What is bubblegum flavor?

You see a lot of products that are labeled "bubblegum flavor" (i.e.,
cotton candy, mouthwash, toothpaste, etc.) and its flavor is
distinctive, but what exactly is it?  A good answer would be the
components that make up the flavor of bubble gum.

These days, very few commercial products are made entirely with
natural flavorings. The sweet, fruity-spicy smell and taste that we
associate with bubblegum is not a mixture of ingredients that can be
bought at the grocery: the bubblegum essence comes from one of the
specialized labs that creates artificial scents and flavoring agents.

"There's no doubt that Menzie Tabora '98 LAS has good taste. She has
to - it's part of her job as a junior flavor chemist with Flavors of
North America... What makes peach yogurt peach? What makes French
vanilla ice cream different from regular vanilla? Where does
children's medicine get its bubble-gum flavor? Tabora and her
coworkers uncover the answers in laboratories that are regarded as the
'nerve center' of FONA. Here, chemists use natural flavors and 'build'
others from hundreds of little brown bottles.

'I can duplicate a flavor that is in a finished product, or I can
create a flavor for a sweet confection such as candy,' she explains.

After Tabora and her coworkers isolate the chemistry that creates a
flavor, the concoction is added to a 'base' provided by a food
manufacturer. They then hold informal taste tests in the company's
demo lab, followed by taste tests with focus groups. As many as 30 or
40 flavors might be tested for a product. When the flavor is settled
upon, the company bakes, boils or cooks the flavorings, which are then
shipped to the manufacturers to be added to their products."

http://www.uiaa.org/chicago/uicalumni/ctxt0404c.html

Pinkfreud-ga's post did not answer the question.  The "bubblegum"
flavor with which we are all familiar has been around for decades and
decades.  Since the flavor is also ubiquitous, its composition can't
be a trade secret.

There are no doubt many different companies that supply "bubblegum
flavor."  Like many other flavors (orange, cherry, vanilla, etc.),
it's something that just about anybody can recognize right away. 
Therefore, there has to be great chemical similarity from brand to
brand, proprietary trade blend to proprietary trade blend.  Surely a
flavor as common and as old as "bubblegum flavor," there must be some
public knowledge about exactly what goes into it.

For instance, artifical vanilla flavor is a chemical called
4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde.  It stands to reason that this was
originally discovered in vanilla beans.  With bubbe gum, on the other
hand, it's not like a chemist picked a piece of bubblegum off of a
bubblegum tree and isolated its flavoring components in the
laboratory.  The flavor we recognize as "bubblegum" was probably
concocted specifically to add to bubble gum, decades and decades ago,
long before I was born.

Pinkfreud-ga's posting could just as well apply to any flavoring agent
whatsoever.  It says nothing specific about bubblegum flavor.  It's
just general information about flavoring technology, and therefore an
insufficient answer.

Please note that I did not post an "Answer." I posted a "Comment." The
customer's account is charged nothing for comments, and I receive
nothing. I merely thought the information I posted might be of
interest.

I have fond memories of the flavor in Fleers Double Bubble gum of the
1940s, a flavor that persists to this day. Because sugar was rationed
during WWII, Fleers stopped making bubblegum for several years. This
resulted in the following urban legend: it was said among kids that,
if one combined a half-stick of Juicy Fruit, a half-stick of
Spearmint, and bits and pieces of other brands and flavors, the end
result would be a massive wad of gum that could be blown into a
bubble. Only the "massive" part was true. My jaw still aches.

www.thegoodscentscompany.com lists a lot of chemicals tasting like
bubblegum, here are a search:
://www.google.com/search?q=site:www%2Ethegoodscentscompany%2Ecom+bubblegum
- Another page mentiones prenyl acetate (3-methylbut-2-enyl etanoate)
as smelling like "Juicy Fruit".

Here are some links to pages with a list of simple esters and their smells/tastes:

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/ester
http://216.239.59.104/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-51,GGLD:en&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ndsu.nodak.edu%2Finstruct%2Fgarvey%2FC240%2FEsters.htm
http://www.dementia.org/~strong/tomstrong/public/misc/odors.and.flavors.txt
http://yarchive.net/chem/esters.html

:-) Re

>The "bubblegum"
>flavor with which we are all familiar has been around for decades and
>decades.  Since the flavor is also ubiquitous, its composition can't
>be a trade secret.

