Coffee Gum – Love It or Hate It

By Veron | Posted in Food
Tags #Coffee

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My name is Veron, and I’m a coffeeholic.

There’s something magical about coffee. A whiff of it is enough to perk me up. My morning begins with sipping from a chewed styrofoam cup of piping hot coffee, with added evaporated milk. This love affair with coffee started when I was just a kid. It’s one of those things that I cannot even think of giving up. Perhaps this is the same way smokers feel about cigarettes?

A friend that recently came back from China passed me these unusual coffee gum, the creations of two companies, wrigley and lotte. Now, there’s coffee chocolate, coffee ice cream and coffee buns. There’s even a coffee edition of kit kat. So obviously there’s a strong consumer interest in coffee-flavored products.

But for me, coffee-flavored chewing gum sure is a first!

Wrigley's Coffee Gum

Wrigley’s Coffee Gum

Upon unwrapping the stick of gum from its silver wrapping, the unmistakable aroma of coffee immediately wafts through the air. It is surprising that something so small can produce an aroma this strong. Brownie points for that!

The gum is a lovely shade of coffee color, sprinkled with tiny specks of dark brown. When I put it into my mouth, it’s a pleasantly sweet coffee taste. Because real coffee powder is used, there’s even a minute amount of caffeine in this.

Wrigley’s coffee gum was first rolled out in China in 2005. I think that’s the only country to have it even up to today. There is an american equivalent of it though — the doublemint kona crème coffee-flavored gum.

Lotte Coffee Gum

Lotte Coffee Gum

Another caffeinated chewing gum for coffeeholics is the lotte coffee gum. If you’re curious, the ingredients are as follows: sugar, chewing gum base, corn syrup, glucose, glycerin, instant coffee powder, coffee flavoring. For these coffee gum, the coffee flavor was strong while it lasted, which wasn’t that long.

At this point, I’m starting to think that coffee gum may be suitable for heavy coffee drinkers that want to wean themselves off the beverage.

The product has its fair share of haters, with some proclaiming it to be “one of the worst ideas of the world”. After all, “don’t you chew gum to get rid of coffee breath?” I think it’s pretty clear that coffee gum is targeted at people that actually love coffee, and wouldn’t mind having the taste of it. If you want minty fresh breath, there’s already a whole range of mint-flavored gum.

But having said that, I would never substitute this for my favorite coffee beverage. Sipping and savoring a cup of joe is a wonderful experience and culture in itself that no coffee-flavored product can replace.

(someone would mention it anyway, so yes, Singapore is the country with the infamous chewing gum ban. But that doesn’t stop us from stashing some into our bags when returning from overseas.)

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About the Author

Veron Ang is the founder and chief editor of Sparklette. She lives in Singapore and has dined and traveled across the world. She also runs Sparklette Studio, a web design and development firm. If you'd like to connect with her, head on over to the contact page or follow her personal updates on Twitter: @VeronSG.

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18 responses

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malique
June 20

My name is Malique and i’m a caffeine addict.
Wow this is unique! Coffee is, to me, a very ‘easy’ flavor. It can go well with so many things. Bread? Milk? Sweets? ice cream? The possibilities are endless!
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GaMerZ
June 20

Wha that looks good. When I go Msia next month, I shall check it out!
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Holly
June 20

That’s bizarre! I’d definitely try some, but I’m another coffeeholic and I don’t think I’ve ever take it up as a replacement!
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py
June 20

This coffee-flavoured chewing gum rather unique. It’s very nice of your friend to get these for you.
I would give it a miss though. I prefer not to drink coffee..
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Vampire Bats
June 21

haha … interesting, i think i would actually hate it, but i know someone who would love it … this could be a way to appease coffee addicts , when they can’t get coffee !
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Veron
June 22

malique: In some ways it’s like chocolate. It’s loved by all and appears in so many different forms!
GaMerZ: I think they only have this in China! I might be wrong though, so let us know if you could find it in Malaysia!
Holly: Definitely not a replacement :)
py: Yup it’s an acquired taste. I started drinking coffee since I was a little girl, and grew up loving it.
Vampire Bats: Exactly! It doesn’t really give that much of a kick as a cup of joe would. But it beats having no coffee at all!
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jasmine
June 22

Hey veron,
I’d tried these sort of gum in China last year.
Unfortunately, even though I love coffee, I didn’t like the gum. :(
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Veron
June 23

I didn’t -love- the gum, although the taste and aroma were pretty decent. But I love my coffee beverage too much to love another :P
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Valerie
June 23

wow!!! look so yummi. I am a coffee lover also. Same same as I will always have a cup of sipping hot coffee everymorning.
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EJ
June 25

Hello Veron. It’s really lovely blog!
Anyway, I know lotte coffe gum. that’s a Korean gum. It’s nice to see Korean product on another nationality person’s blog.
Because I’m Korean :-)
(That’s why I’m not so good at English.. T_T)
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prettygeeky.com
June 25

I use to be such a coffee addict as well…3 cups a day at the least and just the smell of it was so intoxicating. lol, but I finally realized my insomnia was probably due to that fact alone and so sadly I had to cut it out of my diet completely. =( The good thing is I don’t crave it anymore, yipee…freedom at last! ahah
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TeReNcE
June 26

the coffee gums look pleasing.. but i cant take coffee lor.
anywhere selling tea gums instead? :)
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Veron
June 27

Valerie: Yes, mornings just don’t feel right without coffee.
EJ: Is the Lotte coffee gum available in Korea too? From what I’ve read, it seems that it is sold only in China.
prettygeeky: Wow, I wonder what my life would be like without coffee. I’m already immune to caffeine. I can down a cup at night and still fall asleep soon after.
TeReNcE: Now THAT would be another interesting product. Actually, there’s already green tea gum on the market.
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Princess
July 2

Hi Veron… just want to say ur blog is packed with great foodies! and i must say the coffee gum certainly interest me! :-)
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stardropx
July 4

try the coffee ribs from zhou’s kitchen! i tried them at the branch in far east square. it smelled funny. the coffee smell was so strong. but when you it eat, the coffee taste isnt that strong anymore and it’s sweet! hahaha. interesting. oh and the ribs are rather crispy too! really an unique dish which goes well with rice! actually i would think zhou’s kitchen is a great place to go for chi food! my boss treated us lunch there and we tried sooooo many dishes and every dish was good! i absolutely love the mini egg tarts too! =D
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Veron
July 4

You totally had me at the coffee ribs. What an intriguing (if peculiar) combination! I’m adding this place to my list of must-visits.
Thanks for the recommendation!
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jerlin
October 12

I’ve tried this gum before too. Tastes pretty good to me (:
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Angel
January 29

Hi I had tried the gum to be honest with you I have never tried a gum that tastes as good as this I just to buy it in Mexico but it’s been a while since I last got it by any chance does anyone knows how to get some?
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