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Gum Drop
Monday, July 6, 2009 at 03:44PM
I do not say that I am one of them. I would never say that. I don't like change.
I'm fully aware that the general consensus is that change is a good thing. I don't say I agree; I simply say I'm aware that many folks welcome, and even embrace, change.
Particularly I resent change in the arena of chewing gum.
First let me say: I am an inveterate and unrepentant chewer of gum. Sugar Free Gum, to be exact. Ice Breakers Sugar Free Cool Mint Gum With Liquid Ice Capsules And Long Lasting Flavor, to be excruciatingly specific. And I only like it in the small packs that contain five sticks each, that you buy eight packs at a time.
"They. Don't. Have. It." He enunciated.
(No Plen-T-Pak for me, quasi-important with its fifteen sticks of gum that don't seem to want to leave the package, once you spend fifteen minutes getting the package open. The whole experience -- from using a crowbar to open the pack to chewing the actual gum -- is just not the same.)
Oh, and ... two sticks at a time. I chew it two sticks at a time, and you should hear the popping I can do with those two sticks. Do not look at me like that! You have vices too. I don't do this in public, so don't call your mother on me.
Problem is, try finding it. Ice Breakers Sugar Free Cool Mint Gum With Liquid Ice Capsules And Long Lasting Flavor, that is.
TG often goes to the store for me, armed with a handy list of the items I require. During a recent jaunt to Wal-Mart, he called me on my cell.
"They don't have your Ice Breakers gum," he said without preamble.
"What do you mean?" I asked without hesitation.
"They. Don't. Have. It." He enunciated, then elaborated: "They have Ice Breakers mints and all kinds of other sugar free gum -- like Stride and Trident and Extra and Dentyne and Orbit and 5 -- but no Ice Breakers."
(Yes, 5 ... aren't you just champing at the bit to try a gum named "5"?)
Me neither. But I did. Because TG was right: they don't have Ice Breakers anymore. I've looked everywhere -- every truck stop, every drugstore, every grocery, every newsstand I've come across in my travels for the last six weeks -- and there is no Ice Breakers to be found.
In recent developments, however, Ice Breakers is attempting to palm off on an all-too gullible gum-chewing public (except for me, that is ... I cannot be bought for so low a price) what is evidently their replacement for old-fashioned sticks of what was a near-perfect gum: Ice Breakers Peppermint Ice Cubes With Cooling Xylitol and that same Long Lasting Flavor.
Supposedly.
But it's not the same. Not the box, not the shape, not the taste. And even after you pop two of those dice-shaped pieces of gum into your mouth and chew like you'll have no teeth tomorrow, there's never a pop or a snap to be had. It's too soft, too springy, and loses its flavor in less time than it takes Barack Obama to kill a defenseless fly.
As far as sugarless gum is concerned, from now on it appears that lame and tame is the name of the game. Unless somebody gets smart and brings back the good old days of Ice Breakers Sugar Free Cool Mint Gum With Liquid Ice Capsules And Cooling Xylitol And Long Lasting Flavor ... in stick form.
Ice Breakers 2012! Keep the Change.
Reader Comments (18)
I hate those kinds of change! It seems when you get used to and like something they change it!
Do you just not like the kind that come 15 to a pack, or do you just not like them as well as the 5-pack one??
Because if the latter...well, I might be able to help you out.
I do have a question that must be asked: if you like the 5-pack, but always chew 2 at a time, what happens to the fifth piece? Do you always caryy around 2 5-packs so the 2 leftovers can be chewed together? Such a conundrum, and I fear I shall not rest until I have the answer!!!
@ Mari ... exactly! It's like changing the rules in the middle of the game! No fair.
@ Kev ... at this point I would definitely chew my favorite gum from a Plen-T-Pack ... I even sent TG to Sam's Club to buy a case of it, but there was NONE on the shelves! That really scared me. I have even looked online and I have seen it (for, like, double the price per case that it sold for at Sam's WHEN they had it), but I have yet to be desperate enough to pay their asking price. So if you know of a store that sells the 15-stick packs, please tell me where it is! *begs*
@ Donna ... Yes! I definitely carried around 2 packs (or more) at a time, so as to never be faced with a single piece and no twin to go with it. I kept that gum all over the house: in the kitchen, in my bedside table, beside my favorite chair, at my desk, in my purse. I was never without it in ample quantities. Now I have all these lame-o packs of gum lying around, half-empty, that don't interest me. Who's gonna chew all this? *mystified*
That is just carazy! I have to be honest...I don't believe you. I'm going to be looking now for the gum you like.
@ Audrey ... but why would I make this up? Seriously ... if you can find it, please buy me a lifetime stash. You know I'm good for it!
Oh, I so related to this post! Love to chew gum, two sticks at a time. Love to get one brand and chew it in to the ground, so to speak. Am a world-class popper, bubble blower, noise maker and all-around obnoxious gum chewer and proud of it. And I HATE it when they discontinue my brand or type, which they do with impunity! One tiny note of good news though - they just did a report on how incredibly good for you sugarless gum is! Dentally speaking, that is. If I see your gum, I'll let you know.
http://www.thecandylandstore.com/wholesale-bulk-candy/ice-breakers-gum-cool-mint-263.html?feed=nextag&gdftrk=gdfV2574_a_7c676_a_7c2476_a_7cice_gum
Try this. Candyland or some such place. 10 boxes with 15 sticks in each, for $10.00. No idea if you consider that high or acceptable, considering your high demand and low supply. Sounds pretty good to me. Of course, it could be $100 shipping for all i know :)
@ Tracie ... so you "get" my gum-chewing habit? That is so cool! As to the link, I had seen the gum online (for way more than at the site you found ... like, >$15 for the case of Plen-T-Paks) but, not only is it more expensive than at the store, but the shipping costs are awful. For example, at candyland store you have to order two because there's a $13 minimum order rule. Then the shipping is another $10, making the two cartons of gum $30. A bit too rich for my blood. I mean, what if it's not fresh? That's my main complaint about those bigger packs; it's not the same freshness and flavor level. But at least I know that, if desperation sets in, there is this option. Thanks, luv.
