Bubblicious: History, Flavors & Facts

Snack History Nostalgia Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

If you love bubble gum, you probably already know about Bubblicious. This is one of the most-beloved bubble gums in the US, and for good reason. There are few gums that are sold in as many flavors or that offer such a long-lasting taste for your benefit. The gum was an offshoot of the original Chicle chewing gum company and has been tremendously successful for years now.

If you have not tried any of the various Bubblicious varieties out there, you need to put this gum on your list of things to experience. There are few products that are this delightful, and you will find that you can chew this gum all day, and it stays delicious! This has always been one of the most important aspects of this company’s promotion of its products. You will get the long-lasting flavor from each piece of Bubblicious, and you can blow huge bubbles that do not pop!

History

This brand of gum was first produced by the American Chicle Division of Warner-Lambert. The brand belongs to Cadbury-Adams today and is a division of Mondelez international. The gum was first sold in 1977 to compete with Bubble Yum. It took a little bit for the Bubblicious brand to take off, but once it did, it was a leader in the gum sales space. This is still one of the most flavorful and enjoyable gum brands to chew, and this is a common favorite of kids everywhere.

Chicle gum products were a newfangled idea at the time that they were first starting to make a name for themselves. The original Chicle product was brought to the US with the idea that it would be used to make tires or other rubber products. It quickly became associated more correctly with a chewing gum product and was immediately used to make a variety of different chewing gums. These original gum products were used mostly to deliver medicine.

Most candies were originally used in this way, and the concept of candy and gum products being sold just for enjoyment was not common until the end of the 20s. Chewing gum, in particular, was mostly associated with medicinal use or to freshen the breath. Many of the original gum products that were sold in the early years of gum production were very strongly flavored and were mostly chewed by men trying to make their breath fresh.

Later on, when gum became associated more closely with something that you could chew for fun, it was also sold as a means to cure “nervous habits” or to help manage vices. Bubblicious was one of the first gum products that were intended to just be enjoyed, and the overall marketing and presentation of this product were very different due to this fact. Other gum products that became popular at the same time were also intended just to be fun to enjoy, and this changed the gum market for good and in a very positive way.

The advertising event that made this gum so popular was the “Ultimate Bubble” ads. In this advertisement style, the gum was sold as the maker of the ultimate bubble that would beat all other bubbles. When combined with various colorful cartoon events on TV, this made kids immediately interested in this product. And it is true that Bubblicious can blow huge bubbles without breaking. There is a current world record for the most bubbles blown at one time that Bubblicious holds.

There are many fun flavors of this product, and you can find seasonal flavor offerings each year as well as unique one-off products that sell on and off to promote other things. There have been LeBron James packs of gum and all kinds of other unique advertising events that have helped Bubblicious stay relevant and interesting to kids and adults.

There have also been Bubblicious products that were made to promote TV shows, like the Bubblicious Ink’d gum that turned your tongue a bright blue. These unique products were often paired with different kinds of promotional campaigns that were linked to the products in question as well. This kind of creative marketing has been associated with this product for years, and it has worked so well that there are always new ideas being turned into successful marketing ploys.

Bubblicious has been sold in the US and Canada since 1977 but was later expanded to worldwide markets. It is still sold internationally today, and you can find unique flavors in other countries that are not sold here at home. You might be able to try a totally unique version of this gum that you have never heard of when you head to a different country!

The wrappers of the products sold outside the US are also really colorful and fun, so it can be worth the effort to look for unique Bubblicious flavors when you are traveling just for the wrapper styles and art. Japanese Bubblicious products are some of the most colorful and fun, and you will love how different the wrappers look in this part of the world.

If you love blowing large bubbles and get frustrated with gum that does not hold onto its flavoring, this is the right gum for you to try out! You can also order the various unique flavor types online through various sellers if you are not able to try all the unique gum products that Bubblicious makes in your local area.

Logo

Flavors

• Blueberry
• Cotton candy
• Sour apple
• Cherry
• Grape
• Strawberry
• Watermelon
• Bubblegum
• Sour Cherry
• Sour apple

Discontinued flavors exist as well, like Choco Choco Chip, Ultimate Original, Bubblicious Island, Bubblicious  Radical Red, Bubblicious  Twisted Tornado, Bubblicious Blue Blowout, Bubblicious Island Squeeze, Paradise Punch, and Lightning Lemonade. Occasionally one of the retired flavors will come out of hiding to be used for a specific advertisement or promotional effort. This is what happened with the LeBron James gum that was sold for a time. This was the Lightning Lemonade product that was being sold with the name LeBron’s Lightning Lemonade. Bubblicious Ink’d is also no longer made, but it was linked with the Klik Street Skaters’ Group later on when the original Ink’d commercials were retired.

There are also two varieties of this gum to enjoy. You can pick from the original style, but here is also a Bursts version. The Bursts have a liquid center which can be really enjoyable if you love flavorful gum. This change in the lineup of products came around when the sour gums were first released, and this does help make those varieties of this gum product a lot sourer. For people who love gummy candies with liquid centers, this is a great option for your gum chewing enjoyment. If you like sour things, you will also really enjoy this option that is made by Bubblicious because this is very sour gum!

There are also unique products on the market like the Bubblicious Sherbet Ice Cream that is made by Breyers. There is bubble gum in the ice cream that is sourced from various flavors of the original gum products.

Ingredients

From the harris teeter site:

• Sugar
• Corn syrup
• Gum base
• Less than 2% of: Acesulfame Potassium, Adipic acid
• Artificial flavoring
• Aspartame
• BHT ( for freshness)
• Citric acid
• Cottonseed oil
• Glycerin
• Malic acid
• Red 40 lake
• Soy lecithin
• Sucralose

There will be some variations in the recipe depending on the variety of the gum since the different flavors of gum are often different colors. Other than the food coloring choices that are called out in the other varieties of this gum, however, the recipe should be the same.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 piece (8g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat	0
Calories	25
Total Fat	0g	0%
Sodium	0mg	0%
Total Carbohydrates	6g	2%
Sugars 6g
Protein	0g

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

How is Bubblicious Sold?

You can get this gum in packs in most instances. These are simple paper and foil rolls that offer you access to a soft and chewy square of flavored gum. The unique gum segments are wrapped in their own unique wrappers, so you can enjoy them later without them losing freshness. Sometimes the rebranded gum will be sold in a baggy that cannot be resealed, but this is not a common way for this company to sell their gum products. This is one of the more recognizable features of this gum product, and the unique packaging choices that Bubblicious uses are just as memorable as their flavors and ads.

If you hate that your gum goes bad when the pack has been opened, or you don’t want to deal with narrow little strips of gum, this is the right product for your gum chewing preferences. This is likely a big part of why this product has so much flavor, and the fat, squishy little squares of gum are a satisfying mouthful to chew. A lot of people feel that they get more for their money when they are chewing this gum than they would with stick-style gum. This is probably the case since each piece of this gum is quite large.

Pictures

Commercials:

A 1970s or 1980s ad:

An ad to release the new watermelon flavor:

An 80s ad:

A very silly original ad: