Wrigley’s Sour Double Berry Hubba Bubba Max

Finally, the end of my Hubba Bubba reviews. This has been so disappointing it’s almost unreal, it’s hard to believe I haven’t liked one of their flavours, except for perhaps the apple flavour. Oh well, that’s not my fault.

Sadly Wrigley’s don’t tell us what berries they’ve used here, it’s double berry, but what are the berries, I can’t tell by the flavour either, so if anyone could tell me then I’d like to know.

The flavour here is slightly better than the others I’ve had, it’s more sour than before, but not in a good way. It just tastes so sugary and made me want to spit out the gum. Sugar is of course first on the ingredients, but I’m sure it has been on all the flavours.

I guess I’m officially too old for bubble gum, it’s sad really, but all these flavours are just so bad that anyone with an experienced palette will likely find these disgusting.

Wrigley’s Strawberry-Watermelon Hubba Bubba Max

Well, it seems we have Hubba Bubba Max here in the UK as well. Not that that’s a good thing, because one of them is Watermelon flavour! Ugh, I don’t know any kids that like watermelon, or get exicted about it, so why is this a bubble gum flavour?

Oh well, let’s get this out of the way. The pack is green and red to signify the fruits, and we’re back to the big slabs of gum that I’ve been happy to avoid over the past few days. And it stinks of watermelon as well, it’s a dark green colour on the outside, with red on the inside, it’s got a disgusting looking shine on it as well, ugh…

And the watermelon, oh it’s not good. Where’s the strawberry? Is that it…? No, more watermelon…oh, a bit of strawberry! No wait, more watermelon again. Good job Wrigley’s, the fact that there’s a tiny bit of strawberry covered gum covered by all that watermelon flavour means the strawberry can’t get through at all, and because watermelon is such a strong flavour, then that doesn’t help.

So basically, watermelon sucks, just like this gum.

Wrigley’s Atomic Apple Hubba Bubba

Ah, now this takes me back. I’m sure this is the flavour I used to buy as a kid, I’m sure they did a cherry flavour as well that I bought, but I could very well be wrong.

Now I’m probably biased with my opinion here, but I do think that this is the best of a bad bunch. It’s still so artificial, but it’s a more pleasant artificial taste here than with the strawberries.

It’s probably just nostalgia clouding my judgement, but I kinda like this flavour and I liked blowing big green bubbles with it. Most people won’t though…

Wrigley’s Seriously Strawberry Hubba Bubba

I’m starting to get sick of Hubba Bubba, reeeeal sick of it. It’s all so artificial and I miss my minty fresh breath. Girls are ignoring me because I have a big chunk of brown gum in my mouth, stinking of artificial cola, chewing away at it like a slack jawed yokal.

I prefer the UK versions simply because they’re smaller, but the taste is still bad, and ‘Seriously Strawberry’ isn’t any better.

This tastes like no strawberry I’ve ever had, I seriously cannot taste the strawberry in this at all, the sugar I can, and some sort of artificial fruit, but no strawberry. No sirree, boy am I glad I’ve only got 3 more flavours left.

Wrigley’s Cool Cola Hubba Bubba

It’s just my luck that the day after reviewing awful cola flavoured gum from one country, I get to review cola flavoured gum made by the same company only in another country. There’s no vanilla this time, and our packs are only half the depth of Australia’s and America’s, but that doesn’t make me any more enthusiastic about these.

My suspicions were confirmed when I opened one of the individual packs to see a piece of gum, with once again the crumbly texture on two sides. Why have Wrigley done this? It just doesn’t look good at all.

The gum is hard at the start, but because there’s less of it it gets soft quicker and is easier to chew. The taste isn’t much better than Australia’s, but it is better. Still very artificial, and it’s cola, not coke, and if you’ve experienced both you’ll know there’s a huge difference. Cola just doesn’t taste nice.

Wrigley’s Vanilla Cola Hubba Bubba

I almost cried when I saw this flavour, it reminded me of the Vanilla flavoured Coca Cola of ye old times. Actually I’m lying, I didn’t cry because I never liked that stuff, I just pretend to like it because everyone else says that they liked it, maybe they’re all lying too, maybe that’s why it was discontinued. Did you ever think about that?

Now if I thought the Grape-Berry blocks looked disgusting, then these are…well, super disgusting I guess. It’s hard to describe just how awful these blocks look. The block is rock hard, and two of the sides have an almost crumbly texture to them that just doesn’t look good, as if it’s supposed to be fizzy or something, instead it just makes it look old and dirty.

That’s how it tastes too, much less soft than the Grape-Berry flavour yesterday, it took some real mouth action to chew through this, and it wasn’t worth the effort at all. Far too much artificial cola, not enough artificial vanilla. Not a good flavour at all.

P.S. I know that Vanilla Coke has recently been reintroduced in USA again, so I don’t need smartass comments on that. 😀

Wrigley’s Grape-Berry Hubba Bubba Max

I don’t really like bubble gum that much. I guess it’s just one of those things you grow out of once you reach your teens, but buying bubble gum at my age just doesn’t seem like the right thing to do, instead I must buy my adult chewing gum, professional and minty fresh. But for today I’m a kid, and kids eat grapes and berries, don’t they?

That’s what Wrigley’s have gone for here, and it sounds decent enough. Each piece of gum is huge though, it’s probably because I haven’t had bubble gum in 5 or 6 years, and I’m more used to chewing gum pellets, but these are big ol’ blocks of gum, and I don’t really want to eat them, especially when I unwrap the pack and see the square of gum there.

