Chiclets

by Adams

1906 – 2016 RARE REVIVALS

Limited — real Chiclets left US production in 2016, and what you find at Walmart and Amazon today is mostly Mexican-made Adams Chiclets and bulk vending-machine imitations. Perfetti Van Melle has owned the name since October 2023 and has said nothing about a proper American return. Some histories date the brand to 1900; the earliest dated advertisements are from 1906.

Candy-shelled squares of chicle sold in little yellow two-packs and boxes of twelve — the gum of movie theaters, glove compartments and grandmothers' purses for most of the twentieth century. Then, without so much as a press release, they stopped being made in the United States.

🧾 One more thingFrank Fleer's company was advertising Chiclets in The Saturday Evening Post by 1906; the brand passed through the Sen-Sen Chiclet Company and American Chicle and ended up with Mondelez, which quietly ended US production in 2016. A Mexican-made version under the Adams name reappeared in 2019, and the entire gum portfolio was sold to the makers of Mentos in 2023.

Filed under: Candy & Gum · the ’70s & earlier

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