The folks at Ultimate Classic Rock took the time to chew on the gum of our childhood (or maybe your folks’). Check it all out below. But please keep it off the underside of the table.
Chewing gum had a strange way of being an important part of our childhoods.
Playground legend claimed that if you swallowed it, it would take seven years to digest. Come to think of it, you probably still believe that.
The No-Gum at School Rule: A Sticky Situation
Gum was also contraband in school, and getting caught chewing it could land you in the principal’s office — maybe even with a dreaded suspension. You weren’t entirely sure why it was such a big deal, but you suspected it had something to do with how impossible it was to scrape off the hallway floors.
You might be surprised where this “technological marvel” lands on the ranked list of childhood chewing gums.
Your Bubble Gum of Choice Said Something About You
Blowing bubble gum bubbles was truly an art form, and some kids in your school are probably still riding the popularity wave thanks to their ability to blow the ultimate “double bubble” — which, to this day, I’m not entirely sure ever really existed.
When you imagine “bubble gum flavor” this is what you are imagining.
Then there were the different kinds of gum, and everyone had their favorite. Your gum of choice may have depended on (borrowing from Ferris Bueller here) whether you were a sporto, a motorhead, a geek, a wastoid, or a dweeby.
But it often came down to utility. Were you chewing for the flavor, bubble potential, insanely cool packaging, additional offerings like prizes?
RANKED: Your Favorite Childhood Bubble Gums
From long-lasting flavor to epic bubble potential, we’re ranking the most iconic childhood chewing gums that defined recess, ruled the playground and stuck with us (sometimes literally).
Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz
Wrigley’s
#16 – Wrigley’s Doublemint
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a whole piece of Doublemint because it was always ripped in half and pulled from the bottom of Mom’s purse. A big nope.
The Bazooka Store
#15 – Bazooka Joe
The only reason it didn’t rank last was the little comic strip it came with—though I never understood them since they always felt like they were from another era. The M*A*S*H of chewing gums. It was also hard as a rock, which made me wonder if it really had been sitting around for decades.
Getty Images
#14 – Big Red
I chose this photo of Carmen Electra standing next to the Big Red logo at a fancy “World’s Largest Hot Tub” party in the early 2000s because it’s spicy and so is the Big Red. You chewed it more as a dare and nobody actually liked it. Somehow we were tricked into believing that cinnamon was “fresh breath.”
Getty Images
#13 – Gum From a Filthy Gumball Machine Found Outside a Random Store
It felt like a special treat when Grandma handed you a quarter (or a nickel, depending on your age), and you eagerly turned the knob — only to then stick your nose-picking finger into the chute and pull out the dreaded white one, the absolute worst. Still, it had that thrill of winning a prize, even though you technically paid for it. And while the flavor lasted all of five seconds, it was pretty good while it did — so, not dead last.
Dubble Bubble Store
#12 – El Bubble Gum Cigar
Usually grouped with candy cigarettes, these bad boys came in pastel colors and were actually a decent buy, considering how much gum you got. But no one was “saving some for later,” which meant stuffing a fist-sized wad into your mouth before taking your BMX over some sweet jumps. The flavor was terrible, and forget about blowing bubbles.
ShopThriftOnline
#11 – Gold Mine Nugget Bubble Gum
The little sack was great for keeping your change, but the gum’s “what flavor was that?” lasted about as long as it took to pour into your mouth. They looked like little gold nuggets and were about as hard. Fun, but ultimately flavorless.
eBay
#10 – Juicy Fruit
Speaking of “what flavor is it?” this little mystery was also found at the bottom of Mom’s purse but at least had a flavor a kid could handle. It was actually pretty good, but you needed about five sticks to really feel like you were getting anywhere.
Juicy Fruit commercials showed very happy people skiing, snowboarding and taking part in extreme sports, so you felt pretty cool while chewing it.
Still From Freshen-up Commercial
#9 – Freshen-up
As a kid, I thought these were a technological marvel. How did they get the “squirt” into that piece of gum?! While they had pretty adult “spicy” flavors (hence “freshen”), they did venture into “bubble gum” and “fruit” territory and those were pretty good. All in all, a good chew.
Baga Goodies
#8 – Chiclets
Major underdog here. The minty Chiclets were forgettable (and a total bummer in your Halloween sack), but the fruit flavor variety was 100% delicious. Much fun was had by giving yourself “Bugs Bunny teeth” with a couple of these and you could blow into the empty pack and it would make a harmonica sound. Chicklets rule.
Frivvy
#7 – Fruit Stripe
Talk about a bait-and-switch. Super-colorful with a jazzy zebra mascot and explosively fruity flavor … for about 10 seconds. Then you were chewing a rubber band. These made it to #7 because of the temporary tattoos, which is really why you bought this gum.
Fruit Stripe was discontinued in 2024.
Candy Warehouse
#6 – Dubble Bubble
When you imagine “bubble gum flavor” this is what you are imagining. It’s a classic. While the flavor was a bit fleeting, the gum was pretty much made for bubble-blowing. If you were having a bubble-blowing contest at recess (with your contraband gum) then this is what you used. It was double the bubbles.
Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop
#5 – Hubba Bubba
Hubba Bubba is taking us into the Top 5 because it’s a workhorse (as opposed to a zebra). The gold standard when it came to bubble-blowing, Hubba Bubba was part of the “cube” gum pieces movement. In addition to some pretty spectacular flavors, it famously didn’t stick to your face when your bubble popped, which was honestly a marvel of science (to a younger you, at least).
