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Food Theory: Which Bubble Gum Has the Longest-Lasting Flavor?

Thanks to CookUnity for sponsoring this video! Get 50% off your first order of CookUnity meals ► https://cookunity.com/foodt50 Use my code _FOODT50_ at checkout to try them out for yourself. Were you the “gum guy” in school? You know, the person everyone in the class goes to for a quick piece of chewing gum. Well, we hope you have enough gum on hand today because we’re chewing EVERY piece of gum we could possibly find… Five, Strident, Orbit, Dubble Bubble, Juicy Fruit, and more! But, why are we doing this? We’re on a serious mission to find the BEST piece of bubble gum in the world! Trust us, this gets sticky… ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ *🔽 Don’t Miss Out!* Get Your TheoryWear! ► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-tw Dive into the Reddit! ► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-rt Need Royalty Free Music for your Content? Try Epidemic Sound. Get Your 30 Day Free Trial Now ► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-es ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ *👀 Watch MORE Theories:* I Baked a PRIME Cake ►► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-w1 Is Expensive Water Worth It? ►► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-w2 Eat Candy Before Workouts? ►► http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-w3 ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ *Join Our Other YouTube Channels!* ​🕹️ http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-sub2gt ​🎥 http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-sub2ft 👔 http://tinyurl.com/dt-gum-sub2st ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ *Credits:* Writers: Matthew Patrick, Santi Massa, and Brett Turley Editors: Koen Verhagen, Gerardo Andrés Mejía Torres, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi, and AbsolutePixel Assistant Editor: Caitie Turner (Caiterpillart) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman Thumbnail Artist: DasGnomo ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ #Gum #Gumball #ChewingGum #GumballMachine #JuicyFruit #DubbleBubble #Bazooka #Candy #GumASMR #Theory #FoodTheory #Matpat