It doesn’t look good, it says on the front of the pack that they are artificially flavoured, and that’s how it smells, as well as being disgustingly factory pressed. The block is purple on the outside and red on the inside, no doubt berries inside grape, which is something I haven’t tried before with real fruit.

Surprisingly enough though, these taste pretty good. Artificially flavoured indeed, but they’re nice. The berries and grapes have been mixed well, the only problem is that the gum is too big. I have a manly, adult-sized mouth and I have problems trying to chew this, so I can’t imagine the problems a younger child would have with this. Still, not nearly as bad as I expected it to be.

Wrigley’s Menthol & Eucalyptus Airwaves

I’m a big fan of Airwaves. I have tried the Guarana flavour version in the past, and was impressed with their fresh taste, and long-lasting flavour. These are no different, and are my favourite brand of chewing gum.

The reason for this is the menthol. It is such a cleansing effect when you chew down on the gum, you get the rush from your mouth, on your tongue and down your throat, and if you keep your mouth closed you can get it through your nose. These are called airwaves for a reason, they really do clear them out, and I always feel totally refreshed when I pop one of these in my mouth.

The flavour is great too, I’m not sure what eucalyptus would taste like on its own, but with the menthol it provides a decent flavour. Not quite minty, but nice. I usually find myself absent-mindedly chewing a single piece for up to two or three hours, before I find my jaw is aching and I’m actually quite hungry. This shows how long the flavour can last.

Airwaves are sugar free as well, and considering that’s what usually keeps the flavour going in some gum, that’s another factor to take into account when you consider how excellent this gum is.

A few days ago I bought a box of these at Costco because I chew gum so much. I don’t recommend you do that unless you’re in the same boat as me, but if you like to carry gum around, then I recommend this. These are still priced at standard gum price (around 30p per pack), and not as expensive as some of the more expensive and almost more premium gum I’ve seen around lately (Orbit Professional, Trident gum, etc). So for an everyday gum, this is your best bet.

Altoids Spearmint Gum

As mentioned in a previous Altoids article of mine, these are sweets that are produced in Britain, but not actually sold there, which always seemed a little strange to me. But I got my hands on these anyway, so here’s the review.

These come in a wonderfully crafted tin. Quite unlike anything else we get over here, and no doubt these raise the production costs, but it’s certainly worth it. There’s a little note on the tin saying ‘Not a low calorie food’ which had me a little perplexed. Since when has chewing gum been viewed that way anyway? I don’t know anyone who lives off gum, or uses it as a low calorie meal replacement, so unless there’s a new chewing gum diet going around, I really don’t see what the point of that message is.

These are sugar free, and sadly, artifically flavoured. They have the usual gum ingredients; Sorbitol, Gum Base and Xylitol, which I’m pretty sure is meant to be good for your teeth. Opening the tin reveals 20 small green discs, about the same size as a Smartie, wrapped in the traditional Altoids paper, which has their little message on, mentioning that their products nowadays use the same recipe they did 200 years ago and that they were first made in 1837.

Other than that there’s not much I can say, these have an initial strong taste that subsides slowly, they taste pretty good, but not exactly that different from normal spearmint chewing gum on the market here in Britain, so not worth the import unless you’re a collector. I do love the tin though.

Liquorice Altoids

Altoids have got to be one of the strangest sweets around. They proudly proclaim on the front of the tin that they’re made in Great Britain, yet except for the Peppermint flavour, they’re not sold in Britain at all! And considering Britain is fast losing it’s factories as countries move to produce their goods as cheap as possible, you’d think that the guys at Callard & Bowser would start producing their Altoids in the United States, where their target market is, but no, they’re made in Britain, maybe the good people in America think that Altoids are high class because they’re made in Britain, I don’t know.

Moving on from my mini rant, I got these from Cybercandy as part of a Mystery Box of short life products. These went out of date in December 2006, so they may not be at their best, that’s not my problem and gosh darnit I’m just gonna review these based on their current flavour.

The tin itself is very pleasant, before I’ve even removed the plastic wrapping I can smell the liquorice, I’m a big fan of liquorice so I find the smell to be quite alluring, opening the tin seems to almost release the liquorice fumes, they waft around and into my nose, delightful! I’ve had the Peppermint Altoids before and wasn’t overly impressed with them, I found them to be a little too hot, and too expensive as well, I’m more fond of a packet of Airwaves or something to clear my nose and freshen my breath. But I didn’t specifically order these so nevermind.

I pop an Altoid into my mouth, the liquorice…the aniseed flavour…it bursts forth. There must be menthol in there as well because it’s a little spicy if left on the tongue. I can feel it in my throat, it’s…good…it’s very good! I close the tin and turn it over, the ingredients…sugar, ‘natural flavor’, gum arabic, gelatin and corn syrup…is that all? There doesn’t seem to be much to these little guys. 3 altoids is one serving, and there are 10 calories in each serving, and 25 servings in the tin. Making the combined caloric total of the tin of Liquorice Altoids to be 250 calories. No fat, no protein, and 2g of Carbs (all sugar) per serving, making there 50g in the entire tin.

These are pretty darn good, the flavour is strong and sharp, though I don’t know about the liquorice flavour. I don’t know if aniseed exists in America but this is what it tastes like. I’ll be making sure to keep these fellas in my pocket though, a real breath freshner.