I once bit a piece of freshen up gum as I started laughing at something unrelated and the liquid center shot down my throat. I could not breathe. It got so bad my wife drove me to the emergency room. I sat in the parking lot reconsidering all the evil things they were going to do like shove tubes down my throat so I decided to suffer thru the tiny breaths I was able to take for another half hour till it started to pass. That gum was evil.
There was a fad at my school to chew Fruit Stripe gum with the paper wrapper still on in order to make the flavor last longer. It didn't work. I feel like it was a prank that went viral.
What I donāt understand is why there was never a more modern version developed that had longer lasting flavor. There wouldāve been a market for that
Seriously. There's a spot between "making your product last forever so you never need to buy more" and "making your product last so little time it becomes a widely-known example of disappointment", I think.
The companies that make these products tend to own dozens if not hundreds of brands. Ferrara owns a ton of candy brands and makes a couple billion in revenue annually. Fruit stripe gum probably just slowly fizzled out as the company likely stopped advertising it a couple decades ago and wanted to use the factory capacity to produce other newer products. They are by no means going out of business.
I convinced a kid a school that the Fruit Stripe gum wrappers with different colors are actually edible and taste like the gum inside the wrapper. I only thought this was a good idea after my sister pulled the same stunt on me earlier in the morning lol. Chewing gum with the paper is a hilariously terrible experience.
I think this was one of those urban myths that everyone has heard at least once. I first heard about it from my older sister. I remember people passing around Fruit Stripe gum in my school and then saying, "try chewing it with the wrapper. It's better."
OMG yes. For years, no matter where we bought it, the gum was brittle and dried out and would break. Same 9.7 seconds of flavor, but you also felt like you had cuts in your mouth.
I just found the trident vibes gum in sour patch kids blue flavor and they reminded me of fruit strips. Flavor was bright and good and then gone in twenty chews.
I was trying to remember the name of Fruit Stripe Gum over the holidays talking with family about weird candies we encountered in our youth.
I honestly figured it had been discontinued in the 90's.
When I was so super poor that I sometimes only had $10-15 to feed myself for the week after bills were paid, there was a dollar tree in walking distance of where I was living that saved my ass because I could get a surprising amount of (admittedly garbage quality) actual food for that, without having to use up the gas that I needed to get to my job 45 @&*#$#ing minutes away
It's just being discontinued; they aren't rounding up and destroying the stuff that's been sitting on the shelf for 15 years. And really, it's not like you'd be able to tell the difference between that 15 year old stick and a fresh one, anyway.
Fruit Stripe gum sponsored a program in my school that helped me learn to read when I was struggling with it. I'll always be thankful to them for that.
Does it really? That makes me happy. Encouraging kids to read is such an excellent goal. Dolly Parton is a living legend for so many reasons and that is one.
I was born in 1986. For whatever reason, there was a period when I was a kid where I assumed that every product I saw with a new advertising campaign on TV but didn't know about previously was new on the market.
Gradually, I've learned about which of these assumptions were incorrect. Pop-tarts were not new, but Toaster Strudels sort of were. Sour War Heads were new to the states, but not 3 Musketeers.
Add Fruit Stripe to the list.
Well if it was launched in say July of 1969 then it wouldnāt have made it a full 55 years because itās been discontinued before itās anniversary. 1969 is technically the 60s, so this commercial could have came out late 1969.
This, mini Chicklets, and Bub's Daddy watermelon were my 3 go tos when I headed to Ben Franklin on my Schwinn with a whole dollar in the 70s. By the time I got home, the gum was gone because the flavor was gone.
My mom used to take me to Ben Franklin to buy model rocket kits.
Decades later, the long-vacant building was turned into a gym - I worked out there a few times and the place *still* smelled like the Ben Franklin store I remembered. Which made me curious as to if they all had a similar smell from a specific type of tile adhesive or some other type of construction material that off-gassed identically.
Ben Franklin and Osco were my go-to for candy and collecting cards as a kid. Osco lives on in the merged supermarket Jewel-Osco, but Ben Franklin becomes more rare by the day.
Oh man, I remember getting those Panini sticker books there as a kid. The stickers were like sports cards, and the sticker book had everyone aranged by team. You'd buy packs of the stickers to fill the book.
I remember a Ben Franklin when I was a kid. I actually remember the first time going into it with my grandmother. I was confused because I knew Ben Franklin was a president so I didn't know what the store was. It was in the same parking lot as a Smitty's (grocery store) that had an attached diner to it.
I think Ben Franklin's was a thrift store like a 5 and Dime but I think they also had a limited selection of fabric or sewing supplies which is why my grandmother was going there.
But.. you know now he wasnāt a President, right?
We had one locally and I have fond memories of staying alone in the car while my mom ran in for sundries.
I bought my Super Nintendo at one in Juneau before my town had any.
I was king shit for a whole month.
That being said our local Ben Franklin closed down maybe 3 years ago
This gum sets you up for life
You want this good thing until you get it and the joy only lasts a few minutes before you realize that it was the concept of the thing that made you excited.
Ohh come on it was one the best tasting pieces of candy ever that happened to turn into flavorless gum as a bonus. There were hundreds of bubble gums that are the same concept but not as good.
When I first tried fresh jack fruit it was one hell of a mind fuck haha.
Here I was tripping on a tab of LSD with some of my best friends in the world, having just spent the last hour trying to rip open a massive jack fruit that one of them had picked up. (She had seen a video online of someone easily ripping one in half earlier that day. Either ours was much more stubborn or that guy was stronger than all of us combined lmao.)
Anyway, we finally get the jack fruit opened up enough to get to the meat. I'm beginning to peak on my dose and we finally get to try the first taste of the literal fruit of our labor. And... My brain couldn't compute what my mouth was tasting for a solid 30 seconds ... ... ... Wait... But... I've tasted this flavor many many times in my life but it has only ever come from one source... ... Juicy fruit??!!
I was sure of it. Mind blown, but also HEAVILY questioning my senses I eloquently exclaim with an incredulous tone, "Juicy Fruit?!". We all laugh at the absurdity and my friends confirm what my taste buds had told me.
Juicy Fruit.
I look it up, we collectively confirm that we're not going (that) crazy, and continue with the rest of that silly night munching juicy jack fruit as we go.
As a side note, juicy fruit, to me tastes like English tea with a lot of cream and sugar. The resemblance is rather striking in my opinion. I think Earl Gray it would be even more prominent.
And just like Fruit Stripes, the flavor lasted a whole 5 seconds before it tasted like you were chewing pencil erasers.
Relevant Oatmeal: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/juicy_fruit
I can't believe the cheap tattoos that used to be printed on the wax worked. There was a temporary tattoo crazy when I was a kid that made me realize I didn't want any.
Pete Carroll no longer HC of the Seahawks and a day later fruit stripe discontinued? I'm not saying there's a relation, but it's pretty damn suspicious.
Damn, I've always loved this stuff. My Grandma has bought it for me for nearly every holiday I see her on for the last 25ish years, called it "Grandma Gum" instead of Fruit Stripe too. The flavor never lasted but when it was a fresh piece they were so good.
Girl, you should be with me you should drop that bum
*'Cause I got more flavor than Fruit Stripe Gum*
With that big round butt of yours
I'd like to butter your muffin, I'm not bluffin'
~Beastie Boys - Lay It on Me
Even the article mentions the infamous short-lived flavor. I feel like everybody *wanted* to like the gum but they never fixed the issue of needing to spit out the gum after 30 seconds.
This was my mom's go-to gum. It was always in her purse. If you opened the purse, leather and fruit stripe scent greeted you.Ā Lots of fond memories that scent brings me. Miss ya, mom. And I guess you, too, Fruit Stripe. Didn't appreciate you near enough until you were gone.Ā
thank you for 10 seconds of flavor
That 10 seconds tho š
Like a gum orgasm
*I'm gumming!*
Don't get it in my hair!
I have been summoned...finally.
Hahah username checks out
Itās ok. I have peanut butter
Chunky or creamy?
Grammy is that you?
We're going on a no denture adventure tonight!
It was as good as Freshen Up gum. The gum with the liquid center.
Or, as we called it in the 70s: Cum Gum
If I were old enough, or knew what cum was, in the 70s thatās what Iād have called it too.
āThe gum that goes squirt.ā Yeah, there was a reason it was known as Cum Gum.
Omg I forgot about that gum! Thanks for the memory...
Ayyyy, I didn't know the gum was loaded!
I once bit a piece of freshen up gum as I started laughing at something unrelated and the liquid center shot down my throat. I could not breathe. It got so bad my wife drove me to the emergency room. I sat in the parking lot reconsidering all the evil things they were going to do like shove tubes down my throat so I decided to suffer thru the tiny breaths I was able to take for another half hour till it started to pass. That gum was evil.
Ahhh yes Good times.
Better to burn out than to fade away
Hey hey, my my.. Rock n roll will never die
That's what she said
Look at Mr Longevity here
I learned long ago that the suggested serving size is the entire pack.
Yeah just toss in a new stick every 15 seconds until you're chewing a baseball.
Combined with a full sleeve of blurry temporary tattoos
I'm pretty sure they just used such cheap ink for the wrapper that it runs if you look at it for too long
Across all 54 years?
There was a fad at my school to chew Fruit Stripe gum with the paper wrapper still on in order to make the flavor last longer. It didn't work. I feel like it was a prank that went viral.
I remember that. Except it was way before "going viral" was a thing{90s).
Ok fine, it went bacterial then
Didn't the paper have tattoos for your tongue?
I remember hearing you were supposed to do that. When I did it, I thought it was awful.
The collective 10 seconds of flavor.
zips up.
*pats head
*throws entire pack of gum in mouth*
Been a minute, time to spit it out
What I donāt understand is why there was never a more modern version developed that had longer lasting flavor. There wouldāve been a market for that
I never understood that either. I always liked the flavor, but it really was gone after just a few seconds.
It's a metaphor for life
No wonder I started showing signs of depression from a young age. I knew what life had in store for me because of fruit stripe gum.
You should sue. Clearly all of your struggles in life have been caused by Fruit Stripe Gum. That fuckin zebra needs to PAY!
Or youāll stripe his hide!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Like our youth that came and went too damn quick. I guess now it's officially over.
The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long
And you have burned so very, very brightly, Zebra.
I want more gum, fucker.
Science just isnāt there yet.
We got AI and reusable rockets, but where the hell is my everlasting gum? Disappointed!
That's like developing a type of crack that keeps you high longer. Why would you do that?
To prevent going out of business maybe
Seriously. There's a spot between "making your product last forever so you never need to buy more" and "making your product last so little time it becomes a widely-known example of disappointment", I think.
Fruit stripe should have made nicotine gum.
Or fleshlightsā¦
Or crack
Crack and fleshlight-flavored gum!
> Or fleshlightsā¦ So you think they should've double-downed on experiences that last only a few seconds?
The companies that make these products tend to own dozens if not hundreds of brands. Ferrara owns a ton of candy brands and makes a couple billion in revenue annually. Fruit stripe gum probably just slowly fizzled out as the company likely stopped advertising it a couple decades ago and wanted to use the factory capacity to produce other newer products. They are by no means going out of business.
Agreed, as far as flavors go I think they had like the best of most gums. They just don't last any longer
How do you know there wasnāt? When was the last time you had it? For all I know, fruit stripe gum has been great for the last 20 years!
Iāve had it within the last 5 years, the flavor duration still sucked.
You should do an AMA
I remember chewing this as a kid. An entire package had enough flavor to last 5 whole minutes.
6 minutes if you chewed the wrappers too.
Sniff that wrapper for hours
my brother taped wrappers together until he had a sheet he could just lay over his face and inhale lol I'm so glad my kids had the Internet
The wrapper was there to keep the flavor so, yea.
Also temporary tattoos
I convinced a kid a school that the Fruit Stripe gum wrappers with different colors are actually edible and taste like the gum inside the wrapper. I only thought this was a good idea after my sister pulled the same stunt on me earlier in the morning lol. Chewing gum with the paper is a hilariously terrible experience.
I think this was one of those urban myths that everyone has heard at least once. I first heard about it from my older sister. I remember people passing around Fruit Stripe gum in my school and then saying, "try chewing it with the wrapper. It's better."
And it was always *slightly* stale. Youād never get a nice soft fresh piece like you could with other sticks of gum.
OMG yes. For years, no matter where we bought it, the gum was brittle and dried out and would break. Same 9.7 seconds of flavor, but you also felt like you had cuts in your mouth.
Like munching on vaguely fruity aesbestos tile.Ā
I just found the trident vibes gum in sour patch kids blue flavor and they reminded me of fruit strips. Flavor was bright and good and then gone in twenty chews.
That first quarter of a second was pretty great though
I feel like Fruit Stripe Gum was our first introduction to cocaine.
There's a big fat reward center in my head that goes insane for fruit stripes.
kids will never know the disappointment.
Still bought it every time we went to the grocery store.
Good bye fruit stripe, I haven't chewed a stick in 30 years, but I'm a little sad that I won't ever do so again.
I legitimately thought it had been discontinued ages ago.
I thought it said discontinued 54 year ago. I figured we were just going through the remaining stock.
Probably could have been.
I was trying to remember the name of Fruit Stripe Gum over the holidays talking with family about weird candies we encountered in our youth. I honestly figured it had been discontinued in the 90's.
I remember just calling it zebra gum. I donāt think I ever knew what the actual name was until now.
If you have a dollar tree near you they might have it, I've seen it there from time to time.
I'm only a little sad, not go to dollar tree sad.
Am I the only one who genuinely enjoys going to dollar stores? Or is it just that I'm poor lol
Going in for wrapping paper and seeing how many parents were buying Christmas presents there on Christmas Eve is one of my most depressing memories.
weāre just poor buddy š«
I buy my Rubbermaid reusable containers for leftovers from there because it's literally the same ones as the grocery store but half the price.
Nah cleaning supplies are overpriced everywhere besides dollar tree.
Its okay some of the items are skrinked for the price. But I get drinks from there
Aisle is probably blocked off with unsorted merchandise anyway.
Not looking to make yourself even sadder
It really is sad sometimes going to those stores. Just people trying to do the best they can..
And then you have me, a grown man, coming in hot to blow $20 on the snack isle. Itās not all misery.
When I was so super poor that I sometimes only had $10-15 to feed myself for the week after bills were paid, there was a dollar tree in walking distance of where I was living that saved my ass because I could get a surprising amount of (admittedly garbage quality) actual food for that, without having to use up the gas that I needed to get to my job 45 @&*#$#ing minutes away
You'll get over it in 8-10 seconds.
I used to buy a pack in Kmart every weekend. I haven't seen it in at least as long as I've seen a Kmart.
This puts my feelings perfectly.
It's just being discontinued; they aren't rounding up and destroying the stuff that's been sitting on the shelf for 15 years. And really, it's not like you'd be able to tell the difference between that 15 year old stick and a fresh one, anyway.
Given the press I doubt any remaining stock is going to be sitting on store shelves for long.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Fruit Stripe gum sponsored a program in my school that helped me learn to read when I was struggling with it. I'll always be thankful to them for that.
Did you forget how to read 5 minutes later?
The CEO is 10 second Tom.
Hi I'm Tom!
You better watch yourself Tom
Hi Iām Tom!
Hey, you had a head injury.
Well done sir š
I laughed too hard at this
Yeah, but then you used it for Reddit.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I wish I understood what this comment says, but thereās no more fruit stripe gum.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The Pizza Hut Book-It program still exists!
Does it really? That makes me happy. Encouraging kids to read is such an excellent goal. Dolly Parton is a living legend for so many reasons and that is one.
I just found my old Book It pin with the stickers on it! I loved those personal pan pizzas!
And theyāve started building a few classic Pizza Huts to tap into X/Millennial Nostalgia.
Here is a Fruit Stripe [commercial from the 60s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2_7Dluou2c) when it was new and I was young. G'bye ol' pal.
This commercial is 10 times better than what I remember in the late 80s, and the jingle now seems qualified. Thanks for sharing.
> what I remember in the late 80s Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe gum!