The Food Theorists

1 month ago

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Food Theory! Perfect! Look, I'm already replaced. Hey, so I am joined on the couch today for a very special episode of Food Theory by... Ollie! Not me. This is Ollie, and Ollie had a very special question for this week's Food Theory. Ollie, do you want to tell me what the question was? What gum lasts the longest of flavors? So as you might already be able to tell, today's episode was a bit of a special request. You see, while I love my son Ollie more than anything in
the world, Ollie loves gum more than anything in the world. To him, it goes gum, mech suits, gravity falls, and then me and Steph. And so when he became old enough to understand that mommy and daddy ran a food experiment channel, he presented us with a very important question for his five-year-old brain. Which gum has flavor that's gonna last the longest? He's been asking for this episode for the better part of the last year, and with me and my final stretch of videos, now felt like the perfect
time to tackle it. So today, we're gonna kick some butt and chew bubblegum. There's no actual butts to kick, so we're just doing the bubblegum thing. So Ollie, do you have any hypotheses about which one is gonna last the longest? I think it's kind of like a hard decision. I-I don't really know. Is there one that you're most excited to try? I think I'm most excited to try Bazooka. I'm sorry that you're gonna be disappointed by that one. Turns out, he was not. As for the rest of us, uh, yeah, it w
asn't our favorite. Oh my god. Oh, this is better than I remember. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about today's experiment, shall we? Our goal today is to crown one gum as the ruler of the WAD. And in order to do that, we're gonna be evaluating 21 different gums across three major criteria. First off, we have flavor. How tasty is the gum? It's pretty self-explanatory. Next, we have texture. This is the mouthfeel and chewability of the gum. This grades whether a gum is comfortable t
o keep in your mouth, or if it feels like you're gnawing on a spare tire. Finally, we have ourselves time. This is the length of time that it takes for the sticky gum to lose its flavor and become a bland piece of goo that you just want to spit out. Seeing as this is the criteria that Ollie was so intent on exploring, he's devised himself the perfect means of testing it. How about we set a timer for, like, how long the gum's flavor lasts? So, so we, like, know how long and you can pause the time
r when I spit out the gum. You can tell that he's been thinking about this episode for a while. Also, let's be clear so we're all on the same page. I recognize that this whole episode was just his backdoor way of getting us to buy tons of gum to have lying around the house. Anyway, per Ollie's instructions, me, Steph, and HR department extraordinaire, Rachel, are each gonna be chewing every piece of gum and timing it. That way, we can average out our scores to best estimate the average chew time
for each brand of gum. And since we're dealing with so many different types of gum today, we're actually gonna break things down into three separate rounds. Round one is dedicated to gum targeted at kids. I'm talking about all the Hubba Bubbas, the Bubbliciouses, the bubble tapes that you remember from your childhood. Round two will be for gums that are marketed towards adults. And finally, there's round three, which will be the Wacky Bracky, where we take all the oddball gimmick gums like gree
n apple flavored gummy paste or gum cigarettes, and they're all gonna duke it out for their shot at the title. Once we've tallied up all the scores for each gum division, the top three gums will head to the final round where they'll be judged by none other than Ollie himself. Which one will earn the coveted Ollie seal of approval and which one will have their bubble burst? Today is certainly a mystery that'll give us plenty to chew on. Round number one, kid flavors. Our seven contestants for rou
nd one represent the gold standard for childhood chewing, ranging from Double Bubble Gumballs, to Bog Standard Bubblicious, to the tooth-breaking Bazooka and the iconic bubble tape. A staple. A staple of childhood. That being said, though, uh, don't you dare be one of those people that I see circulating online who, like, pop it out of the bubble tape dispenser and, like, bite into it. That can't be real. It's sort of raw. It is. It's people provoking the internet just to provoke the internet. Th
e playmors. If you are that person... Stop. Stop. Just stop it. Who hurt you? Truly. I'm sorry. Please, seek help. However, as we got started with the experiment, one thing became immediately clear. Each gum has itself a different size. I mean, you can pop just a small single gumball into your mouth, or you could shove an entire roll of bubble tape in there. To make it a fair fight, we decided to stick to a single serving size of each respective brand. So, with that out of the way, it was time t
o start the experiment with the classic gumball machine gumball, Double Bubble. Wow, this is hard. There's already so much saliva in it. Right? Ugh. Man. It's a wet, hard, chewy experience. I should stop. It's a wet, hard, chewy experience. Oh, no! Mmm. Oh, we're already off to a great start here, friend. We had literally just started the episode, and already the suggestive puns were popping up all over the place. I'm really enjoying my artificial cherry over here. It's very artificial. It's ver
