Must Sugar-Free “Desserts” Lemon Meringue Pie Flavor Gum

I was never a super huge fan of gum. I always had very specific likes and dislikes when it came to chewing/bubble gum but for some reason over the past few months I don’t care for gum at all. I can’t remember when the last time I put a piece of gum in my mouth, if it wasn’t for the purposes of trying something new and possibly writing a blog post about it. There have even been a few new gums on the market that I didn’t review because I wasn’t interested in trying them. Then when I was at a rest stop in the Negev and I saw this Lemon Meringue Pie flavored Must Sugar Free Gum and I was intrigued I ”had to try it”. At that point I had not seen a press release about this “desserts” line of Must gums and I had not noticed them in any of the supermarkets I usually shop in so I got a pack to try, by now I think they are available all over the country and I even saw an ad for them on TV last night. 

מסטיק ללא סוכר בטעמי קינוחים: פאי לימון ושטרודל תפוחים וקינמון

The other flavor in this Must “Desserts” line is Apple Cinnamon Strudel. I would have gotten that too because I used to really like a good cinnamon gum but the apple part put me off. I really do not enjoy sweet fruit flavored gums and I was afraid the apple part would be dominant and too sweet for my liking so I skipped that option.

Must's Ice Pop Flavored Sugar Free Gum

סדרת מסטיקים בטעמי קרטיבים

In my post about Menots’s 3D Gum the other day I mentioned that I also have a line of Must Gum to tell you about, this post was meant to go up last week but for one reason or another it had to get pushed off until today, sorry about that but here it is now so let's go... 

Just in time for summer Must released a line of sugar free gums based on popular ice pop flavors; Lemon, Pineapple and “Traffic Light”; the red, yellow and green ice pop that many kids enjoy on a hot summers day.

Mentos 3D Gum

I find it odd how in such a small market, like the local Israeli market, in the span of one week three companies have come out with new gums. Last week I told you about Orbit's White line of gums, today I’ll write about Mentos’s 3D Gums and I also have a new Must line of gum to review later in the week. I would think that each brand would want to try and spread it out so they don’t have such a strong competition with the initial launch but maybe they don’t know when the other companies are introducing their new product so they can’t really control when things like this happen. I don’t know but it just struck me as interesting how all three of them hit the shelves at the same time, now onto Mentos’s 3D gum.

Wrigley’s Orbit Sugar Free White Micro Crystals Gum

   מסטיק אורביט  White עם מיקרו קריסטלים   

Orbit’s latest sugar free chewing gums to hit the local market are a line they are calling White with Micro Crystals. Somehow I don’t think this is all that new and I kind of think Wrigley’s have had a “White” line like this for a while. Maybe these micro crystals are new or maybe it’s an “improved line”? I’m not 100% sure. I tried to find out via Google but the more I searched the more confused I got about what was new and what just improved or renamed. In any event the three flavors of this “new” White with Micro Crystals gum are Fruit, Mint and Spearmint.

SuperPharm's "Product of the Year" Sale

SuperPharm is having a "Product of the Year" Sale

Many products that won the

 2012 Product of the Year Award

are on sale for about the next two weeks at

Superpharm.

מוצרי השנה 2012

Wrigley’s Zephyr/Strawberry 5 Gum

מסטיק פייב בטעם תות - זייפר

Wrigley’s 5 have a new sugar-free gum on the market. This time they went for a strawberry flavored gum. 

As I mentioned, in a response to a comment left on my blog a few days ago, Israel was given the “honor” of being the first country in the world to début this new Zephyr 5 Gum. The press release I read mentioned that due to the major success past 5 Gum flavors had on the local market Wrigley’s decided to have Israel be the first county to start selling this new flavor. 

I don’t know when it’s expected to be in stores in the rest of the world. I do know that when I looked for it here in Israel earlier in the week I couldn’t find it but today I found it where ever I looked.

Must's Apple Flavored Cube Gum

I know I'm a little late posting about this gum and you may have tried it by now but this is one of a few posts I was able to salvage from my broken laptop. Since it was written and ready to go I figured I'd post it just in case there were people out there who would be interested in reading it.

I still don't have a new laptop but hope to have one very soon then I'll be able to get back into the swing of posting on a regular basis. Till then thank you for your patience.

