Bubblegum: The Complete Guide to History and Brands

Go on. You already know what bubblegum tastes like. That pink, fruity, sweet-and-nothing-else flavour that exists nowhere in nature but lives permanently in your memory. You know the satisfying stretch before you blow. You know the absolute disaster of a bubble popped too close to your face. Bubblegum is one of those rare things that is exactly as good as you remember it being when you were eight.

This guide covers the stories behind the brands — where it all came from, the characters and rumours and accidental inventions along the way — and where to find the full range in the UK.

A Very Brief, Very Chewy History

1884: Thomas Adams adds black liquorice flavour to his chewing gum and creates Black Jack — the world's first flavoured chewing gum stick. 1906: Frank Fleer creates Blibber-Blubber — the first attempt at bubblegum. It has one problem: when the bubble pops, it glues itself to your face. It never makes it to market. 1928: Fleer's accountant Walter Diemer fixes the face-sticking problem by accident while tinkering with recipes in his spare time. He colours it pink — the only dye available — and calls it Dubble Bubble. The first 100 pieces sell out that same afternoon. He never gets a penny in royalties. He says he doesn't mind. A lot of children are very happy.

Why pink? Why that flavour? Accident. Why does it taste like banana-strawberry-cherry-vanilla? Also an accident. Nobody planned it. Everyone recognises it instantly. Some flavours are just meant to exist. National Bubble Gum Day falls on the first Friday of February every year — started in 2006 as a charity fundraiser where schoolchildren paid for the privilege of chewing gum in class for the day.

Bazooka Joe — The Boy With the Eyepatch

Launched in 1947, Bazooka's first character was the Atom Bubble Boy — a child who floated to adventures on giant pink bubbles. He flopped. Topps replaced him with Bazooka Joe: wisecracking, baseball cap, and an unexplained black eyepatch. The eyepatch was a deliberate nod to David Ogilvy's famous Hathaway shirt campaign — Ogilvy had put an eyepatch on a model to create intrigue. It worked for shirts. Topps tried it for gum. It worked.

Topps created 1,500 Bazooka Joe comics and quietly recycled them every seven years — every new generation of 6 to 13-year-olds was fresh to the material. Each strip came with a fortune-cookie prediction and points redeemable for prizes. A loyalty scheme built into a penny piece of gum. 2012: Comics dropped after a 48% sales slump. 2019: Comics restored after fierce nostalgic backlash. 2024: Bazooka and DC Comics launch a crossover — Bazooka Joe meets Wonder Woman and Batman. Penny candy to DC universe in 70 years.

Bazooka also turns up in Stranger Things among the show's deliberate 1980s childhood references. The Bazooka range at Sweet and Glory runs well beyond the original rectangle — Juicy Drop formats combining hard candy with sour gel, Push Pops, Ring Pops, Chew Bars, and the classic throwback wallet. Browse the full range on the gum category page.

The Golden Era — Where It All Got Very Competitive

The 1970s and 1980s were when bubblegum stopped being one thing and became a personality test. The double bubble — a bubble inside a bubble — was the undisputed holy grail of the school playground. As Ferris Bueller might have put it: whether you were a sporto, a motorhead, a geek, or a wastoid, your choice of gum said something about you.

Bubble Yum (1975) was the first soft bubblegum. Instantly enormous. So enormous that a playground rumour started in 1977 claiming it contained spider eggs. No source. No evidence. Completely made up. Life Savers had to take out full-page newspaper ads to deny it. The spider egg story is now more famous than the gum. Bubble Yum is still going strong in Original and Cotton Candy formats. Cotton Candy — the American name for candy floss — has since become a bubblegum flavour in its own right, and Dubble Bubble and Big League Chew both make one too. Bubblicious (1977) — oversized squares, neon packaging, Cotton Candy and Watermelon Wave flavours. Louder, brighter, and apparently designed to provoke maximum parental disapproval. It worked. Hubba Bubba (1979) — Wrigley's answer, specifically engineered so the bubble did not glue itself to your face when it popped. Revolutionary. The tape format — a long strip of gum wound up like a measuring tape — was one of the great novelty ideas of the decade. For the British playground sweets of the same era, see our retro British school sweets guide.

Big League Chew — Candy Chewing Tobacco (Yes, Really)

Portland Mavericks pitcher Rob Nelson wanted an alternative to chewing tobacco in the dugout. His solution: shredded bubblegum in a foil pouch, designed to look exactly like the real thing. Teammate Jim Bouton helped bring it to market. Big League Chew launched in 1980, and Nelson later recalled selling $18 million worth in the first year. Every flavour name remains a baseball pun — Outta Here Original, Swingin' Sour Apple, Ground Ball Grape, Wild Pitch Watermelon, Curveball Cotton Candy. The pouch format is unique in the entire gum category and has not changed since 1980.

Razzles — Neither Candy Nor Gum

Razzles exist in a category of one. They start as hard candy and gradually transform into bubblegum as you chew. The tagline since 1966: First it's a candy, then it's a gum. Most UK customers have never encountered this format, which makes the discovery moment genuinely memorable. Razzles also appear throughout the 2004 film 13 Going on 30, where they are the sweet Jenna Rink is obsessed with — a piece of pop culture that has kept the brand relevant across generations. The Original and Sour are the core flavours.