y little cherry. I'm already losing it. I was gonna say, that being said, we are definitely on the down arc. We are less than a minute in. Mm-hmm. And it is, like, gone. It's going down fast. Yeah. Wow, it's going down fast. But it is a workout. I feel my jaw. It is a small ball, but it is a hardy ball. It's a small ball, but it's a hardy ball. Slap that one on my gravestone. Anyway, two minutes later. A lackluster 90 seconds. What can you buy for a quarter these days? That's true. That's true.
You know, you got 90 seconds of moderate pleasure. Anyway. Let's just move on to the next one. Do we have to rate the other stuff? Yes, okay. We have so many to get through. Yes, we do. And we're already in such bad innuendo territory. Overall, our first contender kicked things off with a pretty disappointing start. Low scores across the board, which meant Bubble Yum was up next. And unlike the gumballs, Bubble Yum's intended serving size was huge. More than triple the size of a mini gumball. Wh
ich, you know, gave us plenty of chew time to learn more about each other. Since this is a long one, I'm gonna hear a weird story. Mm-hmm. About Bubble Gum. I'd love to hear a weird story about Bubble Gum. As everyone with misophonia slowly cringes away from the computer. So when I was eight, I, for some godly unknown reason, I really wanted braces. Yeah. The only bit in history to say that. But. Someone told me once that if you chew a lot of gum, it'll actually, like, it'll mess up your teeth.
It'll make your teeth crooked. Which I'm sure is a complete lie. But when I would chew gum, which wasn't like that often, but if I would chew gum, I would purposely try and like tangle it around in my teeth to try to make my teeth more crooked. To increase the likelihood that I would get braces. I'm so sorry to my parents who probably spent like $12,000 trying to fix my teeth. You- That wasn't the only secret to come out during all this. I can't blow bubbles. What? It just stuck right over my fa
ce. Wait, what? I can't blow bubbles. How have I known you for this long and you can't blow bubbles? I can't blow bubbles. How did I not know this? I'm incapable of blowing bubbles. It is, perhaps, my deepest, darkest secret. And as you might imagine, it suddenly became my co-host's life's work to teach me what I needed to know. It led to a very moist journey. I've never learned how to blow bubbles. I've tried a couple times. No way! I've never been able to. I've known Matthew for 17 years and I
had no idea! He couldn't blow bubbles! You've hidden this secret so well! Well, I've also known you for 17 years and I didn't know that you purposely tried to wreck your mouth for braces. I feel like we're learning a lot about each other in this episode. You can't do it. You just keep working at it. You have 30 pieces of gum to try today. And so, try I did, try being the operative word here. I really don't like this practice thing. Ready? Oh, you got bubbles in your tongue. I hear something pop
. I heard something pop. Did I do it? Try it, try it. Something in the technique just escapes me. Honestly, blowing bubbles might just be the single hardest thing that I've ever had to do for this channel. That's saying a lot coming from a guy who's eaten a Christmas tree and suffered through intensely spicy hot sauces. How are you extracting your tongue from the bubble gum? It's a great question. What do you mean? The tongue doesn't stay in there. I have a hard time getting my tongue out. You s
et it up on your teeth. You flatten it out. Have we mentioned that Rachel is our HR department? There it is. Rachel from HR. Once my tongue has been inserted, I have a really hard time pulling it back out. I think practice makes perfect, you know? This was the point where it dawned on us that this was going to be a long shoot. So to move things along, let me give you the abridged taste test. Bubble Yum ended up scoring eights across the board in flavor, and an average slightly higher in texture
thanks to its pillowy chew, allowing it to set the bar for high-quality, long-lasting gums. Bubblicious Watermelon was fairly solid across the board, but where it really shined was with the bubbles. It got consistently large bubbles from both Rachel and Steph, and it even gave me my first bubble experience. That counts, right? Now, for any of you who are like me and are incapable of getting a bubble to form, I looked up the science and technique for mastering bubble bending. For starters, make s
ure you're chewing bubble gum and not chewing gum. I didn't know this until doing research and prep for this episode, but not all gum is capable of blowing bubbles. You see, both types of gum are composed of four main components. There's the gum base, which is historically derived from gum tree resins, but are now mostly made with synthetic rubber. There's a softener that prevents the gum from becoming too hard on the shelf. There's sweeteners like sugar or aspartame. And then, finally, there's
the flavor agent that gives the gum its distinct taste. What makes bubble gum special, though, is that it has more elastomers in its gum base than chewing gum. On a molecular level, elastomers are long-chain polymers that give materials an elastic quality. In order to get a bubble out of bubble gum, it's recommended that you chew out most of the flavor. This is because the sugary flavor of most bubble gums make the gum stiffer. Chewing out the sugar, then, unshackles the elastomers and gives the
m the chance to really stretch. Once the gum is soft and it's lost its sugar, the trick is to flatten out the wad of gum using your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Then it's a matter of creating a pocket of air to enter with your tongue. Next, you'll want to breathe out slowly. I didn't know this at the time, but you're supposed to blow from your diaphragm. If you just blow from your lips, you're gonna end up turning that wet wad into a projectile. Follow these tips, and the results will spea