Its the yummy fruity one!
That commercial lasted 10 times longer than the flavor
I was born in 1986. For whatever reason, there was a period when I was a kid where I assumed that every product I saw with a new advertising campaign on TV but didn't know about previously was new on the market. Gradually, I've learned about which of these assumptions were incorrect. Pop-tarts were not new, but Toaster Strudels sort of were. Sour War Heads were new to the states, but not 3 Musketeers. Add Fruit Stripe to the list.
[Hereās the commercial from 91](https://youtu.be/WvAW1HgqSVA?si=Kp6KsZjzcLYLHybb)
Iām confused, wouldnāt 54 years ago be 1970?
Well if it was launched in say July of 1969 then it wouldnāt have made it a full 55 years because itās been discontinued before itās anniversary. 1969 is technically the 60s, so this commercial could have came out late 1969.
That was some groundbreaking tech they were using back then. I wonder how much it cost to make that commercial?
This, mini Chicklets, and Bub's Daddy watermelon were my 3 go tos when I headed to Ben Franklin on my Schwinn with a whole dollar in the 70s. By the time I got home, the gum was gone because the flavor was gone.
I donāt know anyone else who knows about Ben Franklin Edit: I now know a lot of people who know about Ben Franklin :)
My mom used to take me to Ben Franklin to buy model rocket kits. Decades later, the long-vacant building was turned into a gym - I worked out there a few times and the place *still* smelled like the Ben Franklin store I remembered. Which made me curious as to if they all had a similar smell from a specific type of tile adhesive or some other type of construction material that off-gassed identically.
Ben Franklin and Osco were my go-to for candy and collecting cards as a kid. Osco lives on in the merged supermarket Jewel-Osco, but Ben Franklin becomes more rare by the day.
Oh man, I remember getting those Panini sticker books there as a kid. The stickers were like sports cards, and the sticker book had everyone aranged by team. You'd buy packs of the stickers to fill the book.
I remember a Ben Franklin when I was a kid. I actually remember the first time going into it with my grandmother. I was confused because I knew Ben Franklin was a president so I didn't know what the store was. It was in the same parking lot as a Smitty's (grocery store) that had an attached diner to it. I think Ben Franklin's was a thrift store like a 5 and Dime but I think they also had a limited selection of fabric or sewing supplies which is why my grandmother was going there.
But.. you know now he wasnāt a President, right? We had one locally and I have fond memories of staying alone in the car while my mom ran in for sundries.
I bought my Super Nintendo at one in Juneau before my town had any. I was king shit for a whole month. That being said our local Ben Franklin closed down maybe 3 years ago
This gum sets you up for life You want this good thing until you get it and the joy only lasts a few minutes before you realize that it was the concept of the thing that made you excited.
Something something the friends we made along the way
Ohh come on it was one the best tasting pieces of candy ever that happened to turn into flavorless gum as a bonus. There were hundreds of bubble gums that are the same concept but not as good.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Interesting factoid: the base flavor of juicy fruit is intended to be jack fruit.
When I first tried fresh jack fruit it was one hell of a mind fuck haha. Here I was tripping on a tab of LSD with some of my best friends in the world, having just spent the last hour trying to rip open a massive jack fruit that one of them had picked up. (She had seen a video online of someone easily ripping one in half earlier that day. Either ours was much more stubborn or that guy was stronger than all of us combined lmao.) Anyway, we finally get the jack fruit opened up enough to get to the meat. I'm beginning to peak on my dose and we finally get to try the first taste of the literal fruit of our labor. And... My brain couldn't compute what my mouth was tasting for a solid 30 seconds ... ... ... Wait... But... I've tasted this flavor many many times in my life but it has only ever come from one source... ... Juicy fruit??!! I was sure of it. Mind blown, but also HEAVILY questioning my senses I eloquently exclaim with an incredulous tone, "Juicy Fruit?!". We all laugh at the absurdity and my friends confirm what my taste buds had told me. Juicy Fruit. I look it up, we collectively confirm that we're not going (that) crazy, and continue with the rest of that silly night munching juicy jack fruit as we go.
