Raise your hand if your earliest memory of Juicy Fruit gum is a TV commercial. We thought so. Juicy Fruit probably brings to mind smiling actors popping gum in their mouths before lifting weights or demonstrating telekinetic powers (that commercial featured Aaron Paul from "Breaking Bad" so you know). If you're old enough you also remember the catchy jingle: "The taste is gonna move ya." Given the iconic gum's close associations with slick TV marketing you might assume that Juicy Fruit was a newer invention born sometime in the late 20th century. You'd be wrong.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 CNBC | 2021-03-13 17:00:18 |  127,134 Views |
How Wrigley Dominated the Chewing Gum World
The first chewers of Juicy Fruit gum were neither hippies nor Madonna fans and they certainly didn’t have matted hair or listen to NSYNC. Imagine that gum 100 years ago or so in the hands of women in long wasp-waisted dresses with their hair piled high on their heads or men in three-piece suits and bowler hats. Specifically imagine 1893 the tail end of the Gilded Age. Yes that’s when Juicy Fruit came out. It’s Wrigley’s oldest brand and it has a history as fascinating as it is long.
William Wrigley Jr. started in the soap and baking soda business with today's equivalent of $919.85 to his name. A shrewd marketer he used chewing gum as bait to lure customers into his store. But when he saw that his customers were more interested in the bait than in the other goods he went to work producing and marketing his first two brands of chewing gum: Lotta Gum and Vasser. He eventually developed a recipe called Juicy Fruit which made its grand debut at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
It took about 21 years after Juicy Fruit's introduction for it to taste anything like the gum we know today. When it first came out during the Gilded Age Juicy Fruit had a conventional minty flavor. Somewhere around 1914 however Wrigley chemist Walter E. Diemer discovered an alluring fruity blend of synthetic flavorings while experimenting with recipes. The gum's minty flavor was soon replaced by a distinctive fruity taste that earned Juicy Fruit a large fan base. The exact flavor of Juicy Fruit gum is a bit of a mystery. However in 2002 in response to a letter from a curious gum chewer the company stated that while the exact formula is patented Juicy Fruit Gum contains heavy notes of lemon orange pineapple and banana.
