Where was the first chewing gum made?

Answer 1

September 17, 2007 Long ago, gum was basically chewy tree sap. The Greeks chewed a sap they called "mastiche" - related to the Greek word for chewing, and from which we got the word "masticate." In North America, in what is now New England, Native Americans chewed spruce sap, and this was sold as Chewing Gum (John Curtis' "Maine Pure Spruce Gum") back in the mid 1800's. These eventually were edged out by gums made from petroleum-derived paraffin wax, with sugar added for sweetness. These things sold, but didn't really have the right chewiness. Meanwhile, the Mayans had long chewed something they called "tsictle" which is the sap of the sapodilla tree. In the United States, the word was pronounced "chicle", which eventually led, of course, to Chiclets - but we're getting ahead of the story. An early hope for chicle in this country was that it might be useful as a replacement for sap from the rubber tree, which was growing in value for the manufacture of tires and other rubber goods. It wasn't really up to the job, but an American inventor named Thomas Adams found that chicle, heated with sugar and flavor, was better than the then-popular paraffin gum and he patented the process. Adams Sons and Co. then released the first flavored gum, called "Blackjack." Nowadays, just as synthetic rubbers have pushed out natural ones made from sap, synthetic bases have been made for chewing gum. As you might imagine, the details are kept secret and guarded jealousy. In fact, gum is exempt from the usual FDA labeling requirements for foods and can just describe the chewy stuff as "gum base."
From bees wax, people chewed it in the earlier days.

Answer 2

After he was defeated by the Americans in Texas, Mexican General Santa Anna was exiled to New York. Like many of his countrymen, Santa Anna chewed chicle. One day he introduced it to inventor Thomas Adams, who began experimenting with it as a substitute for rubber. Adams tried to make toys, masks, and rain boots out of chicle, but every experiment failed. Sitting in his workshop one day,tired and discouraged, he popped a piece of surplus stock into his mouth. In 1870, he opened the world's first chewing gum factory making Adams New York No. 1.

Answer 3

Actually, the man who made gum made it by accident. He was attempting to invent a new type of very strechy rubber, and chewed on a piece of it, realizing it was really chewy, he added flavor, and there's gum!

Answer 4

The origin of the first chewing Gum is unknown. A specimen from Kierikki Finland has dated to around 5000BCE.

The first commercially produced gum was made by John B Curtis of Maine in 1848.