עלית מסטיק מאסט קוביות תפוח חמוץ

Must added a new flavor to their Cubed Gums. This time it's Green Apple flavored gum. As I mentioned last March, when Must added Tropical Fruit and Strawberry flavors, I'm not a huge fan of sweet fruit flavored gums but like I wrote in my review of Hubba Bubbas Apple Flavored Gum I do like sour fruit flavored gums to some degree, so I was curious to see if this Must Cubed Apple flavored gum lived up to the word "sour" that Elite wrote on the corner of the box.

Bazooka Cola Flavored and Strawberry Flavored Gum

Bazooka has two new gums on the market. One is Cola Flavored Gum and the other is Strawberry Flavored Gum.

מסטיק בזוקה בטעם קולה ותות 

Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum
I was so pleasantly surprised that I had enjoyed Chupa Chups Cola Flavored Magic Powder Lollipop that I was sure I would also like this new Bazooka Cola Flavored Gum. I didn’t hesitate and popped one in my mouth. HUGE mistake!!! Oh my goodness I thought it was AWFUL!

When I first put it in my mouth, before I even chewed the gum, I still thought I would like it. The gum seemed to have a slight tanginess to it, but after the first "bite" the so called "cola flavor" kicked in and I had to get it out of my mouth really fast!

I can't really tell you very much more about this Bazooka Cola Flavored gum. I don’t even know if it tasted anything like cola. I just know I could not stand the taste. I went straight to brush my teeth so I can get the horrible flavor completely washed out of my mouth as fast as possible.

Bottom Line: I couldn't handle the taste of this Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum. The only thing I enjoyed about this Bazooka gum was the "Did You Know Fact" printed on the wrapper, under the Bazooka Joe cartoon. So did you know "that an office chair travels approximately 13 kilometers a year?" 

Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum

After my experience with the Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum I was a little worried about tasting the Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum. I actually waited a few weeks until I had the "guts" to taste it. In comparison it actually wasn't all that bad.

I did notice a strawberry flavor but it wasn’t one of the most overpowering strawberry flavors I've tasted in a gum before.

The Strawberry Bazooka Flavored Gum was fine. The flavor was sweet but not "unbearably sweet", like I hate in many fruit flavored gum.

This gum is by no means "long lasting" after just a few moments of chewing and making bubbles the flavor was all gone.

Like the Hubba Bubba Gum I reviewed a few weeks ago, the size and shape of these new Bazooka Gums are very conducive to popping big fun bubbles.

Bottom Line: The Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum was OK. I didn’t hate it like I hated the Cola Flavor one but I didn’t love it either. I think there are better fruit flavored gums available on the marker here. If you really want a Bazooka Gum I would say stay stick to the original Bubble Gum Flavored Bazooka. Then again it's been YEARS since I tasted that and I don’t know what I would think of it now.

Both of these Bazooka Gums have no artificial food coloring.

Pack of 5 pieces (6 grams each) - 2.90 NIS

Kosher OU and Rabbinate Nazareth-Illit

       

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Five's "Evolution" Sugar Free Gum

Five, who not too long ago gave us the Watermelon Flavored Gum, have now put out their next new gum called "Evolution …a sour to sweet citrus pear gum"

 מסטיק פייב בטעם אגס וליים 

Considering that I didn’t love the watermelon flavored gum I wasn’t sure if I should even taste this new Five gum. But when I read that it's a "sour to sweet citrus flavor" I was intrigued. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the pear flavor they added at the end; I don’t really care for sweet fruit flavored gums, but I do like sour/lemon flavors, so that convinced me to give this gum a try.

When I opened the package and the strong "sweet" pear aroma hit me I was worried that I wouldn’t like it but I was pleasantly surprised that the Five Evolution Gum actually lived up exactly to what the label said it would be. It started out as a sour lime tangy flavor, which I really liked, and then slowly as I chewed it I noticed a hint of sweetness and just a drop of pear. The sweet and sour (tangy) flavors "took turns" popping in and out but as a whole I thought it was more sour than sweet, I really liked that.

I actually looked at the clock when I first put the gum in my mouth so I can see how long the flavor lasted, problem is I got busy with something else and I forgot to check the clock when I threw the gum out, but it was roughly half an hour, so I would absolutely categorize this Five Evolution Gum as "long lasting".

Bottom Line: I thought Five chose the perfect name for this new gum. "Evolution" precisely describes this sour to sweet stick of sugar free gum. I enjoyed the "sensation" and mix of flavors that I tasted while chewing it. It may not become my new "go to" gum but I think I will pick it up from time to time when it's on sale and I want something a little different than the mint I normally go for.

