A Brief History
On September 30, 2024, we celebrated another National Chewing Gum Day, which brings us the question, “Who invented chewing gum?” Who do we have to thank for this tasty treat?
Digging Deeper
The answer is not so simple. While we generally think of chewing gum as a product of chicle from Latin America, the predecessors of modern chewing gum go back thousands of years in a wide variety of resins, saps, plants and other concoctions people used to satisfy their need to chew. Ancient Finns and Ancient Greeks chewed tree products that they flavored, while the Aztecs and Mayans used the local favorite gummy plant, chicle, a type of latex found in several Meso-American trees.
In fact, we can thank Santa Anna, he of The Alamo infamy, for bringing chicle to the US as a rubber substitute. Failing as rubber, Santa Anna teamed up with Thomas Adams to invent modern chewing gum, a huge improvement over the previous chewing products.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is your favorite chewing gum?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Cohn, Jessica. 10 Fascinating Facts About Chewing Gum. C. Press/F. Watts Trade, 2016.
Mathews, Jennifer. Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley. University of Arizona Press, 2009.
