Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Fruit Stripe Gum

Fruit Stripe GumFruit Stripe Gum was launched back in the early 1960s as an extension of Beechnuts broad line of gums and fruity candies. The packages were a mix of five flavors, each with striped colors on the gum sticks. The flavors were cherry, orange, lime, mixed fruit and lemon (picture of early ad).

The history of the gum is rather convoluted, as it’s tied up with Beech Nut, which made both candy and baby food. In 1968 Beech Nut (which had also acquired Life Savers in 1956) merged with Squibb to become Squibb Beech-Nut Corporation. In 1981 Nabisco acquired just the confectionery portion with the brands of Beech Nut and Life Savers. In 1999 Hershey’s picked up the brand from Nabisco along with the more popular Bubble Yum, Ice Breakers, Breath Savers and Care Free gums but then sold off the Fruit Stripes brand, along with Rain Blo, Hot Dog and Superbubble, to Farley’s & Sathers in 2003. Just this year Farley’s and Sathers merged with the Ferrara Pan Candy Company.

Fruit Stripe Gum

The concept of Fruit Stripe Gum is largely unchanged over the years. It’s a flat stick of gum, made from a synthetic chewing gum base with artificial colors and flavors. The flavors are now Wet & Wild Melon, Cherry, Lemon, Orange and Peach.

The paper overwraps for the individual sticks are also temporary tattoos. They feature the mascot for the gum, a zebra known as Yipes.

Fruit Stripe Gum

Peach is Peach Smash and has a fresh flavor to it. It wasn’t my favorite, but not too fake or sour. The gum is smooth, the sugar is very sweet, so sweet that I kept checking the label to see if it was some sort of artificial sweetener. I’m actually not accustomed to chewing stick gum, as I prefer the candy coated chiclet styles for the variation in textures.

Yellow is Lemon and as expected, it’s the most sour of the set. The lemon flavor is like chewing on a candle, not at all like a fresh or zesty real lemon, though there are some more zesty notes towards the end but those are reminiscent of cleaning supplies.

Fruit Stripe GumOrange is Orange - the flavor starts strongly artificial, sweet and tangy with only a slight grain to it. Later chewing brings out more artificial notes, including the colorings, which have a slight metallic and bitter note to them.

Red is Cherry and seems odd, if only because it’s cherry gum, which isn’t that common. It reminded me a lot of Cherry Life Savers. The flavor lasted longer than the peach and faded into a kind of woodsy medicinal thing that was actually better than the initial overly sweet thing.

Green is Wet Watermelon (but in a pink wrapper) which was much better than I expected. I didn’t care much for the tartness of it at first, but the fake watermelon was rather fresh tasting and lasted longer than I expected.

Overall, it’s passable gum. I’m not that fond of it, but it does offer advantages over most packs of gum in that there’s a variety of flavors. Fruit flavored stick gum has become much more common in the past 10 years, though it was always around in bubble gums, especially the gumball style.

Here’s a classic ad for the gum from the early 1990s:

Related Candies

  1. Musk Beechies Chewing Gum
  2. Mike and Ike Fruit Flavored Bubblegum
  3. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
  4. Tiny Size Chiclets
  5. Gold Mine Gum
  6. Bubble Roll Message Maker
  7. Razzles


Name: Fruit Stripe Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Farley’s and Sathers
Place Purchased: Cost Plus World Market (Farmers Market)
Price: $1.29
Size: 1.6 ounces
Calories per ounce: 100
Categories: Candy, Farley's & Sathers, Gum, 6-Tempting, Mexico, Cost Plus

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:50 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewFarley's & SathersGum6-TemptingMexicoCost Plus

Comments
  1. I always loved the flavor of the old Fruit Stripe gum and am sad to see they changed the flavors so much. I wonder, though, does the flavor last any longer than it used to? I remember eating Fruit Stripe gum to taste it’s yumminess only to have to spit it out and get another piece after only 5 minutes because the flavor was gone.

    Comment by Jenn T. on 9/13/12 at 8:42 am #
  2. Jenn-
    You could hold out for 5 minutes?!?

    Comment by Brad on 9/13/12 at 8:22 pm #
  3. My dad used to love this gum, and its pink pastel sibling. I would always tease him for buying such girlie gum. Brings back fond memories. I think I’ll buy him a pack before I see him next weekend.
    Love the site, btw.

    Comment by Freesia on 9/13/12 at 10:59 pm #
  4. I didn’t realize anyone still made gum with real sugar.

    Comment by theatrenut on 9/15/12 at 7:15 am #
  5. I bought this gum a few years ago thinking it was a gum I had remembered from my childhood. I was wrong and am still trying to find the name of the gum I’m remembering. It was in the early 90’s and the gum a stick type like Fruit Stripe but it was white with multi-colored sugar crystals/dots embedded in it. By any chance, does anyone recognize this gum? It’s driving me nuts because I have a mental picture of me as a toddler, sitting in the driveway with this pack of gum. I can remember all of that but I can’t remember the name of it.

    Comment by Laura on 9/16/12 at 6:14 am #
  6. I was cleaning out the crevaces in my couch a few months ago, and to my surprise I found a lone stick of the bubblegum fruitstripe gum, still wrapped in a pink paper, unchewed and whole. It’s over twenty years old and totally devoid of flavour most likely, but I’m keeping it for nostalgia’s sake - I remember eating this stuff when I was a kid. My grandpa used to give me packs of it for Christmas each year and every holiday in between smile

     

    Comment by Emil on 10/15/12 at 11:55 am #
  7. I think Fruit Stripe gum was some of the first American candy I ever had. My grandparents were scouting out locations to move to there after my grandad’s retirement, and I was all “Bring me back sweets!!!” like an 8 year-old does.
    They brought back Fruit Stripe gum, Spree, SweeTarts, and some Bubble Tape. It was amazing, and my mother was furious with them :D

    Comment by Nivaya on 12/03/12 at 7:51 am #
  8. l want fruit stripe Gum sow please give me that boble gum smile

    Comment by najah abdi bashir on 12/27/12 at 8:03 am #
  9. This was my favorite gum when I was a kid. I’m glad it is still around. It would be nice if they did a “retro” offering with the original flavors.

    Comment by Brandon on 2/02/13 at 8:55 am #
  10. I just bought a pack of Fruit Stripe gum and apparently some of the flavors have once again changed. There’s still cherry and lemon. Now grape, mixed fruit, and cotton candy have been added. This is a classic chewing gum and I remember always having a pack as a child. I will be buying this gum again wink

    Comment by CC on 4/26/13 at 12:09 pm #
  11. I love this gum and now my husband is carrying a 53’trailer full of it it looks just like a pack of gum lol

    Comment by lanna Martinez on 11/22/14 at 5:57 pm #
  12. Does any remember the toy gum machine for the Fruit Stipes gum sticks?

    Comment by Cherie on 12/07/15 at 8:02 am #
  13. I used to eat this stuff like popcorn. My grandpa(who lived out of town) would bring me a pack when he came into town, and I always ate the whole thing in like an hour because the flavor ran out in seconds.

    Comment by Bumby the Elephant on 4/20/17 at 1:15 pm #
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