How to Make Chewing Gum

Chewing gum has been around in commercial form for over a century.

Even as far back at 5,000 years ago the act of chewing tree sap has been common in the americas.

This instructable will show you how to make chewing gum using chicle base and flavorings to make your own exciting gums.

We will cover sugared and sugar free gum (using stevia)

Step 1: Supply List

For this instructable you will need the following:

- Chicle Base (From Glee Gum) (Quick warning, Chicle is latex, if you have a latex allergy, please do not do this.)
- Sweetener
      -Sugar free version uses Stevia and Cornstarch
      -Sugar version uses powered sugar and rice syrup
- Wax Paper
- Container you don't care about
- Utensil you don't care about
- Pot with water
- Flavorings (We used LorAnn Oils)
- Citric acid (for fruity gums)

Step 2: Melting the Chicle Base

The gum base comes in little pellets and must be melted to be used. You could do this in the microwave but i opted for a makeshift double boiler using a pot and an old jar.
A word of caution, the chicle base is VERY sticky, the jar i used to heat it up i ended up throwing away along with the utensil i used to stir. It will ruin things, do not tread lightly.

One batch is about 1/4 of a cup, so i put that much in the jar, brought water to boil, and put the jar in the water.

After about 20 minutes the gum base begins to melt and gets very sticky.

Step 3: Kneading the Gum

One the gum base is nice and gooey, take it off the flame and scoop in onto a powered sugared surface. If you are going sugar free, use cornstarch.

Knead the gum around till it becomes nice a loose like taffy, if it sticks to your hands too much add more powdered sugar.

Step 4: Adding Sweeteners

Next you want to add your sweetener. if you are using rice syrup just pour it on the flattened gum. If you are using stevia, add to taste and fold it in.

Again pull and knead the gum to warm it up and mix the sugars around.

Step 5: Adding Flavorings

Adding the flavorings is tricky, you don't want to over do it but using a dropper or a steady hand just pour flavorings into the gum. You can chew a little bit of the gum to see when you get the taste to your liking.

For the mint gum i added spearmint extract, same for liquorice.

For the apple flavor, i used the apple candy flavoring and about 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid. If you want it more sour add more!

Step 6: Flattening and Cutting

Once you get to gum to the proper tastes to your liking, it's time to flatten it out and cut it.

i cut mine in squares after punching it flat, you could use a rolling pin.

Step 7: Serving and Packaging

After you cut it into squares you can put it into bowls to serve, wrap in little wax paper wrappers or put into ziplock bags.

The wax paper wrappers are cute, i would have put mine in an old altoids container but there were none at Instructables HQ...

I made a batch of spearmint, sour apple, and liquorice.

Step 8: Final Thoughts

The gum making was for the most part successful, a bit of the gum base makes quite a bit of gum. It was extremely messy so be prepared to get gum everywhere. Remember getting gum stuck in your hair? it's like that but with a huge glob.

A note on flavoring: flavors had a difficult time sticking to the gum, most flavors last about a minute. Mint gum on the other hand lasted for about 30 minutes.

Stevia was a good flavoring agent and successfully made a sugar free all natural gum. Some people who tried the stevia batch complained about the bitter aftertaste.

The gum all over the jar and spoon i used to the point  where it would have been a pain to try to clean them both. I ended up throwing them both away. If the gum gets on tools you want to save, put them in the freezer for a bit then you can scrape it off.

Please post any tips you have had from making your own gum! Feel free to experiment with flavor combinations as well!