k for themselves. You got it. You got it. Hey! Hey! Best one! I did it! That was the best one! I'm so proud of myself! By the way, that mediocre but new personal record bubble is the next gum that we tested, the Hubba Bubba Max. Score-wise, this gum ended up being very similar in taste and texture with the Bubblicious. But disappointingly, while it looks like it has a gummy gusher on the packaging, the reality is that the center filling is just darker dyed gum. The interesting thing, though, is
that this gum led us to a surprising discovery. Despite producing the largest bubble of the experiment, this achievement came at a price. The flavor-staying power. We found that with all their bubble-blowing, Rachel and Steph's flavors were fading faster than my gum that I was chewing away on. So, what's the deal? Well, from what we found out, it has less to do with the act of blowing bubbles, and more to do with the saliva itself. The vigorous chew that you need to stretch the elastomers in the
gum naturally circulates more saliva throughout your mouth. And as we mentioned in our toothbrush episode over on Style Theory, genetically, everyone has slightly different levels of saliva. The composition of our spit is influenced by genetics, diet, our stress levels, even the time of day. Rachel, for instance, consistently was the first to spit out the majority of the gums throughout this experiment. Likely meaning that her saliva was just better equipped for breaking down the chemical bonds
that were embedded in the gum. Either that, or she had work to do and was in a hurry to get through the five hours of shooting that we wound up doing. Speaking of how long we were sitting there, by the way, by the end of the third gum, our jaws were exhausted. That's why Steph decided to bust out the big guns. So what is this? What am I supposed to do with this? Rub it all over your face. Oh my god. Does it feel nice? Is it working? It did not. That said, it also didn't matter. I needed all the
help I could get for Bazooka. Three, two, one, go. Oh my god. Oh, it's as bad as I remember. So hard. Oh, man. That's tough. You know? Oh, wow. I shouldn't do this with permanent teeth. You remember the big hydraulic press trend that was a couple years ago? Love that. There needs to be a video about hydraulic press versus Bazooka bubble gum. Valid. Oh my gosh. Oh, it was just as bad as I remembered. Almost as bad as the jokes that they come packaged with. Is this enough for three socks? It's ho
lding balls in your hand. Three socks? My mom wants to knit socks for my brother in the army. Why three socks? He wrote in his letter, two weeks in the army, and I've grown another foot. I ordered apple, waiter. This looks like peach. He's referring to a pie. What does it taste like, says the waiter. I'm not sure, he says. Then the waiter says, then what difference does it make? For those of you who aren't aware, Bazooka is iconic for its packaging, which comes with a short mini comic and fortun
e on every slab of gum. It's a cool enough feature that we gave Bazooka a bonus point for creativity, but in the end, it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the texture or flavor. That brought us to the last two contenders in the kid category, a head-to-head battle between two titans, Big League Chew and Bubble Tape. In one corner, we had the tall, pink, and handsome, six feet of childhood memories rolled up in the most iconic gum packaging of all time. In the other corner, we had the all-Americ
an baseball classic snack that was every kid's gateway into the world of chewing tobacco. Who would win the battle? Well, the results immediately spoke for themselves. Oh, it's just too soft. It's like there's no elasticity of this at all. Mm-mm. You bite down through it, and your teeth just pass through. Mm-hmm. Like, there's no substance here. Oh, yeah, it's soft to begin with. Mm-hmm. Oh, right off the bat. Wow. I like these first few chews, though, I have to say. They're very nice. And when
it came to bubbles, it was a similar story. Oh. No bubbles. No bubbles. Oh, no. No, the holes happen immediately. Mm-hmm. It just breaks down. I mean, everything's bad for bubbles. Hey, pretty good. It's not too bad. You have to do more with less. Yeah. Oh, hey. That's nice. All in all, Big League Chew brought out the Big League numbers. In fact, not only was its texture the best of the round, it was also the longest-lasting, setting a record at 9 minutes and 38 seconds. In fact, when all the re
sults were tallied, Big League Chew upset all the fan favorites and came out on top as the best overall kid's gum. Turns out, it's in the official Baseball Hall of Fame for a reason. But don't worry there, bubble tape fans. It's still top gum in one category, angering the internet. Oh, no! Oh! It didn't deserve that. None of us did. Round number two, adult gums. As we headed into the adult gums, little did we know that we had a lot more chewing to undertake. It turns out that these chewing gums
retain their flavor much longer than their bubblegum counterparts, like double the time in most cases. And the worst part of it all is that a lot of the gums just ended up being very similar across all three categories. Luckily, you don't have to sit through the two hours of endless chewing that we had to. So while MattPast is chewing the day away, let's just talk about what's going into these chewing gums, and why they're so different from the first batch. You see, most of these adult gums are