They make something I like, and once they figger that out, they *change* it by *discontinuing it*, and this is supposed to be *change I can believe in*?
Phfffffft!
Well... I suppose you could find other desperados like yourself to sell it to, thereby using it up faster while financing your next fix. Freshness and money - it's a beautiful thing!
"lame and tame is the name of the game"....love it.
It's exactly like "the snow in Idaho falls everywhere you go"...from My Fair Shady. Right?
Anyway...check out this link and see if your gum is anywhere to be found: http://www.thefind.com/food/browse-icebreakers-mint-chewing-gum
If it is...pop away!
Tony
I'll keep an eye out for it in stores down in these parts. I know Amazon sells it, but not being a big gum chewer I'm unsure if the cost is prohibitive or not.
I know...I'll make you homemade gum. How does that sound?
@ SF ... 'zackly! It has happened to me with lipstick too! ARRRGGGGHHHH.
@ Tracie ... freshness ... money ... desperado ... I like it! Simple; easy to remember!
@ Tony ... Yes! Just like My Fair Shady, about a guttersnipe who is transformed into a gentile lady! LOLOL ... thanks for the link! I'll check it out.
@ Kev ... homemade gum? Like Willy Wonka's? "It will be the end of all kitchens and all cooking." Sold American! I'll take two cases.
It's Wrigleys "Cool Ice" for me. Nothing else. But I can harken back to the day, in my youth, long ago (how long is privy to me alone) when they first came out with Bubblicious Grape flavored gum. It came 5 (what's the name for a 3 dimensional rectangle?) pieces to a pack and would make your tastebuds dance when you chewed it.
Whenever I had a spare quarter, which was not as often as you might think, I would buy a pack of the gum and chew it until my saliva glands burst an artery (is that possible?) and stand in rapturous delight until the flavor was gone.
A couple years ago, I bought a pack of Bubblicious Grape flavored gum and tried it (35+ years later) again thinking I might recapture that experience. It was raunchy. Bad. Lame. I couldn't force my way through one piece, let alone the whole pack. Had my tastes changed that much? Maybe, but I bet it was the gum that had deteriorated into a commercial enterprise rather than the "tastebud tingler" it had started out as. Maybe it had gotten too expensive to squeeze an entire vinyard of tart grapes into a small "cuboid" (I remembered the name) and they were trying to maximize profits. If that is the case, more power to the capitalist CEO in charge, but I for one, would pay a more than fair price for that youthful delight I experienced when I peeled back the wrapper and sank my teeth into a little taste of heaven.
Change is not always a good thing as necessary as it might be.
@ Tim ... I promise you, man, the gum is the same. It's your tastebuds that have changed ... dare I say matured? LOL ... by the way, when packing a purse for church tonight I found an open pack of Ice Breakers ... the old-fashioned kind. Three pieces remained ... apparently I had made only one hit on it before sequestering the remainder of the pack in a secret compartment of my "shopping" purse. So of course I immediately unwrapped and popped two sticks in, and you talk about RAPTUROUS ... such a texture! The way gum was always intended to be! But alas, the "long lasting flavor" wasn't, on account of this gum had been going stale in my shopping purse for quite some time. *sigh* ... It was good while it lasted ... 15 minutes tops, then another 15 minutes during which I was loath to spit it out. I am desolate.
Good grief! Sounds as if you would NOT have got your tickets if you hadn't threatened the guy with legal action! I simply do not know how people can be that brazenly dishonest!
So glad you got your upgrade! Well done, my friend! ;)
wow! I did not know so many things ... like I did not know that gum can go stale so quickly. I did not know that certain gums pop and others do not. I did not know that people really had die hard choices in gum. I do like to have a piece of gum on occasion but I never learned to pop it. I remember a maid we had when I was small...her name was Goldie..probably due to the large amount of gold on her teeth. She always popped her gum while she mopped and cleaned the house. It intrigued me.
I am a variety gum buyer I guess. I like all the flavors that are out there and try new ones all the time. I admit I am not a real gum expert but I like to have it on hand for that minute or two after a nice dinner and before you breath out your garlic or whatever in conversation. The latest flavor I remember liking was Blackberry Mint. It tasted so good but I had to throw it out the next day because it made my whole purse stink and even the kitchen smelled when I stored the extra in a junk drawer in there.
I remember when I was little there was double mint , juicy fruit, spearmint and peppermint all wrigleys... and then Trident came out with the sugarless craze... after that there was and still is an avalanche of flavors, brands etc... I am giving gum some credit if it keeps people from smoking..heard that is true... that gum is sooooo much cheaper than cigarettes and then there is the real upside... no smoke, no absorption of odor in your clothes ( except blackberry mint ) and no cancer ..well except the scare from the sugarless sweeteners... so chew, pop, bubble away but please keep your mouth closed in public, and dispose of it properly ..one place that no one likes to find gum, is on their shoe.