Spruce Gum

[OldMaineWoodsman]

Does anybody know a source to purchase Spruce Gum? I found a vendor in Canada, but shipping costs more than the product.

Thanks in advance for any leads

 

[hawkeye2]

Wish I could help. The only spruce gum I ever saw for sale was back in the 70s and I think it was in the store in the State Museum in Augusta. The company that packaged it is long gone and I seem to remember it was in Camden. I remember hunting for it with my great aunt when I was small. She would help me into the tree (I was very young) and I would gather it. She had this really nifty pair of boots that had a jackknife in a pocket in the top. I wish I could find some today and I imagine some of the guys on the Quebec Expedition chewed it on the journey.

 

[hawkeye2]

Ok, maybe I found it at Beans. It was Kennebec Spruce Gum and it came from Five Islands, quite a ways from Camden. The package was identical to the ones in the photo.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/243495843/1-oz-maine-spruce-gum-debris-less-sugar

 

[hawkeye2]

OldMaineWoodsman, ya got me thinking so after the search I went and ordered some spruce gum. I never could get all the corn starch off the Kennebec gum so it altered the taste some, hope this stuff is better. One thing everyone needs to know is you can't stick spruce gum on the bedpost overnight.

 

[hawkeye2]

My spruce gum sampler from Etsy arrived a couple of days ago.

 

[Brokennock]

I would like to try this, but have some concerns. I broke my jaw as a kid and never had it fixed correctly. Extended chewing of really stiff chewy things has aggravated it in the past. Once it "shatters" then becomes chewed, how stiff is it? How sticky is it, does it want to stick to the teeth?

 

[OldMaineWoodsman]

My spruce gum sampler from Etsy arrived a couple of days ago.

Well?

 

[Tumbledown]

This thread brings back memories...not necessarily good ones, though. But now I'm going to keep an eye out for it (maybe Reny's?) and if I find some, I'll let you know.

 

[hawkeye2]

I found this on facebook, interesting. The tool is a spruce gum picker's tool which was mounted on a pole. The building was the Curtis gum factory in Portland Maine. The store was at Packard's Camps, Sebec Lake, Willimantic, Maine, 1894. I believe Packard's is still operating.

I finally worked up nerve to try the gum I had bought. The initial taste was like pure spruce but it looses that fast and tastes closer to chewing on a piece of bark. You have to break the gum up and then chew the pieces into a wad of gum. It isn't soft like commercial gum and it does want to stick to your teeth somewhat but it won't pull your fillings out.

"John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum in America in 1848 in Maine. It was called 'The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum'. Curtis established a firm named 'Curtis & Son'. Some of the Spruce Gums made under this firm were American Flag, Yankee Spruce, White Mountain, 200 Lump Spruce, Licorice Lulu, Trunk Spruce, Sugar Cream, Four-in-Hand, and Biggest and Best."

 

[64Springer]

I would like to try this, but have some concerns. I broke my jaw as a kid and never had it fixed correctly. Extended chewing of really stiff chewy things has aggravated it in the past. Once it "shatters" then becomes chewed, how stiff is it? How sticky is it, does it want to stick to the teeth?

I once pulled a gold crown off a tooth after biting into a Werther's Original candy.

Had to boil the candy to get my crown back.

The dentist asked me if I had learned any lessons.