This episode is, obviously, filled with mouth sounds. Proceed at your own risk.
Today we're bringing you the sequel that nobody wanted but is actually very necessary. We wonder what 'DDS' stands for as we bite into these chonky boys from tubes, barrels and sticks. The masticatory vibes are real for take offs and landings so while we're minimally flavored, and softer for longer, we hope to someday RESPAWN as the Dark Crystal. Happy chewing!
Speaker 1 0:00
Matt. I'm Matt, and I'm Molly. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
this is spilled Belk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have
Molly 0:09
any today. We are talking about chewing gum two. Chewing gum two, or I guess that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about chewing gum. And this is our second episode. No, we're talking about
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:20
chewing gum to the sequel to gum. Yes, the sequel to gum? Yes. Gum plus, yeah, this is gum plus. Part of the reason we're doing this is because probably by the time you you hear this, I will be recovering from gum surgery. And so Abby was like, what do you what do you want to do, like, before gum surgery? And, like, how about gum? Yeah, because,
Molly 0:40
because you're gonna be on a very limited diet for a while, yeah, probably, probably no gum, no, no gum, because it's not great for your healing. Gums,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:51
exactly No. Like, what are the things like? Probably no captain crunch,
Molly 0:55
right? Yeah. Probably no chips, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:58
So teeth, a D minus gums. Gums are even worse. I give gums an F,
Molly 1:03
okay, wow. You know, we've talked many times over the decade and a half of doing the show about my fear of dental emergencies. Yeah, but wow, we haven't talked about like gum emergencies. Or, I mean, do you go to a dentist for that? Or is it like an endodontist, or you go to like a special person. I mean, what's a gum emergency? Well, no, no, I'm just, I'm backing off of that because that, that joke, was
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:28
taking me nowhere. Oh, I think I figure gum emergencies when you swallow gum and then it stays in your stomach for seven years, whatever legend,
Molly 1:35
that's what it is, okay. But no wait, hold on, if you have to have gum surgery, do you go to a dentist an oral surgeon?
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:42
Yeah, so. But most dentists are oral surgeons, like DDS, Doctor of Dental Surgery. Oh, okay. Or maybe, is that what that stands for? I think I like, I think it does, but it can be just dental science. Oh, I was gonna say Doctor of Dental stuff, delivering dental services. Delivering dental services. Yeah, yep, overnight delivery. All right, so we've got some gums here.
Molly 2:03
And the reason why we're doing gum again is because, okay, well, I don't have as many gums as I used to, which is why I have to get gum surgery. There are a lot of stupid gum flavors out there now, and there are a lot of like, long running brands, like extra Trident, et cetera, that have new flavors, new stupid product lines. And also, are these
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:24
stupid, or are they so cool that they're that they're just like way beyond our capacity to understand?
Molly 2:30
I'm struggling to understand so in this era of, well, I was going to say in this era of environmentalism, but rip Well, when we used to try to have not very much packaging, it seems that the new format of chewing gums is just going it's going full down with environmentalism. So because we're getting these big ass plastic chunky boys,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:56
Yeah, but how do you know the plastic is edible? Now you don't know until you try. There was one that I didn't buy, I think because I already had the same had the same flavor in a different format, that was, like in a cardboard box. That was pretty cool. Yeah. So anyway, this is like a just like a tan card, like cardboard, Amazon. Yes. It just said, Take a handful, 50 cents anyway. But, yeah, this wasn't at a store.
Molly 3:26
Gum used to come in sticks in, like, very simple pack. We have one pack of sticks. Now it comes in these dumb, like, little barrel containers.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:37
I'm gonna, I'm gonna be team barrel here. I think these are cool. I think we're cool because we're going to open them up and yeah, they shake Yeah, and I'm excited to try some of these. Okay, so first of all, happy Halloween. This is our Halloween episode, because it comes out on October 30. Let me ask you a Halloween question. How would you feel if you got gum in your trick or treat
Molly 3:59
bag? Well, I think I have. Sometimes I've gotten like, what is it Bubblicious, or bubble? Yum, oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:05
sure. Like, like, kind of a individual Twist, twist wrapped candy, yeah, double bubble.
