List of Popular Chewing Gum Brands

Modern chewing gums are manufactured by many large and small companies who strive to create not recipes and formulas that will make their products appealing to their customers from all around the world but also marketing packages that will accompany their gums and make them popular over very long periods. Many currently popular chewing gum brands can be found in almost every country, with some targeting general users of gums. Still, others are being marketed for specific uses, such as mouth refreshers (peppermint) or gums that clean the mouth and can prevent or slow down tooth decay.

While traditional chewing gums were created from natural latex Chicle since the 1960s, recipes for their manufacture switched to butadiene-based synthetic rubbers that are today considered polymers. Most popular chewing gum brands have recipes allowing users to taste gum for a long time.

These chewing gum brands listed below managed to distinguish themselves and became popular worldwide. Here is a list of popular chewing gum brands.

Doublemint

Doublemint is one of the world's most popular and long-lasting chewing gum brands. Originally introduced to the market in 1914 by Wrigley Company, marketing of this chewing gum brand was always focused on the fact that this gum features a double dose of Peppermint. The most popular marketing campaigns for this gum always featured twins, which signified the double strength of the peppermint. Jayne and Joan Boyd of Hammond, Indiana, were the first twins that promoted Doublemint gums between 1956 and 1963. In 2003, Wrigley Company changed the recipe of this gum by removing natural sweeteners and replacing them with aspartame and acesulfame potassium.

Juicy Fruit

One of the most popular flavors of chewing gum ever made by the Wrigley Company is, without any doubt, Juicy Fruit. Presented to the public in distant 1863, this sweet chewing gum always held a very respectable ratio of chewing gum sales in the USA, excluding the years of WW2 when its sales were paused due to the shortage of some of its crucial ingredients. This chewing gum brand is very popular among kids aged 3 to 11, but adults aged 20 or over account for 40 percent of all purchasers. Each stick of gum weighs 3 grams, contains ten calories, and since 2003 contains artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Wrigley Company introduced a sugar-free version of Juicy Fruit in 2009.

Dentyne

Dentyne brand of chewing gums was created by the New York City druggist Franklin V. Canning in 1899 with a name that mixed two words, dental and hygiene. It was marketed as an aid for oral hygiene that would prevent tooth decay, sweeten the breath and keep teeth white. The original recipe of this chewing gum can today be purchased under the Dentyne Classic brand. Other brands of Dentyne flavors are Dentyne Ice, Dentyne Fire, Dentyne Tango, Dentyne Shine, and Dentyne Pure. Since 2000 the owner of the Dentyne brand has been the British multinational confectionery company, Cadbury.

Dubble Bubble

Double Bubble is the first chewing gum brand that was specifically made to be used for creating air-inflated bubbles. The recipe for this chewing gum brand was created by the accountant Walter Diemer who worked at the US chewing gum factory Fleer, by modifying the basic recipe of his company's founder, Frank Henry Fleer. After entering the sales in Dubble Bubble, this chewing gum brand instantly became famous worldwide, creating a whole new segment of the chewing gum industry that caters to the needs of people who enjoy creating chewing gum bubbles.

Trident

Trident brand of chewing gums was introduced to the UK market in 1960, together with the arrival of artificial sweeteners. The original Trident was made with sugar alcohol Xylotl and featured a unique rectangular shape. Since then, several other brands of this gum have been released in the UK, most notably Trident White (in the form of a small pellet), Trident Splash (also a pellet, but with a liquid gel-like flavor in its center), Trident Layers (gum with two layers of traditional Trident gum on the outside, and flavored layer in the middle), Trident Xtra Care (focused on dental care) and now discontinued Trident Vitality (which offered vitamin boost). Trident gums are also known outside of the UK under the name Stimorol.