12 sticks of gum – 6.50 NIS

Kosher Parve Badatz KF London approved by Chief Rabbinate Israel

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Elite's Alma Sugar Free Gum

Elite's Alma brand of gum was one of their first gums sold in Israel in the 1950's and 60's. It stayed on the shelves until Orbit gum became popular here in the 1990's. The Israeli public was becoming more health conscious and preferred sugar free gums and the Alma gums were not sugar free so Elite slowly stopped making them.

In 2007 as a wave of retro nostalgia filled the country Elite decided to reintroduce Alma gum, under their Must brand, in honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut. This time it was sugar free and "Chiclets" shaped as opposed to sticks of gum but the logo was the same and that seemed to do the trick for some.



Now Elite decided to add a few more flavors to this "renewed" Alma line. These 3 new gums are geared toward women. To me, the envelope packaging does seem to have a retro feminine design so I guess they succeeded on that note. The 3 flavors in this new line are Mint, Lemon and Cinnamon. All of them are sugar free and there 12 sticks per package.

מסטיק עלמה עלית

Lemon Flavor

As I opened the package and read the greeting printed inside the top flap "may you have a refreshing day" I was struck by the strong lemon flavor. I should mention the cinnamon gum had the same greeting printed inside and smelled like cinnamon gum but the flavor didn't "pop out" at me as soon as I opened the envelope like the lemon flavor did.

For the first 2 minutes or so of chewing the gum the lemon flavor was very strong. But quite quickly the lemon diminished and it was just a sweet chewing gum with a slight touch of lemon from time to time. I actually thought it was a little too sweet and would have preferred it to have a tangier lemon flavor and not be so sweet

This gum is not very conducive to blowing bubbles like the Hubba Bubba gum is but that’s ok considering this Alma gum is a chewing gum and not a bubble gum.

Bottom line: This lemon flavored Alma Gum is not tangy or sour enough for me, aside from which, I thought it was too sweet for me. So although it was not a bad gum per say, I don’t think it will be a gum I will buy again.

Cinnamon Flavor

I have always liked cinnamon flavor gum. It's my second favorite flavor after mint gums. I guess I'm not the only one because this cinnamon flavor was suggested to Strauss Elite via the "My Strauss" website that I told you about in my review of the White Chocolate Covered Kif Kef Bar. I suppose enough people "liked" the suggestion and Elite decided to go with it.

The fact is years ago Elite Must did have a cinnamon gum, on the market, that I enjoyed and I was disappointed when they discontinued it. I was hoping the new Cinnamon Alma gum would be similar to that and I was excited to try it.

This Alma Cinnamon gum is a sweet and "cinnamon" spicy gum at the same time. I would have to say to me it seemed sweeter than other cinnamon gums and I think it's sweeter than the Must one I was remembering but it's clearly a cinnamon flavored gum.

Bottom Line: The cinnamon flavor did last long enough in my opinion but, like with the lemon gum, the overall sweetness was a little too much for me. I personally would have preferred it to be a bit more "hot & spicy". I don’t know how popular hot cinnamon gum is so I'm guessing they were trying to make a flavor that would "appeal to the masses". I may pick it up from time to time but I highly doubt it will become a "go to" gum for me.

Update: You can use this 1+1 coupon to buy any of these new Alma gums at Superpharm. It's good from now until Feb. 19, 2012 or as long as supply lasts.



(source)

Pack of 12 Gum Sticks – 6.70 NIS

Kosher Parve OU approved by Chief Rabbinate of Israel

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Hubba Bubba's Apple Flavored Gum

Wrigley has a new Hubba Bubba gum on the market, here in Israel, it’s an apple flavored gum.

הובה בובה מסטיק תפוח

I was kind of curious where the name Hubba Bubba came from, I found a detailed timeline with the answer on Wrigley's Hubba Bubba page 

"1979: Hubba Bubba was the first bubble gum introduced by the Wrigley Company. The name comes from the phrase "Hubba Hubba" which was used by soldiers during World War II to express approval. "

I think it's cool to know that Hubba Bubba was actually their first bubble gum and that Wrigley only started making bubble gum in 1979, somehow I thought they were making bubble gum way before that. Back to this new flavor…

I would really call this new, light green colored, Hubba Bubba Gum "Green Apple" or "Sour Apple" because to me it has a green apple /sour apple flavor but Hubba Bubba just calls it Apple flavor.