Molly 4:09
Oh, double bubble. Or, do you remember what was the one that used to come in, like, a shoestring fries format? It came in
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:18
a pig shoe, big league shoe. Okay? I think we probably so we did a gum. We did gum one in like, 2012 I didn't go back and listen to it. I don't remember where we talked about hopefully we got Big League Chew, because that's a great gum.
Molly 4:30
I don't think I've ever gotten Big League Chew in my trick or treat basket.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:34
Yeah, there were so many candies that that pretended to be tobacco products. That was, wow. That was such a great era. Candy cigarettes, yeah,
Molly 4:43
but I feel good about getting gum in my Halloween stash.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:48
Okay, yeah, I think I would feel like that was a letdown. I pretty much just only want like fun size Snickers, Reese's, peanut butter cups and M M's.
Molly 4:56
I mean, do you only want, like, foods that you can swallow? No, I only want foods
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:01
that I can swallow and they don't stay in my tummy for seven years. Yeah, if I get, if I got gum, I would like chew it up and then I stick it on the side of their house.
Molly 5:09
Wow, wow. Whoa. Matthew, just in general. I mean, who knows what was on our gum? Memory Lane the last time we did this episode, but what's on your gum? Memory Lane today,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:22
few things. This will probably be the same thing that I said on gum. One, but you're not gonna go back and listen to that. So I loved bazooka because it came with a little cartoon.
Molly 5:32
It was so hard. Oh, so hard.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:35
I liked there was a there was a gumball machine at my local market. Sell, sell would market that was one cent, like, one penny. So sometimes I would get those. And then, like, the gum that I really wanted, like, aside from, like, you know, your hubba bubba bubble, yum, Bubblicious, those were always the best. But I always loved the chules, which were the ones that had liquid inside, like, one of the ones that liquid inside. And then the commercials were so good.
Molly 6:01
Another thing that was great about chewels was they came in like a little tube, like coins, like a little coin tube. You remember that? Uh huh, they were square, yes. And I just picture them like stacked on top of each other, and you kind of peel that square off, but you hope that the goo doesn't come out. Oh, yeah. Am I right about this? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:20
think you're right, yeah, but, but, no, I don't think so.
Molly 6:25
Oh, wait, were they? Were they? Were they individually,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:29
like, because, yeah, because the goo, I don't remember the goo ever coming out before they got into my mouth, but I do remember them coming in like a tube format, yeah, definitely. Somebody like, extract this audio and use it out of context, yes, yeah. And then Chiclets, because they had that hard shell that was very, very satisfying to bite through. It sounded nice against your teeth, yeah. And, and, like, just the the package had a nice rattle, although sometimes, sometimes those are ones you would like punch out through foil, like a pill
Molly 6:56
pack, right? Yeah, yeah. I think that was how chick lit. Was that how chick lit came? Okay? It seems that we don't actually remember anything about
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:07
like, Well, yeah, well, I was gonna say we'll talk more about gum in a minute, but we'll talk about gum for practically this whole episode, until we inevitably get on a tangent and talk about like, I don't know, like cat food for 10 minutes.
Molly 7:18
So I was only allowed to have sugar free gum. But of course, I was obsessed with, like, Bubblicious, all that stuff. One gum that I found really reliably delicious, even though it was sugar free as a kid, and that I have a soft spot for, is the Trident, the orange one. Oh yeah. Like fruit flavor. I think now it's called, like, tropical fruit or right? But it used to just
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:43
be, you used to be able to have something that was just fruit flavor, yes, well, kind of like Juicy Fruit.
Molly 7:48
Yes, juicy fruit was fabulous, but it always lost its flavor
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:53
too fast. It's gonna move. Yeah. Was that the slogan? Yeah? It's got the got the taste, it gets right to you. Juicy Fruit, the taste, the taste, the taste is gonna move. Yeah,
Molly 8:01
oh, now I remember that, but it can't possibly compete with big red, which we can't start saying,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:07
or we will never do anything else. Okay.
Molly 8:10
Anyway, yeah, memory lane. I mean, do you still buy gum?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:14
I buy gum exclusively for chewing on takeoff and landing, usually, usually airplane takeoff and landing, but I would do the same for any takeoff, any takeoff and landing, like mental takeoff and landing, helicopter, or, as I call it, Chopper,
Molly 8:29
sexual takeoff.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:37
Well, you know, there's like a, like a, like a cycle,
Molly 8:42
there's a graph, yeah, the refractory period, I think, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:46
I think that's like, like, the landing like, that's the like, sitting on the tarmac.
