How to Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kits

Chewing gum kits are a great educational tool for kids and teenagers, and assembling one is easy. Although fully assembled kits can be purchased from various retailers, creating your own kits allows you to customize each one with your favorite flavors, and make a large quantity on a budget. Traditionally, chewing gum was made with chicle, a natural latex produced by manilkara trees, but many modern gum bases now contain synthetic rubbers, which are cheaper for manufacturers. Whether you choose a natural or synthetic gum base is up to you; both will achieve the same product.

Things You'll Need

• Gum base
• Confectioner's sugar
• Corn syrup
• Flavoring
• Wax paper
• 2 zippered bags
• 3-oz. plastic bottle
• Dropper bottle
• Microwaveable plastic container

Instructions

1. Measure 2 oz. of gum base per kit and place it in a zippered bag. This will yield approximately 50 pieces of gum.

2. Measure 1 cup of confectioner's sugar and place it in a second zippered bag.

3. Pour 3 tbsp. of corn syrup into the 3-oz. plastic container. This ensures that the syrup won't leak.

4. Fill the dropper bottle with flavoring. The flavoring can be anything you choose, like artificial fruit flavors, cinnamon or mint, but should be food grade. This allows the recipient of the kit to control how much flavoring to add. Note that each kit should include at least 10 drops of an individual flavoring.

5. Cut a sheet of wax paper large enough to comfortably cover a large working area. This will be the surface on which the recipient will use the kit to make the gum, so judge accordingly. Fold the paper until it fits into the microwaveable plastic container.

6. Place the folded wax paper, one bag of gum base, one bag of confectioner's sugar, one bottle of corn syrup and the flavoring into the microwaveable container. The kit now has everything the recipient needs to make his own chewing gum, including the container itself, which will be used to microwave the gum base.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to include instructions in your chewing gum kit. Instructions for making chewing gum are easily found online, and simply printing them out and placing them in the kit will make it more convenient for the recipient.

• Corn syrup has a tendency to stick to the sides of the plastic bottle. It's a good idea to pour more than is necessary, so the recipient will have enough.

• Food coloring can be added to the kit to give the gum different colors.

• Be sure to only use food-grade flavorings in your kit. A variety of safe flavorings can be purchased at your local grocery store or at a specialty food supplier.

• Once the gum base is microwaved, it will be very hot, so be sure to caution the recipient to use safe handling techniques.

References

• Glee Gum
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Chicle

Resources

• CDKitchen: Bubble Gum Recipe