Hubba Bubba
#4 – Bubble Tape
How could you say no to six feet of gum? The dispenser felt like a collector’s item and never lost its signature bubble gum scent. With a soft texture and surprisingly long-lasting flavor, it delivered on both taste and fun. Plus, dollar for dollar, it was a serious bargain.
Candy Warehouse
#3 – Big League Chew
Portland Mavericks lefthander Rob Nelson wanted an alternative to chewing tobacco (because, really, we were already smoking candy cigarettes), and Big League Chew was born. Not unlike Bubble Take, the amount of gum you got in the pouch was like scoring a homerun.
Warner-Lambert Company
#2 – Bubblicious
✅ Bold. ✅ Mouthwatering. ✅ Long-lasting. When it came to bubbles, Bubblicious lived up to its name, delivering some seriously massive ones. The watermelon flavor (pictured here) was a personal favorite. I can still taste it just thinking about it. Like chewing Kool-Aid (in the best way possible).
The Hershey Company
#1 – Bubble Yum
The softest of the soft. The pillowiest of the pillowiest. Fluffy and bursting with flavor, Bubble Yum was so effortless to chew, you’d forget it was even in your mouth. To this day, grape Bubble Yum remains my gold standard for bubble gum.
SWEET: Totally Awesome ’80s Candies We Were Obsessed With
Get ready to dive into a list of the most awesome ’80s candies—those iconic treats that starred in movies, were sometimes more plastic than candy, and captured our hearts with their unforgettable flavors and wacky packaging.
Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz
phleamkt via eBay
Mr. Bones Puzzle Candy With Coffin
Foods you could play with were the best. Mr. Bones came in a plastic coffin filled with little PEZ-like candy pieces that you could assemble into a full skeleton. Once you devoured the poor guy, the coffin doubled as a nifty place to stash your change—perfect for fueling your next candy run.
Fuzzy Fish Collectables via eBay
Lik-m-aid Fun Dip
I remember one of my older sister’s cool friends calling this ‘cocaine for kids’ because, well, it was the ’80s after all. It was tart powder in a pouch that came with an edible stick for scooping. The branding was intense: Lik-M-Aid, Fun Dip, Lik-A-Stix—there was a lot going on. (The image featured here is actually a cool pin that you can buy on eBay.)
pittsburghcandy via eBay
Gold Mine Nugget Bubble Gum
With gum that lost its flavor in less than 2 seconds and was almost as hard as real gold, the real prize was the little pouch you could use to store your change for, yet again, buying more candy.
Shop The King via eBay
Candy/Gum Cigarettes
Iconic as they come, ’80s kids could ‘smoke’ just like their parents at a birthday party at McDonald’s. If you blew hard enough into the gum version, a fine powder would puff out of the end. Needless to say, the gum was absolutely terrible and the novelty wore off real fast.
The Penny Candy Store
Astro Pop
Who actually liked these? Anyone? Anyone? It was basically a sucker that turned into a sharp point. Even as a kid, I remember thinking, ‘”That’s going to hurt someone.”
Elbow Room Innovations via eBay
Big League Chew
Portland Mavericks lefthander Rob Nelson wanted an alternative to chewing tobacco (because, really, we were already smoking candy cigarettes), and Big League Chew was born. Thankfully, the ‘man-size wads’ reference on the original packaging has been dropped from the current design
The Penny Candy Store
Chuckles Jelly Candy
I like to call this a ‘last resort’ candy because, despite the name suggesting you’ll be laughing, it’s really just boring gumdrops shaped like [snore] rectangles. I still wouldn’t turn them down though.
Cobweb Old Store Stock Warehouse via eBay
Runts
Candy companies tried to make boring candy cool by adding fun characters to the packaging, and Runts were a perfect example of that. The apple and banana looked all kinds of wasted. If you chewed more than five at a time, you probably needed major dental work later in life.
Pop Rocks
Pop Rocks
You know you’re iconic when kids today still talk about you—and still probably think that if you down a pouch of these and chug a soda, you’ll most definitely explode. (Disclaimer: You won’t explode.)
Snackivore Store via Amazon
Spree
If you ever dreamed of munching on all the colorful buttons in your grandma’s sewing kit, Spree was here to make that dream come true. Sweet, tart, and incredibly hard, they were more eye-catching than they were tasty.
Dubble Bubble Store on Amazon
Dubble Bubble
When someone mentioned gum in the ’80s, this is what came to mind. You can probably taste it just by looking at the photo. There was always a barrel of this stuff sitting out at sporting events, and it would inevitably end up under the bench—where it’s probably still stuck today.
The Penny Candy Store
Nerds
Nerds candy was invented in 1983 and got its name from its ‘perfectly imperfect’ shape—a fun fact I just learned from the official Nerds website. You could say this candy helped normalize being a ‘nerd,’ and now we embrace the name. Take that, bullies!
good_haul_mall via eBay
WINT-O-GREEN LIFE SAVERS
There are last-resort candies, and then there’s anything mint. Why not just eat toothpaste? But when you discovered that biting a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver in the dark created a magical burst of light in your mouth, there was nothing cooler.
Candy Warehouse/Nabisco/Bonkers Print Ad
Bonkers Fruit Candy
Bonkers had a different flavor inside compared to the outside, and while they looked like gum, you could actually eat them. As a kid, there was nothing more thrilling than the sensation of eating something that felt like gum—and you know what that is? It’s Bonkers! Equally wild were the wacky commercials, where someone was always getting knocked down by fruit.
The Penny Candy Store
Everlasting Gobstoppers
Gobstoppers were jawbreakers that changed colors and flavors as you sucked on them, making each piece feel like an archaeological dig in your mouth.