I liked this new apple flavored gum. I think I mentioned in my reviews of Must Cubed Gums , Mentos Gums and Five Watermelon Gum that I'm not a huge fan of fruit flavored gums, I much prefer the mint family of gums, but this apple gum was more sour than an overly sweet/"tutti frutti" flavor, so I actually enjoyed this sour apple flavor and thought it was a nice change.

The apple flavor did wear off fairly quickly but Hubba Bubba does not claim to be a long lasting gum so I didn’t expect the flavor to last more than a few minutes.  

Hubba Bubba is geared toward children and although it's far from the sweetest gum you'll find I'm sure there are kids that will enjoy this combination of sweet and sour in their gum. 

Hubba Bubba gums are known to be big juicy chunks of gum that are fun for kids to chew and make huge bubbles with, this new apple flavor gum is no exception. Each piece is a nice big mouthful and very conducive to blowing big bubbles.  

As with all Hubba Bubba gums this new apple flavored gum is made with all natural food colorings. I'm impressed that Hubba Bubba manages to give their gums a wonderful fun vibrant color using all natural food colorings.

Bottom Line: I liked Hubba Bubba's Apple Gum, granted it's not gonna be my "go to" gum; partly because it's far from long lasting and mainly because it is not a sugar-free gum, but for once in a while when I want a sour flavored gum I would choose Hubba Bubba's Apple Gum and have fun making huge bubbles long after the green apple flavor is gone.

Pack of 5 individually wrapped gum pieces – 2.50NIS

Kosher Badatz KF London

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Five's Sugar-Free Watermelon Gum

מסטיק "פייב" 5 אבטיח

As I may have mentioned in my review of Mentos Gum and my review of Must Cubed Gum, I'm not a huge fan of fruit flavored gum. So although the "Five" Gum did win a Product of the Year Award last year, I still was not very interested in tasting the new Five "Cyclone" Watermelon Flavored Sugar-free Gum.

I had read online that the advertising campaign cost close to 3 million Shekel. I think that's simply ridicules and judging from what I've seen so far; I have no clue where all that money went. I don’t think the TV ad is anything that special, but go ahead and judge for yourself.

Standing in the checkout line I noticed that this new Five Watermelon Gum was on sale, I guess its an "introductory sale". The normally 6.00 NIS pack of gum was half price, so I decided to try it. Maybe that's where the 3 million Shekel went?

I kind of like the way Five Gum is packaged. I know there are many other gums that have this "pocket" packaging too, it's not exclusive to Five, so I can't give them all the credit for that, but Five's black packaging is sort of sleek and elegant.

When I first put the stick of gum in my mouth I regretted buying it because the initial burst of artificial watermelon aroma and flavor reminded me why I so dislike fruit flavored gums. Regardless, I decided to give it a fair try and the longer I chewed it the less I hated it.

That first overpowering flavor did wear off quite fast but a tolerable fruity flavor definitely lasted longer than your average sugar-free fruit gum.

At first it was absolutely a "mock" watermelon flavor but as time went on I had to remind myself exactly what fruit flavor it was, it sort of just tasted like a very sweet, sugar-free, fruity gum, with a hint of sour and a tiny bit of a minty undertone mixed in.

Bottom Line: I didn’t despise the Five Watermelon flavored Gum but I didn’t love it either. I think if you’re a fan of fruit flavored gum you are likely to enjoy this longer lasting, somewhat original, flavored gum.

31 grams 12 sticks – 6.00-6.50 NIS

Kosher Badatz KF London

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

 

Update: I now know where the 3 million Shekel advertising budget really went.

Turns out that on ads, billboards and display stands for Five Watermelon Gum there will be a special QR code that you can take a photo of with your cell phone. If you have a QR code reader app. you will then get a link to a clip about Five Gum and an invitation to a special 3D screening of the Five Gum series of ads.

I guess some people may find this impresses, I'm all for new technology, but I don’t really think this is extremely exciting and worth 3 million NIS. Still I wish Five Gum the best of luck.

If any of you end up going to the screening I would love to hear about it, please let me if it was amazing and worth seeing.    