Molly 8:53
Sometimes you're out there for a long
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:57
time. All right. So what were we talking about
Unknown Speaker 9:02
gum? So what is, what is this stuff?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:07
All right, first. Okay, so chewing gum. Can we start chewing it? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay, let's cheese plate this. Let's tell the people what we have and what we're gonna do with it. And the answer is, chew. I guess we need someplace to stick our gum. What are we gonna do? I guess I'm just gonna stick it onto the agenda. Onto the agenda. Then we're gonna need this agenda for like, the next episode. It's gonna have, like, chewed gum wads on it. The
Molly 9:30
next episode literally has no agenda items. Good point. Okay, hold on. Ruin this thing. I'm opening these okay, but Matthew, let's cheese plate it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:40
Let's cheese plate it. Okay, I So, should we talk about what we have? Yeah? So I got two, two flavors of Trident vibes, which is a real thing, two flavors of Mentos Gum. I did not know that Mentos made gum, but as I was buying it, I was like, I bet a lot of people think Mentos already was gum, right? It's
Molly 9:58
true. It's kind of, I. Oh, I'm really sad about this one that I'm I'm unwrapping. Yeah, look what's happening.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:04
No, I think, I think a bunch of these, like the the label is going to, like, peel off in an indecorous way. The one that you just overly peeled is icebreakers, ice cubes that look sort of like little dice on the label. At least that one I got purely because of the of the shape. So, okay, the Trident vibes are spearmint, spearmint rush. And what's the one you're holding? Sour Patch, kids, mantos. There's pure white and tropical red fruit lime. Okay, that's, that's sort of fruit flavor. Then we got icebreakers, our ice cubes, raspberry sorbet.
Molly 10:38
And then we've got extra and this is in the old stick form, the old stick
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:43
format. I just liked it was, it was pink lemonade. I have no idea if that's new or old or what. I'm
Molly 10:47
having some trouble finding the old pull tab. Oh, wait, you got it. There we go.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:52
So I think we should start with either Trident vibe, spearmint rush, or Mentos pure white.
Molly 10:58
Let's do Trident vibe, spearmint rush and then Mentos.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:03
Okay, how are we going to avoid, like, smacking gum on Mike throughout the whole episode?
Molly 11:09
I don't know, but are you going to be able to tell me, like, how and why Trident vibes is different from, like, Trident that still comes in stick format. That's
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:19
so different. So here's the thing that I didn't realize, okay, so, like, the gum market is kind of not what I expected, in the sense that, first of all, like, sugary gum is kind of a dead end product. I mean, it might come back at some point, but there doesn't seem to be any innovation in the sugary gum market. I still saw a little like, you know, hubba bubba, or Bubble Yum. Maybe I looked up like Bubble Yum. Currently only markets two flavors, cotton candy and original. Whoa, yeah, right. So, like all of these are sugar free gums, and that is where all of the gum marketing is happening these days. And these Trident vibes are marketed to teens. That's why it has the word vibes in it. They are a competitor to five brand gum, which I didn't even realize is also marketed to teens. What's five brand? You would recognize that packaging. I didn't get it because the flavors are, like, pretty ordinary. It's just purely packaging. So, yeah, so they have things like spearmint, extreme or whatever. I didn't think teens chewed gum. I would have guessed that, like, everybody stopped being interested in gum in like, 1992 and like, you know, the the average age of a gum chewer has been getting older and older since then. No, apparently teens chew gum.
Molly 12:30
So my kid, I remember last year, right before this, they were like, Oh, can I get this gum? Like, I can keep it in my locker and, like, offer it to people, which I think is a pretty, pretty cool way to use gum offering. I think this is great. I think this is fabulous. So good. I just want to say so this is the Trident vibes, spearmint, Rush. And what I have
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:52
some kind of fruit flavor in it. What? Right? It's not just mint.
Molly 12:57
What I'm noticing about it, compared to trident in the stick format is it's got that really nice little candy shell that you crunch through. It is softer, yeah, and it stays softer longer. And so far, the flavor is staying good even as it's fading.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:14
Stay softer longer. Is another way to describe a refractory period, right?