recommended by four out of five dentists. That struck us as a weird fact, so we decided to dig in. Turns out it has to do with the sugar substitutes. Sugar-free gum can actually help protect your teeth from cavities. A natural sugar alcohol called xylitol is usually added to sugar-free chewing gums in place of sucrose. The reason why sugar's bad for your teeth is that the bacteria and plaque metabolizes it into acid, acid that burns cavities into your pearly whites. But the bacteria and plaque i
s unable to use xylitol as a food source. Adding insult to injury, xylitol also increases the amino acids and ammonia levels of plaque, which further neutralize plaque's acidic qualities. By curbing this harmful bacteria's growth, xylitol prevents tooth decay and bad breath. In addition, chewing gum after a meal increases saliva flow to your mouth, washing away additional food debris that would otherwise stick to your maw and feed that bacteria. Oh, and uh, if you think you're missing any vital
action while I'm sharing you all this, don't worry about it. 🎵Humming🎵 So here's how the round shook out. Mentos gum was far and away the worst in the three categories. For me, it was a 5, because knowing that this is Mentos and I usually have, if I'm going to have Mentos, I have the candy version, and I had the same texture biting into it. I wanted it to be candy, I expected it to be candy. There were moments where I was like, is this gum? Is this really gum? I'm at a 5. You could say that it
kinda sat in the uncandy valley. OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Joining Mentos in the bottom four of this round, we had Trident, followed by Orbit, and then Cinnamon Ice Breakers. While the cinnamon ended up being one of my favorite flavors of the entire day, the short life and stiff competition hurt its overall placement. Ice Breakers, you may have only lasted six minutes and 48 seconds, but you'll last forever in my heart. Tied for best flavor of the day was a classic of the
gum world. Our third place finisher for adult gums, Wrigley's Double Mint. Mr. Wrigley is actually the IRL Willy Wonka of the gum world. His company controls 40% of worldwide gum sales, so it's no surprise that one of his classic flavors placed so highly. In fact, the battle for the best adult chewing gum came down between two of his other top sellers, Five Gum and Extra. Yeah, as it turns out, Wrigley has really cracked the code for a satisfying gum chewing experience, and so no matter who won
this bracket, he was ultimately the big winner, walking home with the gold, the silver, and the bronze. As far as our top two goes, not only did both Five Gum and Extra hit above average marks in the texture and flavor categories, but they also had flavor that lasted long past the 10-minute mark. In the end, Five Gum proved that it was more than just a meme, stimulating our senses with a chewing average of 13 minutes and 6 seconds. This has real staying power. Five Gum. Lasts 10. Now that the b
oring dentist-approved adult round has itself a champion, let's check out what the Wacky Bracket has in store. Round number three, Wacky Bracket. So these are gums that just don't quite fit into the other categories. They're a little bit off the wall, which was a nice change after the two hours of monotonous chewing that we were left with for round two. On our sampling platter, we had Mini Chickles, Gum Fries, Glee All-Natural Chewing Gum, the Fruit-Shaped Seedlings, Spruce Tree Gum, Gummy Gel,
and even more tobacco propaganda in the form of candy cigarettes. And let me just make one thing clear right at the top of this round. Practically all of these sucked. While the Mini Chickles were fun, their tiny size also brought tiny flavor, but I'd rather a small amount of flavor any day compared to whatever flavor the Gum Fries were trying to serve. Oh, I'm eating dry powder. Mm-hmm. That is supposed to be sweet, but is like three doors away from sweet. Not only is the flavor diminishing pre
tty quickly, but it's actually getting worse. The flavor is changing and becoming more and more synthetic. I don't use the word heinous too often in my life. This is heinous. It tastes expired. Fortunately, the fries didn't have much staying power, meaning that I could cleanse my mouth with the healthiest chewing gum brand that we could get our hands on, Glee. And right away with Glee, you could tell that it was the healthy option. 100% natural, no plastic. What? I say as I take off the plastic.
No artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial sweeteners. This is cane sugar, gum base, which is the chicle, chicle, candelia wax, citric acid, brown rice syrup, gum, Arabic, natural flavors, strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry, radish, radish. Mm. Hmm. But in a gum competition full of big wads of sugar, yeah, healthiness is not scoring you any points. We then moved on to the very strange seedlings, which are more or less the same double bubble gum balls that we tried in the first
round, but with two added gimmicks. First, they're shaped like a fruit, which is a lot of fun. Secondly, they're filled with little grains of candy inside that act like seeds. You can rattle them around like little maracas. Yeah, you hear it. Eee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. But for as cool as these realistic-looking mini oranges and lemons were, they were not for the weak of jaw. I'm having a hard time cracking them. What the what? I gotta say, though, my jaw feels like it's getting the workout of a l
ifetime. Mm-hmm. This one in particular, it's really hard. It doesn't get easier. I mean, it does get easier because the beginning was really tough, but it doesn't get easy. Mm-hmm. Despite technically earning the longest two of the round, their texture was so rough and grainy that it tanked any chance of winning, which brings us to the next one, which kinda needs an explanation. You see, this one comes to us thanks to the Christmas tree episode from a couple weeks ago. We had a late shipment of
