrup are added into the mix. In making sugarless gum, sweeteners like sorbitol, xylitol, or mannitol substitute the sugar.