Orbit

Originally introduced by the Wrigley Company in 1944 as the short-lived replacement for the other chewing gums that were hit the hardest by the lack of critical ingredients during World War II (Juicy Fruit, Wrigley's Spearmint, and Doublemint), Orbit returned to the sales in 1977 using its original packaging format of 14 individually wrapped pieces of gum. After several years of European sales, the Orbit brand crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the United States in the late 1970s. It was sold successfully there until the 1980s, when public fear of cancer-inducing chemicals caused several gum brands to disappear from store shelves. Orbit gums were relaunched in the US in 2001. In addition to the core brand of Orbit, which comes in 25 flavors (Peppermint, Spearmint, Bubblemint, Wintermint, Cinnamint, and others), this gum has also expanded to the Orbit White (sugar-free) and Orbit for Kids brands.

Extra

This is a sugar-free chewing gum that can be most commonly found in North America and Europe. It launched in 1987, immediately becoming one of the most popular chewing gum in the United States. This was possible because this was the first chewing gum that did not use natural sugar from saccharin but a newly developed NutraSweet artificial sweetener (aspartame and neotame). Chewing gums with the branding Extra were renamed 2015 into Orbit in the United Kingdom.

5

The first three flavors of the chewing gum 5 arrived on the market in the March of 2007 in the United States, quickly spreading to other international markets such as Canada, continental Europe, Russia, China, and others. Eventually, this brand expanded to include 24 chewing gum flavors. The most notable feature of this chewing gum is its packaging consisting of 3 rows of five slim gum sticks (some territories have three rows of four or even one row of five gum sticks).

Eclipse

Large chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley Company introduced their new brand of chewing gums and breath mints to the public, Eclipse, in 1999 as their first attempt at creating pellet chewing gums. The Eclipse brand fully focuses on enabling users to quickly freshen their mouths and breath with a strong peppermint flavor. Other flavors used are Winterfrost, Cinnamon, and Spearmint. They are often in rectangular slim cardboard packaging, although another packaging format exists (like recyclable steel boxes). Eclipse joined Wrigley’s Extra and Orbit in 2007 as the chewing gum that bears the seal of approval from the American Dental Association.

Mentos

Perfetti Van Melle’s Mentos is one of the most famous chewing gum products developed in the Netherlands. Originally introduced in 1948 in the form of oblate spheroids with a hard crust and softer chewable interior, this popular chewing gum is sold in over 130 countries worldwide. A single package usually has 14 gums, with smaller variants hosting 4 to 6 gums. They are made both with natural flavors and sugar-free sweeteners.

Stride

United Kingdom confectionery company Cadbury introduced the Stride brand of chewing gums in 2006. In addition to the 20 flavors of the original Stride gums, Cadbury also released Stride 2.0 in 2011, Stride Shift (which combines two flavors of Berry and Citrus in a single package), and Stride Spark (where one gum piece has 25% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins B6 and B12). In continental Europe, Stride is sold under the name Trident Senses.

Ice Breakers

Originally produced by the US cookie and snack company Nabisco in 1996 and later acquired by Hershey, Ice Breakers brand of chewing gums can today be commonly found across the United States, Canada, and Asia. They come in more than ten flavors sold in round cases, and their gums are white with a speck of color on them that signify their base flavor.

Wrigley's Spearmint

Spearmint chewing gums were created in 1893, but they are still available today under the Spearmint Classic brand. During the first few years on the market, Spearmint was given away for free with the purchase of Wrigley's baking soda, but its popularity pushed for the creation of standalone gum packaging.

Hubba Hubba

This colorful chewing gum was first presented to the public in 1979 by the Wrigley Company (the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company). The main appeal of this gum was the ability to not stick to the user's lips when he popped bubbles. Almost all flavors of Hubba Hubba chewing gum are based on fruit flavors. The original flavor of Hubba Hubba is available to be purchased today under the Outrageous Original name.

Winterfresh

Chewing gum giant Wrigley Company released a very popular brand of chewing gums, Winterfresh, in 1994. It was initially offered only as a winter chewing gum (to replace the Big Red brand during that period), but its popularity caused it to be sold all year. Winterfresh flavor of gums was used by Wrigley’s several times before, most notably as one of the flavors in the popular chewing gum brands Extra and Freedent. In the first ten years of sale, Wintefresh and Extra Winterfresh were sold in two type of packaging, but all of them use three-gram sticks of gum.

