I bought this Bubble Gum Factory at our local hobby shop for $19.99. Later I saw that Amazon has it for $12.99. Bummer. Oh well, it was still worth it because it was super fun and gave my kids great pleasure. My almost-8 year old has only had gum once in her life because I had not been able to find any that is soy-free. Needless to say, she was thrilled with today’s “science lesson.” (We had been talking about states of matter.)

As soon as I opened this box I read in the directions what is not listed on the outside: that you must have microwave to do this project. They sort of imply that you can use a double boiler, which we did. In another post I’ll explain why we have not had a microwave in over 3 years (maybe more?)

Here’s what we did:
Melt the gum base and the corn syrup. (This would be much easier in a microwave!)

Once the mixture is cool, knead it like dough. If it gets too sticky, add powdered sugar.

Roll your “dough” into small balls or roll out into small sticks.

You can either knead some of the flavoring into your gum or roll your balls in it when they are finished. Choose from watermelon, blueberry, or mint. There is citric acid in case you’re the sour puss type – - and BOY, IS THAT STUFF SOUR! WOW! Be forewarned.

You can also add food coloring at this point, but we try our best to stay away from artificial colors so we skipped that part. Plus we have a wedding coming up and I’d rather my girls not have green, blue or purple hands.

When you’re almost 8 years old and you blow your first bubble using gum you’ve made yourself, it is cause for serious celebration!

Note: We only used a fraction of the ingredients so we will be able to make this same amount (about 16 gum balls in all) many more times. If you are an adventurous parent you might try this at a birthdday party! I’d say you’d have enough ingredients for at least 15 kids.

Excuse me now while I try to clean my pan with peanut butter.