spruce gum that we were originally gonna be using for that episode, but it arrived late, so we figured we could use it here. And if you've learned anything during my attempts to get my family and employees to consume an entire spruce tree, spruce flavoring is really strong. Since we've had this gum kicking around the office for a while, Rachel actually knew what we were getting ourselves into. I'm excited to see y'all's reaction to the texture specifically. Okay, to the texture? Yes. When you t
ell me spruce gum, I'm surprised that it's not the flavor of it that's surprising. I mean, they're all surprising. In terms of timing, I don't think we're gonna make it to the end, to be fair. So I think probably try to do this as long as you possibly can. Really? Yeah. Spruce gum. Oh, no. It looks like a little Tootsie Roll. Yes, it does. It looks kinda cute. Spruce gum in three, two, one. Oh! Ew. Oh! Ew. Why is this so crunchy? It's not gum! Ew. Ew. Is this candy? Oh, no. It's so dry. What is
this? It has a very strong texture. It, like, breaks apart in your mouth when you get it, but then it gets softer, and it's almost like... Oh, yeah. You have to congeal it with your spit. Yeah, upon first biting into it, it explodes into a dry, woodsy powder, which just goes to show kids purchasing loose candies from strangers off Etsy is always a bad idea. It does remind me a little bit of, like, a Tootsie Roll. Like, I keep biting it, and I keep hoping that it'll, like, lessen in my mouth. It'
s like having a piece of bark in your mouth. No, I keep waiting for some sort of sweetness to come out. Nope, and it doesn't get better. It is not emerging. Oh, the flavor comes on in the second wave! Oh, yeah. When you breathe out, it's pure pine needles. I mean, just absolutely unadulterated fur. I feel like I'm losing the will to chew. Ash is handling this well. Yeah. It's like I'm chewing the concept of nature. Like I'm chewing the concept of nature. Ash 2024. Now, this is me totally not mak
ing an excuse to spit out this Pine-Sol flavored Tootsie Roll, but I actually think the flavor does go away. It's just that the spruce lingers on in your mouth for a long time afterward. So without reasoning, we decided to call our homemade spruce tree gum totally flavorless at 3.51. Our penultimate gum of the experiment was Victory branded gum cigarettes. And let me tell you, the packaging on these bad boys is shockingly realistic. I didn't realize that they were like this. What the heck? But y
ou open the pack, and I mean, you are literally getting a pack of cigarettes. Yeah, yeah. Ash, you like candy cigarettes too, right? I do. You want one of these? For sure. Wow, you're such an enabler, Steph. I know. Just say no, Ash. You want one, honey? I'm saying yes. Wait, if you put it in your mouth and blow, does it make a little puff? What? Try it. Try it. Is it supposed to do that? Did you know how to do that? I vaguely remember it from my childhood. Are you kidding? Yeah. Yeah, you only
get like one out of it. That's crazy. No way. That's crazy. That's nuts. This is nuts. This is propaganda. Oh, absolutely it is. So my only question is, does it get a bonus point for that? Because I'm real conflicted. On one hand, I'm like, that's really fun and cool. But on the other hand, it's like, but it's cigarettes for kids. But if we're going to give Big League a bonus point, I feel like this can also have a bonus. This is a very creative presentation, I have to say. Okay, let's give it a
bonus point. It's at this point that I feel compelled to share the message. Don't smoke, Theorists. It's gross. It'll rot your body into an early grave. That said, this obviously isn't a cigarette. It's a stick of gum. I just want to make that point very, very clear. Because three minutes into chewing this stick of gum, something became obvious to me. It actually gets much softer. Oh, no. Who's going to win this round? Oh, no. Smoking gum is going to win this round. Smoking propaganda is going
to win the third round. You're going to give this to your child. No, and what's worse is that Big League 2 won round number one. No. We're in the darkest timeline. Like Big League 2, these candy cigarettes scored remarkably high. The flavor was good. It lasted a while. The texture was nice. Especially when you compare it to the lineup of stinkers that we had throughout round three. But there was still one contender left. A glimmer of hope that this Love Letter episode dedicated to my son didn't
have to hard pivot into a strange promotion for tobacco-related gum products. And that hope was gummy, gween apple paste. Could this toothpaste-y, gel-based gum keep me from being scientifically obligated into giving my son a gateway gum? Oh, no. No, no, it could not. I thought that pine was the worst texture. It's not. It's this. Is this gum? Oh, I hate this. Yeah, there was no hope. This was truly the darkest timeline. With three rounds complete, the results were in. The top contenders were 5
Gum, Big League Chew, and Candy Cigarettes. Not wanting to skew the results, but also not wanting to feed our son a bunch of child-friendly propaganda, we decided to rebrand things a little bit. Ollie would be tasting the creatively named 5 Gum, Shredded Gum, and Stick Gum. Let's just hope that he never asks us to pick up more at the store. Final round! Ollie's choice. After five hours of patiently waiting for Mom and Dad to finally allow him to test the mountain of gum that he'd been eyeing, my
