Everybody Loves Chewing Gum and Has Throughout the Ages

The First Known Chewing Gum

The first gum was nothing more than tree resin, or sap. Nearly all cultures throughout history chewed some sort of tree resin or sap. The chewing gum of today is certainly more flavorful than the gum of the old days.

Cultures all Around the World Chewed Gum

The ancient Greeks chewed the resin of the mastiche tree. The ancient Mayans would chew the sap from the sapodilla tree, while the Native Americans chewed the sap from spruce trees and passed this on to the first settlers. The early settlers began to mix spruce sap with beeswax to make their gum more sweet.

Chewing Gum Made Sweet During the Industrial Revolution

Resins and waxes dominated the gum of the early days in America, but the industrial revolution brought technologies that carried down to the sweets industries. An essential ingredient in the early days was once considered for making automobile tires. How the connection was made to use it in gum is beyond me.

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