Years: 1992-1995ish
Company: Warner Lambert (Cadbury/Dentyne)
Ugh.........fine. Here we go again. Thanks, early 90's. Thanks a lot.
YOU WANT SOME EXTREME CHEWING GUM!!!?????
I can't do it. We've already been over how everything in the early 90's was "Extreme".
Or as the kids were calling it, "Xtreme" with an X.
Or as Gary Sherone was saying: "Hey guys, lets call ourselves Extreme, but we really won't be? Irony is cool, right?"
And as Alanis Morissette would say a few years later "No, Gary...that's not Ironic."
Cinnaburst gum was Warner Lambert giving the middle finger to Wrigley's Big Red Chewing gum.
It was more.....as the kids say....Xtreme. It had these things in it called "Flavor Crystals" that really amped up the spiciness. It was a notch spicier then Big Red as I remember, but it had a gimmick, and as we have learned from past products with gimmicks (I'm looking in your direction, Orbitz...) people get excited then lose interest really fast.
It did drum up enough interest that Warner Lambert spun off the brand into a few other flavors to compete with other popular gum brands.
The first, Mint*A*Burst
Mint*A*Burst also had flavor Crystals, was extreme, and was created to go head to head with Double Mint gum. Which is a bold move......you don't mess with those twins.
Fruit*A*Burst was also had Flavor Crystals (Fruity Crystals), was Extreme, but only as extreme as a fruity gum can get. I mean, you don't really have much to work with. Cinnamon and Mint I can see, but I've never heard anyone say "This Fruit Flavor is too much for my mouth!!!" Make it stop!", which may be why the Fruit*A*Burst didn't carry the warning about not being suitable for adults, because it was so tame even adults could enjoy it.
And therein lies the downfall of the Bust gums.
Everyone knows that once adults start to do something it looses it's coolness for kids.
So a kid must have witnessed an adult put a stick of Fruit*A*Burst gum in his or her mouth, and the entire house of cards came tumbling down.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with that theory.
Also a weird side note: Remember the old story about how you could eat the wrappers to enhance the "Flavor Crystals" taste? Did anyone ever fall for that?
Because I sure did. And it did nothing other then make me feel stupid for eating a piece of foil lined paper.
Enjoy these random pictures from various Burst Commercials!
I remember Big Red, but this I don't remember trying, but I must have since I tended to go for cinnamon stuff.
ReplyDeleteFLAVOR CRYSTALS! I particularly appreciate the colors of the wrappers ripping off their big brand predecessors. Doublemint, Big Red, Juicy Fruit.
ReplyDeleteI remember being told to eat the paper wrapper too! Glad I'm not the only one. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes!! I ate the wrappers too lol
DeleteThis stuff was the best.
ReplyDeleteI, too, @Julie_Trueblood was told to eat the wrapper!
There was something about gum with a crunch that I really liked!
ReplyDeleteCinnaburst gum was around as late as February 1999. They plugged it on Nitro on the WWE Network on episode 180.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this gum as a kid. I totally forgot about it until now.
ReplyDeleteDid Mint*A*Burst taste very minty?
DeleteI want cinnaburst gum back I miss it so just got in the mood for some
ReplyDeletei want cinnabrust, fruit brust and the mint brust back they were all really good
ReplyDeletebring them all back please...
ReplyDeleteThanks for this page. I was a huge fan of Fruit-A-Burst and very disappointed when it became unavailable. I'm almost certain it was available through at least 1997 or maybe 1998.
ReplyDeleteI loved Mint-A-Burst as a kid — I want to say it was around until 1999 or so. I think it went away by 2000. At any rate, I switched to Eclipse, which also came out in 1999, which I found had the same “extreme” flavor profile, although the marketing was more adult — which I still buy to this day, although it is getting harder to find. Funny that Eclipse is a Wrigley product — I wonder if that is what killed this. In addition to Eclipse Mint there was “Cinnamon Inferno” Eclipse as well.
ReplyDeleteloses* its*
ReplyDeleteYou need an editor or at least Grammarly! 🙂😂