boy was off to the races. Can I start chewing? Start chewing. Ready, go. That was kinda hard, huh? Star the stopwatch! We got it, we got it. Oh, yeah. I can tie this for you, bud. Absolutely. There you go. And are you gonna go until it loses its flavor? Mm-hmm. Whoa! Oh, man. I'm usually just focused on the gum. Just focused on the gum. He's focused on the gum. Single-minded. I appreciate your resolve. Just focused on the gum. To me, this is kind of a short-lasting gum. Yeah. I think the flavor
's all done. Okay. The flavor's all done? Then let's spit it out. Right, you spit it right into the trash can? That was 128. Okay, ready? Yeah, just... Oh, oh, oh, there we go. All right. Start the clock. This really tastes like Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape. Huh? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you discovered that. Well done, bud. Okay, it kinda lost its flavor. Already? All done? Okay. No way. Okay, so that was at one minute and 22 seconds. Now, this one is a very minty one, okay? Just so you know. I've tried it e
xtra, like, a million times. I've got this. Okay. Okay. There's a lot of spearmint extra. I'm kind of over with this piece of gum. Okay, great. That is a minute 30. All right. I also threw in a slab of the gum that he'd been requesting forever, Bazooka. Bazooka, Bazooka. Just as a warning, this one starts off very hard. Very hard. It will get softer, but it starts off very hard. I don't care, guys. Okay. Five years old and he's already a teenager. Oh, there's a comic. Yeah, there's the comic. Wh
ere's the comic? Oh, yeah, the comic. So it says, Mortimer, why are you late? You said we should obey the traffic signs. That's right. Well, I obeyed it. And it says, school, slow down. So he's like, I obeyed it. I slowed down before I got to school. So there it is. Is that orange? Lol. Okay, so clearly the comic wasn't delivering on everything Ollie had hoped it would. But hey, he didn't hate it. And more importantly, the fortune? Yeah, that one hit hard. So your fortune is, you can get what yo
u want by asking the right person. Grandpa. Or if you want an episode dedicated to gum, Mommy and Dad. Yeah, exactly. I think this fortune has already proven true. But what would be his overall winner? Well, defying all odds, it actually was the bazooka. He chewed it the longest. He loved the comic, even if he didn't quite understand it. And for the next three days, he chose that as his dessert of the day. Over all other gums, candies, cookies, and ice cream that we could offer him. I don't know
what was more shocking. The fact that he liked it so much, or the fact that he still has teeth after chewing those bricks for three days straight. That said, when it came to our actual results and the three finalists that we had for this episode, what did Ollie say? Of the three gums, Just those three. The stick gum, the shreddy gum, and the spearmint gum. Which was your favorite? Which would you say is the top? I think, I think it's the shred gum! Shred gum! Woo! And there you have it, friends
. Of all the gum in the world, Ollie gives the coveted seal of approval to shred gum. A.K.A. Big League Chew. Who knew that family-friendly chaw would be so good? Guess I'm gonna have to lock this video away from Ollie until he turns 18. Anyway, with my parental promise now fulfilled, there was one thing left to do. Give Ollie his first ever sign-off. That's just a theory. A food theory! Happy chewing! But hey, if you want something to chew on that's not gonna leave your jaw hurting and probably
is a lot more nutritious than gum, make sure to check out our sponsor for today's episode, CookUnity. I gotta say, this has quickly become a favorite in my house because the meals are made by actual chefs every day in regional micro-kitchens, not some giant warehouse. I suppose you could say that they go the extra mile to eclipse the competition. And the meals definitely make you go, hubba-bubba. See what I did there with all the gum puns? Admittedly, a bit of a stretch. But also, not untrue. T
he chefs really do put an emphasis on flavor with real ingredients to give inventive meals that are easy to prepare. Just heat them up, and you're good to go. The customization options are also incredible. Whether I need gluten-free options, or I decide to go paleo there's a meal for it. It feels nice knowing exactly who whipped up your dish. It adds a nice little personal touch to the whole thing. Like tonight, I'm eating a meal from Ruben Garcia. A grilled chicken and truffle risotto. And man,
was this a welcome taste after those gum fries. I'm usually hesitant with truffles because it can be a bit of an overwhelming flavor, but this was balanced. It was creamy. It was delicious. The best part for me, though, is that CookUnity is flexible, and it fits my schedule. I travel a lot. Just always coming and going. And so being able to pause the service whenever I need to really comes in clutch to make sure that I'm not wasting food, and not wasting money. Or, you know, there's always thos
e times when the gum you accidentally swallowed over the course of a video has filled your stomach for weeks to come, and that allows you to skip weeks or cancel your meals at any point. But you don't have to take my word for it. You can actually go to cookunity.com slash foodt50 or click the link down in the description below and then use the code foodt50 that's F-O-O-D-T-5-0 to get 50% off your first order of CookUnity meals. Again, that's F-O-O-D-T-50 to get 50% off your first order of CookUn
ity meals. Thank you again to CookUnity for sponsoring today's video, and for sponsoring the meal that I so desperately need after, uh, the intensity that was the gum episode. And as always, my friends, remember, it's just a theory. A food theory! Bon appetit.

