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Caffeine In An “Adult Gum”; You Don’t Think Kids Might Get Their Hands On Some?

By rkutchjm on March 8, 2013 • ( 0 )

Some Of Wrigley’s Other Brands

The largest producer of products that result in chew, pop, chew, pop is Wrigley’s Gum. They manufacture an abundance of teeth-moving products that include Juicy Fruit, Eclipse, Orbit and Doublemint. Sales of these products have dropped over the last couple of years. To remedy this monetary decline, Wrigley is going blitzkrieg adding caffeine to their new product called Alert. Each piece of the gum will contain 40 mg of caffeine. Just for comparison, 12 oz of both Mountain Dew and Coke has 54 and 34.5 mg of caffeine respectively. A pack of Alert will have 8 pieces of gum. Doing the math, consume the pack and you end up with 360 mg of the central nervous stimulant. Hey, two different flavors that are both sugar-free so you won’t gain any weight. I predict that will be the next marketing ploy for the product.

Clean Bathroom/Kitchen Simultaneous

The only competition out there for Alert is Jolt gum. Each chewy piece jams in 40.5 mg of caffeine. Jolt claims that 2 squares of its gum is equivalent to 1 cup of coffee or 1 Jolt soda. Gum Runners LLC (manufacturer of Jolt gum) praise the fact that their gum also contains guarana. Guarana, is listed on the Jolt website as natural safe herbal stimulant grown in South America.

What the Gum Runners marketers don’t reveal is that hidden inside the guarana plant is caffeine. Fact is that the guarana seed has double the amount of caffeine found in coffee beans. Caffeine is the chemical that plants use as a protective toxic mechanism to keep animals like deer from consuming the seeds. Caffeine is very bitter so animals know better and stay away from these plants.

Caffeine Amount Same As Jolt Gum

Wrigley is marketing Alert gum to consumers 25 years and older. It designed a six-sided shape for Alert so it wouldn’t resemble any other gum on the market. It also gave it a very high retail price of $2.99. On the back of the package reads, “not recommended for children or persons sensitive to caffeine.” Wrigley says it has a bitter taste, which supposedly will discourage kids from using the product. They also designed the gum to be nickel-sized discouraging chewing more than one piece at a time.

If you haven’t been out lately looking for new snacks/candy both Cracker Jack and Jelly Belly have come out with caffeinated versions of their products.

Got Jack’D Yet?

Cracker Jack’D has all the different varieties below with added caffeine. Are they kidding? Some of the names sound rather disgusting. Many of the reviews of these products are not good.

CRACKER JACK®’D Berry Yogurt Hearty Mix Flavored Snack Mix
CRACKER JACK®’D Cheddar BBQ Hearty Mix Flavored Snack Mix
CRACKER JACK®’D Cocoa Java Power Bites Flavored Coated Wafers
CRACKER JACK®’D PB & Chocolate Hearty Mix Flavored Snack Mix
CRACKER JACK®’D Salted Caramel Sweet ‘N Savory Clusters Flavored Popcorn Clusters
CRACKER JACK®’D Spicy Pizzeria Intense Mix Flavored Snack Mix
CRACKER JACK®’D Vanilla Mocha Power Bites Flavored Coated Wafers
CRACKER JACK®’D Zesty Queso Hearty Mix Flavored Snack Mix

Wow! What Delicious Flavors

Jelly Belly also has a line of Energizing Sport Beans. Enough to make Jack shoot up the beanstalk like a rocket. The new Energizing Jelly Belly products have the usual artificial colors and flavors but now additional vitamins, electrolytes and caffeine.

Portrait In Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

This is enough to bring a Jelly Belly addict like Ronald Reagan back from the dead.

These manufacturers are taking advantage of the current work environment in America. Many people work throughout the night. Their shifts vary sometimes weekly. In these cases, the quality of sleep is generally pretty low. Therefore those associates are chronically tired. Many employees can’t make enough money on one job so they take on two or more. They don’t get enough sleep so they are exhausted on the job or while on the road. They are working too much and their sleep is sacrificed. Employers place most workers on salary with no overtime. Associates are completely overwhelmed with work that ultimately leads to complete burnout. In all of these cases, workers are looking for a quick fix. First the caffeine tablets (Vivarin, No-Doze), then the liquid preparations (Monster, Red Bull, AMP, etc), snacks (Cracker Jack’D), candy (Jelly Belly Energizing Sports Beans) and now comes a second gum (Jolt) hits the markets.

The be all and end all is that these companies are not about high quality, nutritious products. Corporations will do whatever it takes to increase profits and boost their stocks. They don’t even care if their products led to your demise. You have to prove their guilt because they are just innocent marketers. Remember, you have to buy their products for them to help lower the quality of your life. Let the buyer beware because marketers don’t care, really.

Dark Chocolate Instead Of Above Products

Oh by the way, Wrigley’s Gum is owned by Mars Candy Company that makes other good quality products like Snickers, M&M’s, Skittles, Milky Way and Twix.