Big Red

This hot-flavored chewing gum became so popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland that it managed to become a tourist attraction, with many visitors from around the world (and especially the US) often purchased Big Red as souvenirs. It was originally released in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a sugar-free gum, but that changed in 2003 in the US when some of the ingredients were replaced with several artificial sugars. Big Red was shortly sold in Australia during the mid-1980s and received relaunch in several countries in the world during 2004 and 2007. Today Big Red can be found in UK, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Mexico, US and other countries.

Bubble Tape

Many manufacturers tried to find success by packaging their products into unique formats. One of the most popular examples of this is Bubble Tape, a chewing gum packaging format that became very popular with the younger audience (especially preteen children). Bubble Tape is shaped like a hockey puck, that opens like a box and from there the user can access six-feet of spiral-rolled tape of chewing gum. It can also be found in King Size (9 feet) and Mega Roll (10 feet) variants. Most flavors of Bubble Tape are from Hubba Bubba and Juicy Fruit line.

Freedent

Freedent line of chewing gums was introduced in 1975 by Wrigley Company with marketing that promoted it as the chewing gum that will not stick to most dental work. It is sold around the world in both stick and pellet form, with latter one being more popular, especially in Europe where Freedent is sold as an alternative to Orbit. In some markets, Freedent is also known as Excel White.

Airwaves

Airwaves is a line of chewing gums from Wrigleys that became very popular in continental Europe where it is marketed as the product that can help reduce symptoms of cold, clear head and nasal passages. This is achieved by utilizing a heavy dose of Eucalyptus and Menthol in the recipe of the gum, same ingredients that are used in many popular cough medicines. Airwaves comes in six basic packages – Blue (eucalyptus and menthol), Purple (blackcurrant and Vitamin C), Red (cherry), Pink (grapefruit and menthol), Light Green (herbal) and Black (black mint).

Fruit Stripe

This popular chewing gum was launched in early 1969 under name Five Flavor Gum by Hershey as a continuation of their Beech-Nut gum line. It is well known for its very strong yet short-lasting flavor that is produced by the brightly-colored stripes of flavor that are present on the gum stick. Even its packaging wrapper is painted with zebra stripes. Currently, Fruit Stripe can be found in two flavor packs – Chewing Gum (wet 'n wild melon, cherry, lemon, orange, and peach smash) and Bubble Gum (cherry, grape, mixed fruit, lemon, and cotton candy).

Chiclets

Chiclets is one of the oldest and most popular chewing gums from the United Kingdom. They were introduced by Cadbury in 1905, originally as a peppermint gum that was coated with candy. It’s most famous variant was fruit flavored gum that came packaged with gum chiclets colored in yellow, green, orange, red, white, purple, pink, and blue. Today the colorful and fruit-flavored Chiclets can be found in United Kingdom, Canada, North Africa, United Arab Emirates and several countries of Central and South America.

Bazooka

This chewing gum from the United States entered sales in 1947 by Topps Company of Brooklyn, New York, as one of the many chewing gum products that tried to cater to the customers who experienced chewing gum shortages caused by the World War II. In 1953 the packaging of the gum started coming with a small Bazooka Joe comic strips (75 different original issues were made), which made it very popular with the younger audience. The wrapper comic was discontinued in 2011 when it was replaced with brain-teasing puzzles. In addition to the Original flavor, Bazooka gums also come in Strawberry Shake, Grape Rape, Watermelon Whirl and Cherry Berry flavors. Sugar-free versions also exist.

Clorets

Chewing gum manufacturer Cadbury Adams introduced their Clorets brand of gums in 1951 as a product that can help users eliminate moth odors. This was achieved with use of the proprietary ingredient Actizol that has chlorophyll within it. Today Clorets come in several packaging types and six flavors.

Others

Today there are some innovative chewing gum brands that gaining popularity, such as:

• Simply Gum - An all-natural chewing gum made with only a few simple ingredients, without artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.
• Glee Gum - An eco-friendly and all-natural gum brand made with chicle, a sustainably harvested tree sap.
• Neuro Gum - A functional gum containing caffeine, L-theanine, and B-vitamins created to provide energy and focus.
• PUR Gum - A sugar-free and aspartame-free gum brand offering various flavors and promoting oral health.