Sorry, but you're wrong. Flavor/fragrance houses consider their blends
proprietary - you can buy the blend, but they won't tell you what's in
it. There are more than likely several different blends/recipes that
can make up the classic taste, but it's definitely not a single
chemical.

If you did find a flavor chemist to tell you what was in his/her
particular blend, I'm curious - How would you know they were telling
the truth?

>There are more than likely several different blends/recipes that
>can make up the classic taste, but it's definitely not a single
>chemical.

I disagree. Take the grape flavor in Kool Aid, it's mainly methyl
anthranilate. Cheap pear soda? That's amyl acetate. Almonds?
Benzaldehyde. I can't see why bubblegum-flavor needs to be so
different; most "universally known" flavors are pretty simple in their
composition, that's the reason they are so common.

A friend of mine used to run a coffee shop, and he created an italian
soda flavor that tasted all the world like genuine bubblegum flavor. I
don't remember the exact proportions, but he combined vanilla,
strawberry, and banana flavored Torani syrups, and got something very,
very close to the traditional bubblegum flavor. Although the previous
posts seem to indicate that you're looking for the _chemical_ makeup
of the flavor, perhaps this piece of information can help to solve the
mystery.

-smudgy-ga.

>>There are more than likely several different blends/recipes that
>>can make up the classic taste, but it's definitely not a single
>>chemical.

>I disagree. Take the grape flavor in Kool Aid, it's mainly methyl
>anthranilate. Cheap pear soda? That's amyl acetate. Almonds?
>Benzaldehyde. I can't see why bubblegum-flavor needs to be so
>different; most "universally known" flavors are pretty simple in their
>composition, that's the reason they are so common.

I wholeheartedly agree.  This user said it better than I could.  I
doubt Crest has their own "secret recipe" for bubblegum flavor.  They
must buy it from a chemical flavor supply company, just like
lollipops, cotton candy, mouthwash, that revolting silicone-looking
liquid "candy" that they sell in unethical convenience stores. (not
trying to ba an jackash), etc etc etc...

My gut tells me it's one molecule.  I wonder if it's a chemical that
was never isolated from any natural source, but was entirely invented
by organic chemistry.  A novel chemical, never before seen by nature. 
Is it a Frankenstein Flavor?

There's a The Learning Channel special on this, The Woman Who Invented
Bubblegum Flavor.

Kevlar was invented by Stephanie Louise Kwolek.
URL: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/women.shtml#Kwolek

The "The Learning Channel" comment was a joke.  I hope that was clear...

If I sent anyone on a wild goose chase with this comment, I sincerely
apologize.  It was intended purely as an innocent joke.

You notice a similarity in the flavor of most "bubblegum flavor" and
the flavor of pepto-bismol, and this flavor is a synthetic
wintergreen.  You'll also notice the flavor in root beer quite
strongly - wintergreen, that is.  The chemical name is methyl
salicylate, or more accurately Methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate.  Keep in mind
the amount of flavoring used in bubblegum is less than in wintergreen
flavored gum.  Hope this helps!

     -GeoEIU

Just to add to that comment, I hope that you are not representing the
Sam Adams brewery and planning to make a bubblegum flavored beer.  
That would be awful.

  -GeoEIU

A bubblegum flavor is a "fantasy flavor". It is not grown from a tree
or bush just like cotton candy and berry-blue. However, blueberry is a
flavor because it can be grown. Overtime, a Bubblegum flavor is just
as recognizable as true flavors like strawberry, vanilla, and banana.
When I create a bubblegum flavor. I use several artificial and/or
natural chemicals along with essential oils. A basic bubblegum flavor
is made of ester(ethyl butyrate, ethyl acetate, etc), oils(orange
oils, wintergreen, etc) and sweet-ripe-juicy chemicals(ethyl maltol,
vanillin, maltol, etc). There are also many other ways to create a
bubblegum flavor with out these chemicals. It depends on the
creativity of the flavor chemist. There is not one chemical that
represents a bubblegum flavor unlike cherry(benzaldehyde),
vanilla(vanillin), and blueberry(linalool) because it is a fantasy
flavor.

I don't know the exact components. but there is a plat that when you
chew it, it tastes exactly like bubblegum. this plant was used by the
native americans for tea. Wikipedia has some good info on it though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum
Thr that.

Thanks,
greenleafhb

For fun I sometimes ask my students unaswerable questions one of which
is "What flavor is pink bubblegum?" One day a student replied "That's
easy, original flavor." He was exactly right of course since bubblegum
comes in many flavors these days.