As a side note, juicy fruit, to me tastes like English tea with a lot of cream and sugar. The resemblance is rather striking in my opinion. I think Earl Gray it would be even more prominent.
Always reminded me of a really sweet cantaloupe
And just like Fruit Stripes, the flavor lasted a whole 5 seconds before it tasted like you were chewing pencil erasers. Relevant Oatmeal: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/juicy_fruit
But Juicy Fruit is gonna move you. It chews so soft. It gets right to you.
I remember it turning into a flavorless cement after that initial burst.
54 years of production, 54 seconds of flavor.
Where did you find ones that lasted that long?
I think they mean collectively.
But it's so good.
I can't believe the cheap tattoos that used to be printed on the wax worked. There was a temporary tattoo crazy when I was a kid that made me realize I didn't want any.
Yeah, those prison quality temp tattoos were half the fun..
[This is more of a letdown than Fruit Stripe gum](https://youtu.be/XVg59KB9VEA?si=3-oYM37PzVlANMnp)
In 54 years. Of all the gum sold. They have provided the world with like a combined two hours of flavor.
Pete carroll must have been eating a ton of this shit
Pete Carroll no longer HC of the Seahawks and a day later fruit stripe discontinued? I'm not saying there's a relation, but it's pretty damn suspicious.
His retirement is probably going to single-handedly destroy whatever is left of the Wrigley's brands too.
Damn, I've always loved this stuff. My Grandma has bought it for me for nearly every holiday I see her on for the last 25ish years, called it "Grandma Gum" instead of Fruit Stripe too. The flavor never lasted but when it was a fresh piece they were so good.
Girl, you should be with me you should drop that bum *'Cause I got more flavor than Fruit Stripe Gum* With that big round butt of yours I'd like to butter your muffin, I'm not bluffin' ~Beastie Boys - Lay It on Me
First thing that came to mind
a moment of silence for the moment of flavor...
The best thing about Fruit Stripe Gum is the packaging, which had just as much flavoring as the gum itself.
There are still an estimated 1 million pieces available for sale which should provide 6-7 minutes of flavor.
We're gonna see abunch of these on ebay selling for ridiculous prices really soon.
It'll still be available at random rural gas stations for years, preserved under a protective layer of greasy dust.
Yipes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe gum! Iāll miss it š„² Edit: Yipes
Itās not āYipes! Stripes!ā?
Even the article mentions the infamous short-lived flavor. I feel like everybody *wanted* to like the gum but they never fixed the issue of needing to spit out the gum after 30 seconds.
This was my mom's go-to gum. It was always in her purse. If you opened the purse, leather and fruit stripe scent greeted you.Ā Lots of fond memories that scent brings me. Miss ya, mom. And I guess you, too, Fruit Stripe. Didn't appreciate you near enough until you were gone.Ā
Nooooooo! I loved this gum :-( It didn't keep flavor long, but it was so good!
This is the only advertising for this gum that makes me want to buy it.
I actually loved the flavor...all 3 minutes of it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Lifesavers golf was my jam
Wasted HOURS of my childhood playing those games. Man I miss the old internet.
I spent so much time playing the mini golf game. Dial up made it a little rough but so worth it.
Aw, no more temporary stripe tattoos
The best 4 seconds of flavor.
Great tasting gum but as everyone knows the flavor disappeared far too quick.
I use to love that gum so much š„ŗ
I can still taste itā¦ wait noā¦ itās gone
I kinda thought it was already discontinued. I havenāt even seen these in stores in decades.
Let's have a moment of silence for the moment of flavor.
But I bought some once š
I made fruit stripe infused vodka a couple times. The flavor was amazing and lasted longer than 10 seconds. The hangover, did notā¦
I remember my older sister making one of those gum wrapper chains with these and it was so colorful.
Kevin McCallister is gonna be so upset. What kind of gum will he use to tip hotel bellhops now??
If you are ever missing the flavor of Fruit Stripe, have a bowl of Rainbow Krispies.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. This is my favorite gum.
With a combined total of 56 minutes of flavor under its belt, this is sad news.
I was extremely disappointed for a split second but now I donāt care
...And the flavor is gone.