This post was affected by the issues Bolgger had on Thursday, May 12  and Friday May 13, so it was up and down then up again etc... I am glad that Blogger seems to have finally fixed the problem and hopefully this post will stay put:)  I did loose comments that were left on other posts - I have no idea how to get them back, so I'm sorry if your comment is missing or if you didn't see my reply   



Mentos Gum

Being a fan of Mentos candy I was happy to hear they have started selling their Mentos gum here in Israel.

There are 5 sugar-free Mentos gums available here in 2 different categories;

Mentos PURE FRESH gums – has 2 flavors, Mint and Spearmint. For extra "freshness" they added green-tea extract in the center of each piece.
Mentos Fruit Juice Blast gums – gives us the 3 fruit flavors, Watermelon, Red Fruits & Lime and finally Tropical fruits.

I actually like the packaging it's convenient and has less wrapping to throw away. Plus it seems like it will keep the gum inside fresh for longer than a paper box would. Not that its new or innovative I've seen a few Must and Orbit gums in this kind of container too, but I just like it, so I mentioned it. J

As I've written before I prefer mint gum over fruit gum, so I tasted the Mint and Spearmint. I could tell very little difference between the 2 of them.

The Mentos gum is a little smaller and slightly thicker than Mentos candy. The Mint was white with blue specks and the Spearmint white with green specks. They have a slight candy coating just like the Mentos candy, so biting into it at first, it seems very much like the Mentos candy.

If you cut it in half you can see the green-tea extract in the center.

At first the gum was "fresh" and "airway opening" but that did not last past the first few seconds.
The mint taste of the gum lasted 10 maybe 15 minutes (and that’s really stretching it). That is by no means "long lasting" in my book. A friend who tasted the Must Cubes Gum said that it lasted her more than half an hour, closer to 40 minutes, that amount of time I would consider to be "long lasting". This Mentos Pure gum was not "long lasting" for me.

Bottom Line: I don’t think Mentos Pure Fresh Gum is a bad chewing gum but I don’t find anything extra special about it. It surly is not long lasting. I will continue enjoying the Mentos candy but for gum I'll choose the less expensive Orbit Aqua gum that seems to work just fine for me.

24 grams – 12 pieces of gum- 6.50 NIS

Kosher : Chatam Sofer 

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Must's Cube Gum Update

Just a quick update about the
 Must Cube Sugar-Free Gum
 I reviewed Here
They have added 2 new flavors

Must Cube Sugar-Free Gum
 is now available in

Tropical Fruit and Strawberry

 

I prefer the mint family of gum and have never been a big fan of fruit flavored gums.
Since I was not all that impressed with the spearmint flavor I didn’t bother tasting the fruit ones but wanted to let you know that they are available.

Update: Winner of 2012 Product of the Year Award Israel

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me.  No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Elite Must's Sugar-Free Cube Gum

Elite Must has come out with a new cube shaped gum. This sugar free spearmint gum has a soft powdery feel when you first bite into it. Similar to a stick of gum, as opposed to a harder candy coated gum. I actually prefer the softer texture but, I didn’t realize that until I did a comparison with Orbit's Aqua gum and I noticed the difference.

The Must cube gum seemed a little larger than your
average piece of gum, but after carefully checking, I found they are 2 grams per dice, the same size as the Orbit Aqua and ever so slightly smaller than the 2.2 gram Trident Splash gum.

Elite claims the Must Cube gum has a longer lasting cooling flavor, but, I found it to be just as long lasting as Orbit Aqua and Trident Splash, so, they do not get extra points for that.  As far as the "cooling" affect that too did not come across to me in this gum. If you really want a gum that will give you a cooling effect, as well as open up your airways, you're better off with Wrigley's Airwaves gum. For the first few moments the Airwaves gum definitely does a better job than many throat lozenges I've tried.
    

The price surprised me 5.20 NIS for 10 squares, compared to Orbit Aqua 3.52 NIS for 9 pieces. I do not see any justification for the Must Cube to be more expensive than the Orbit Aqua.

The commercial running on TV (and online) somehow reminded me of a scene out of a modern day Frankenstein movie. Although that is far from my favorite genre of movies, the clip might be the most exciting part of this new gum.

Bottom Line- I think it's just a gimmick: a new way to sell the same old gum. There is nothing bad about it but, it's not worth the 5.20 NIS they are charging for it.

Here is a link to the clip of the ad, for those of you who enjoy The Frankenstein movies and want to check it out :)
  
Pack of 10 cubes - 5.20 NIS

Kosher: OU


Update: Winner of 2012 Product of the Year Award Israel 

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me.  No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.