Friday, June 24, 2005

The Mystery of the Disappearing Gum

Altoids are one of the most fascinating breath freshner inventions we've been priviliged to enjoy. As I perused the aisles of my local Walgreen's, I came upon a new product line from those curiously strong folks - Altoids gum. Featured in the flagship Peppermint flavor, hot cinnamon, and sour tangy flavors, I decided to indulge. Since my Altoid of choice is normally cinnamon flavor (see my earlier love for Hot Tamales), I picked up a couple of packs, or more appropriately, tins of this new discovery.

One of the perks of this product is no wrapper. A quirky pet peeve of mine is chewing gum that has wrappers. Now, up until the last few years, all chewing gum had wrappers. Shoot, I even remember making chewing gum wrapper bracelets and necklaces when I was in elementary school. But, now that I'm an adult and carry gum around in my purse, I don't want to have to dispose of the wrapper when I'm on the move. Silly quirk, I know, but a part of me doesn't like a purse full of wrapper trash or being a litterbug.

But, the interesting thing about this gum is that it disappears. Yep, you read that right. If I chew this gum for more than 2 hours, it disengrates in my mouth and it's a race to spit it out before I digest it. I remember a day when you would have to chew gum for hours on end for that to happen. And some of the bubble gum brands never seem to disappear, just make my jaw hurt.

Maybe that's the plan of Altoids - like the mint, the gum eventually dissolves. Who knows, but I'd love to solve the mystery.

1 comment:

A.J. said...

i just tried the altoids gum for the first time a couple of days ago as well. i didn't chew it long enough to know it disappeared though, sounds very interesting.