Molly 13:21
Yeah. Okay, so, so Trident vibes is just like a new name they put on,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:27
yeah. But, I mean, the shape is different, and I am, I am confident there is some fruit flavor in here, along with the spearmint flavor. I
Molly 13:35
also just think they've completely reformatted the actual, like chewing gum,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:40
because it reformatted. It like how you reformat your hard drive, it feels really different in my mouth it does, yeah, so let's talk about what makes gum gum. Okay, chewing gum is flavored gum base and gum base. Let's start with what Wikipedia says about gum base. Quote, gum base is the non nutritive, non digestible, water insoluble, masticatory delivery system used to carry sweeteners, flavors and any other substances in chewing gum and bubble gum, it provides all the basic textural and masticatory properties of gum. And the FDA allows 46 ingredients in gum base in the US. So it does vary between from manufacturer to manufacturer and like brand to brand, but the most common class of gum base, comprising multiple subtypes, is according to Wikipedia quote, synthetic coagulated or concentrated lattices, polymers such as butadiene styrene, polyvinyl acetate, polyethylene, paraffin and petroleum waxes are the most commonly used gum bases on the market today. They are petroleum derived polymers which are designed to maximize elasticity and incorporate other components of the gum base as well as flavors and sweeteners in their chemical matrix. It's plastic, yeah, basically,
Molly 14:48
okay, I have a couple things to say. I've just put a Mentos pure white in my mouth. Oh, don't say anything. It's smaller than the Trident vibes. It's kind of the size it's, you know, when you take a stick of tri. It in. You put it in your mouth, it's like, not really enough, but if you take two, it kind of feels like too much. This feels kind of similar to me. But the other thing is, now hang on a second first. The first flavor I got was industrial cleaner.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:13
For me, like the Crest toothpaste, Colgate toothpaste.
Molly 15:17
Oh, okay. It is extremely pepperminty.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:21
Yeah, this one's not very good, and the shell is too thin and crackly. I don't care for this one. This one feels too when you say a stick of trident. Are you talking about the classic, like, short and stubby, thick Trident stick? Okay, I have some in my bag, right? Okay, they still, I was, I was gonna say I wasn't even positive that they still sold them that far. Good, good. I'm doing, I'm making, like, a gross sculpture here.
Molly 15:43
Oh, god, okay. Well, hold on. I know we have to talk more about gum
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:46
base. Oh, we gotta, but people are clamoring for it. But where do we go
Molly 15:51
next? Because our four remaining flavors are pink lemonade, raspberry sorbet, Sour Patch, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:57
so they're all fruit flavors. I think either the pink lemonade. Oh, this one is tropical red fruit lime. Tropical red fruit lime. Okay, I don't know, what do we do? Or maybe it's tropical red and fruit lime are the two things there. I think I wanna do extra pink lemonade next. I think, okay, great. I don't have I feel like we should just sour patch kids last Okay, okay. I'm thinking, this is gonna be good.
Molly 16:18
My mom used to always keep extra in her purse. My mom used to be a big gum chewer, then she had some TMJ problems. Yeah, I feel like people had more TMJ problems in the 80s.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:30
Yeah, it was, it was a trend. This is okay, hmm,
Molly 16:34
you know, I actually like this. I think that if I didn't have this Mentos abomination lingering in my mouth. I could really go for this one. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:45
guess it does have some like, sort of like, grape fruity ness to it, along with a lemon. Okay, I'm coming around.
Molly 16:51
It's got a little grape fruitiness. So this is technically pink lemonade, what they call it. It's got a little grape fruitiness. It also just has a little pink flavor. Oh, it's not, it's
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:58
not pink. Though I thought it was gonna take it out of my mouth and it was gonna be pink. It's not. Don't you think? Not. Don't you think it tastes pink? Though it does taste pink. Yes, that's, I mean, that's why I expected to see pink.
