Lonely Planet: biting off more than you can chew

Not only saps get stuck in gum

Chicle is the pinkish to reddish-brown gum (actually the coagulated milky sap or latex) of the sapodilla tree, a tropical evergreen native to the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize and other parts of Central America. The sap is collected by chicle-workers who cut large gashes in the sapodilla's trunk and collect the sap as it seeps from the wound. The sap is then boiled, cut into blocks and exported.

Chicle was originally used as a natural substitute for rubber, but by about 1890 it was best known as the main ingredient in chewing gum. During WW II, the search for a rubber substitute led to synthetic products replacing chicle both in rubber and chewing gum production. By taking the chicle out of our gum, we cease to support a renewable rainforest industry when we masticate: sapodilla sapping, which does not destroy the tree, is forest-friendly production.

Some absurdists have speculated that American fondness for chewing gum is responsible for the characteristic overdeveloped jaw and crab-apple cheeks of much of the US citzenry, but unfortunately the chicle workers in the sapodilla forests put paid to this theory, being as slack-jawed and hollow-cheeked as the rest of us.


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