Chewing gum dates back to the ancient Greeks, who chewed the resin of mastic trees, and the Mayan tribes used frozen hevea juice and rubber as chewing gum. Modern chewing gum was patented in the United States in 1869, and who would have thought it, by a dentist. In 1928, another American, Walter Diemer (Dymer), invented inflatable gum using proportions of rubber, sugar, corn syrup and flavoring. Inflatable gum comes in balls of all colors and sizes. But for bubbles there is nothing better than pink mass.

How to make gum: It all starts with the gum base - the substance that allows you to chew gum. Previously, the base was made from tree resin, but today it is synthetic: plastic and rubber. The chewing base is placed in a mixer, coloring and flavorings are added. As mixing begins, glucose syrup is added to sweeten the mixture. It is runny and this helps keep the chewy base soft. Then add dextrose, so-called. “Grape sugar” is a powdered sweetener. The ingredients are mixed for about 20 minutes. Mixing heats the mass, causing it to fuse together.

The mixture is ready when it has reached the consistency of dough. It is delivered on a trolley to the press for pre-extrusion. The press squeezes the mixture through a narrow hole, similar to how toothbrushes squeeze toothpaste out of a tube. This turns the big, bulky lump into manageable strips, which then go through the main press to extrude.

Another press compresses each strip to the actual width of a piece of gum; it comes out in a long continuous stream to be cut into portions. The squeezing process warms up the gum. If you cut it and package it now, it will stick to the wrapper. So next stop is the cooling chamber. The chewing gum goes there for 15 minutes at a temperature of 3-7 ºС.

At the exit, the chewing gum is cooled enough for slicing and packaging. Both operations are performed by one machine, in a fraction of a second. In slow motion, the video shows a continuous stream of gum entering from one end of the machine as it cuts it into portions; the device pushes each piece into a wax paper wrapper, and twists both ends of the wrapper. The machine processes 900 pieces of chewing gum per minute.

The last stop is packaging. The chewing gum falls on a scale, which automatically weighs out the required amount at the bottom of the jar. The jar is sealed with plastic to make it airtight; this will keep the gum fresh. Chewing gum is made pink because it was the only color that Walter Diemer had when he invented it in the early second quarter of the 20th century. Since then, the color has taken root.