Just got back from a little vacation with my extended family to Atlantic City and Long Beach Island. Atlantic City was more of the same, but Long Beach was loads of fun. We used to rent a house there every year, back before the prices skyrocketed. Haven’t explored the town in almost a decade, and totally forgot how cool it is. You’ll see an example in tomorrow’s entry. Tonight, with time running short before my midnight Megaparty deadline, we’ll have to settle for reviews of five different Bubblicious flavors.
Savage Sour Apple: Despite its name, I got more of a “cherry Jolly Rancher” vibe. Definitely had the strongest flavor of the bunch, which means it’s better as surrogate caffeine than for casual chewing. It’s really sour. Not the kind of gum you’d offer to Grandma, and probably my least favorite of the five.
Paradise Punch: This was my #1 gum of choice during middle school. The flavor isn’t as overpowering as I’d remembered, but maybe my taste buds were just screwy from the Savage Sour Apple mess. Sort of the gum equivalent of a Hawaiian Punch, which was probably what Bubblicious was going for considering the flavor’s name.
Watermelon Wave: Really mellow. You’ve gotta jab the gum wad with your tongue pretty hard to get any kind of flavor burst deserving of a sourpuss face. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Most brands of Bubblicious gum are really sour or sweet, and it’s impossible to chew them without contorting your face in ways that let everyone around you know that you’re chewing gum. Watermelon Wave is great for those occasions when you want to chew gum, but really shouldn’t.
LeBron’s Lightning Lemonade: It’s times like these that I wish I knew more about sports. Is LeBron James cool? I mean, is he really cool? He should be, because this flavor is AMAZING. It’s not at all just some everyday “lemonade gum,” tasting much more like Minute Maid’s new “Cherry Limeade” juice. Best of the bunch. Paraphrasing a testimonial from an old Cats Broadway promo, “I’d chew it twice more.”
Blue Blowout: I’m happy that Bubblicious found a happy medium for their requisite “blue” flavor. Candy companies tend to overdo blue. This one’s pretty mellow, all things considered, tasting like a cross between cotton candy and a snowcone. A cotton candy flavored snowcone? A cotton candy flavored snowcone flavored bubble gum? When it takes that many words and that much confusion to properly describe the taste nuances of bubble gum, you know you’ve got a winner.
On a final note, never buy gum from the gift shops in an Atlantic City casino resort. These were $1.98 a pack.
Posted by Matt. E-mail me!
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I believe my sister introduced me to Cow tails around that time..also enjoyable. When i was much smaller it was Big League Chew or nothin’!
I always feel a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to vent a little something about the Benoit situation. I was in disbelief because of the whole McMahon-exploding limo thing, was it another ploy? But When I found out his wife and kid were involved, I knew that was too far for even McMahon to go. So sad. After scouring the net for as much info as I could last night, and realizing they had cancelled the much hyped McMahon Memorial, I had to face that it is true. Then this morning on my way to work, my normally favorite morning DJ was going on and on about how the whole thing was fake. Again, if it was just Benoit could have been a reasonable thought, but I highly doubt that even the WWE would pretend to kill off a seven-year-old boy in such a manner. I can’t say I’ll never listen to that morning program again, but I have lost much of what little respect I had for that DJ. I agree with all of you, especially being a mother, when a child is involved, it is in no way funny. RIP Chris, Nancy and Daniel.