Sour Bubblegum — A Category in Its Own Right

The sour gum category has grown into something substantial, with Cry Baby at the centre of it. The Cry Baby Extra Sour and Nitro Sour jar formats are display products as much as confectionery — the jar size and bold packaging make them conversation pieces on any counter. The sour challenge element drives impulse purchases from the exact demographic that also buys Warheads and Toxic Waste. For the broader sour candy picture, see our best sour candy in the UK guide.

The Everyday Gum — Trident and Dentyne

Not every gum is a novelty or a nostalgic throwback. Trident is the best-selling gum in the Sweet and Glory range — one of the most recognised chewing gum brands in the world, launched in 1960. The range covers Original, Spearmint, Peppermint, Wintergreen, Cinnamon, Bubblegum, and a wide variety of fruit twist flavours, including a Trident Vibes Sour Patch Kids Watermelon collaboration. For a retailer looking for a reliable, high-turnover gum line to anchor the rest of the range, this is the starting point. Dentyne Ice Split 2 Fit Spearmint is the cool mint alternative — a functional breath-freshening gum that has been in American pockets since 1899.

MEG Military Energy Gum — For Adults Only

MEG is in a completely different category from everything else in this guide. Developed in the late 1990s by the US Army Natick Soldier Center as a way to deliver caffeine through chewing gum rather than coffee, designed to be absorbed through the mouth. Issued to Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Special Forces. Won the US Army's Greatest Invention of the Year award in 2005. Available to civilians from 2006. Each piece contains 100mg of caffeine. Available in Spearmint and Arctic Mint. For the right customer, this is genuinely compelling — and for a retailer, it answers a completely different question from everything around it on the shelf.

For Retailers: The Gum Range That Works

Gum is one of the most reliable till-point categories in confectionery retail. The price point is right — most formats sit under £3 — and the repeat purchase rate is high. A well-stocked gum display rewards both the browser and the regular customer who already knows what they want.

Trident anchors the display — the depth of the range means it covers the range on its own while novelty and nostalgia formats add character around it. Cry Baby as the eyecatcher — the jar size makes it immediately visible and the sour challenge positioning drives impulse purchases independently. Big League Chew as the conversation starter — the baseball dugout origin, the foil pouch format, and the punning flavour names give it a personality no other gum product has. Razzles as the discovery product — most UK customers have never tried them, and for any retailer who wants a product that creates a genuine first-time reaction, this is the one.

Bubblegum also sells as a flavour, not just as gum. Millions Bubblegum tubes, Pop Rocks Bubblegum, Jelly Belly Bubble Gum beans and Trident Bubblegum all sit naturally beside the gum range, and they catch the customer who loves the taste but does not want to chew.

Browse the Full Gum Range

Browse the complete gum range and broader candy range for the full selection.

No minimum order. Free first parcel on orders over £150 ex VAT (additional boxes £7.10 each). Free pallet delivery over £650 ex VAT. Dispatched from Manchester. Create a free account to browse and order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is bubblegum pink? Accident. Walter Diemer, the accountant who invented the first successful bubble gum in 1928, used pink food colouring because it was the only colour left on the shelf at the factory. Every bubblegum since has followed, for no better reason than that.

Why does bubblegum taste like that? Also an accident, and nobody can name the fruit. The flavour is a blend built to taste like banana, strawberry, cherry and vanilla at once, and the result refers to nothing in nature - it refers only to other bubblegum. It is a flavour that exists because confectionery invented it.

What was the Bubble Yum spider eggs rumour? A playground rumour in the late 1970s claimed Bubble Yum was soft because it contained spider eggs. It spread so widely that the company took out newspaper advertisements to deny it. The rumour was completely false and did the brand no lasting harm at all.

Who invented Big League Chew? Portland Mavericks pitcher Rob Nelson, in 1980, as an alternative to the chewing tobacco used in dugouts. Shredded gum in a foil pouch mimicked the format without the tobacco, and it became one of the most recognisable products in American confectionery.

What are Razzles? A sweet that starts as hard candy and turns into bubblegum as you chew it. They sit in a category of one - neither a sweet nor a gum but genuinely both, one after the other.

Where can I buy bubblegum wholesale in the UK? Sweet and Glory stocks the full gum range wholesale from Manchester with no minimum order. Create a free account to browse and order.



Related guides: Candy to Can: sweets and drinks · Gobstoppers: the complete guide · Retro British school sweets nostalgia guide · Retro American candy UK: 80s & 90s brands · American sweets vs British sweets · American sweets older than your grandparents · Ice Breakers complete guide · Trident gum complete guide

Sources

OPB - The birth of a bubblegum empire: Big League Chew's Portland origin
Trident - brand history (American Chicle, 1960)
DC and Bazooka - comic collaboration announcement, March 2024
Bazooka Joe - comic history (dropped 2012, restored 2019)

Written by Sharon Wilson, Sweet and Glory. Sweet and Glory has imported American and world confectionery into the UK from Trafford Park, Manchester, since 2015.