Comments

@FoodTheory

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@Nut

Can we just allow Ollie to manage food theory from now on?

@IkerUnzu

Welcome Ollie !! Food Theory is in good hands 😌

@peculiarpodcast2754

MatPat’s letter jacket and the candy cig really make him look like a teen movie jock stereotype. 😂

@JelenaMajic

16:54 love Rachel's look of judgement, that's how you get after 3h of third-wheeling

N/A

Ollie's the real MVP here, managing to get his dad to do an entire episode on gum just so he could have endless supplies. Future master strategist! 😂

@yisunreal

I swear that the powder on the Hubba Bubba gum has some addictive quality

@Bem-0

I love ollie already, he is sassy, snappy, and just the perfect blend of mat and steph it's adorable

@killabammy

i ADORE this version of matpat thats just doing the videos that are whole heartedly the ones he wants to do because he's moving on to new things

N/A

Willy Wonkas everlasting gobstopper: Hold my Beer

@Seed

Ok. I need Seedling gum now.

@mrpicklestudios804

This was genuinely a really interesting episode, hats off to Ollie for coming up with an experiment that hits so close to home. Matpat and Steph raised him so well 😊

@smileylullu

The parent in me really loves this episode. Ollie mimicing MatPat was just the cutest!!

@basically_boring

Ollie is a genius. He got his dad to make a theory about the time it takes for gum to lose it's flavor just so he could have a bunch of gum for himself.

@user-xl4dp1nc9q

Matpat paying full undivided attention to Ollie when he explains how to time it is proof that matt is a great dad

@LtSorrel

My niece is OBSESSED with Thrills gum which literally tastes like soap and has for years

@kemiazubike5062

Ollie is so cute! Also, it was a genius idea on his part to ask his dad to have an episode on gum so he could have a lot of supplies, W move.

@MewCharTwo

The fact that MatPat isn’t leaving because he’s bored of it but instead he’s leaving for his family is truly heartwarming❤

@sirichandanaakarapu378

Things I loved about this episode: 1. Everything about Ollie in this episode. He's the best. 2. MatPat and Steph on screen together. I love their banter. 3. Rachel and her exasperation at all the innuendos Mat and Steph were making.

@snowy2749

My heart melted when I saw Ollie, he's so sweet and adorable oh my gosh I love this episode so much! Matt's such a great dad to Ollie as well!