Molly 17:07
Oh, I like that one. We
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:17
don't have any bubble gums today either. Bubble gum base is different from chewing gum base. It contains higher level, there's a quote again, higher lovers, levels of elastomers, or higher molecular weight polymers for the purpose of maintaining a bubble envelope. Whoa, a bubble envelope. Sugar free. Gum is almost always sweetened with sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol made from potato starch. I like the look of this icebreakers Ice Cube. It is a little cube. It does it doesn't squeeze it a little bit with your
Molly 17:45
fingers. It doesn't feel like it has a hard candy coating. Oh, no, the powderiness of this reminds me of old school bubble gum. I don't care. Oh, I kind of like it. No, I don't like it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:57
I feel like the flavor died in like five seconds. I'm hitting this
Molly 18:01
weird texture when I'm chewing where I'm it's pretending to be soft, but then it kind of is like I hit a certain point and it feels hard. It's like there's something off in the polymer blend.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:12
Yeah, now I like how the UN chewed gum looks this one. Don't care for how the chewed gum. This one has flavor crystals. I don't Did you notice that I did you notice that I did notice that I did that was part of what drew me to it. It says it's powered by crystals. Oh. So another thing about five gum, if I had found this, I would have bought it. They have a line called respawn, with flavors such as respawn, watermelon, guava mint, which is gum marketed to gamers, which I really, really appreciate.
Molly 18:37
For some reason I re initially, I mean, where my mind immediately went was that it was like recycled gum.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:44
That's right. See, you thought environmentalism was on the wane, but if you send your chewed five gum back to the company, they will recycle it into they will respawn it for you listeners, send your chewed gum to this address. Okay, so now we got Mentos. Oh, keep, keep talking about gum.
Molly 19:02
Oh, I took a pink one, which is red fruit lime. The orange one is going to be tropical. Oh, okay, so these are Mentos again. They're again going to be too small. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:13
mean, it looks like a Mentos. They're hard, if you, if you like, put this into someone's bowl of regular Mentos. That would be a pretty serious prank. Boy, this flavor is, yeah, the other thing that I wanted to find that I couldn't you keep chewing and thinking was icebreakers flavor shift, which the idea is, you like, start chewing it, and it's one flavor, and then it morphs into a different flavor. So, like, one of the examples is wild berry to cool mint. Oh, I couldn't find it. Hmm, no, I don't like
Molly 19:45
that. It's got a really strong, okay, I just had the tropical one too. This is a really strong passion fruit thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:53
It's so it's so hard.
Molly 19:55
Why haven't they made this into a more pleasant chewing experience? It could be. Think if the texture was better, I would like this. I think I would enjoy the flavor, you know what, which is a really good, like fake fruity candy flavor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:07
Oh, like a Mentos is a hard, chewy candy. They're going for Mentos texture, I think,
Speaker 1 20:12
but, but who wants that in something you're gonna chew? Repeat, no, I agree. Ad nauseam. No, this does ad nauseam. It does, wow. Okay, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, yeah, okay, I don't have any other facts about gum. Okay. Well, so far so our what have we learned? Well, so far, my feelings are actually, like, these super environmentally unfriendly packages. Oh yeah, the containers are great. You can, like, keep them in, great. Keep them in, like, a I was gonna say, in the drink drink cup in your car. What do you call that thing? Drink Holder, cup holder, cup holder. But the other thing is, like for them, where do you put your cup? Yeah, for somebody who doesn't carry a bag, or like, for somebody who is used to being able to carry all of their worldly possessions around on a daily basis, just in their pockets or in a bindle. Yeah, you can't, you can't carry these things around. No, they got, they got, it's too many vibes in that
Molly 21:07
sense is this sort of like marketed toward, like women, because women tend to carry a bag.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:13
I don't know. I mean, like, I think, I think it's, it's certainly become a lot more socially acceptable, acceptable for for men, for men to carry a purse, like I do. That's true pretty often. Cross body bag, across a CBB, yeah, um, and I could put some, yeah, I could carry some vibes in that. And also, and also, like I have huge pockets.
Molly 21:37
Oh, wait, I just noticed that this sour patch, kid, one is blue raspberry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:42
I had a blue raspberry Slurpee the other day, and it was great. I have to confess something, I let everybody down. I was at the 711 I was on my way to my friend's house. I was like, Oh, I'm gonna stop for a Slurpee. And they had the Green Day limited edition, like, Green Day cotton candy, grape flavored Slurpee. And I was like, That sounds terrible. And I want blue raspberry, which I know will be good, but I didn't get the Green Day Slurpee. And I feel like I let down listeners of both of my podcasts. One so sorry, which is about Green Day, and the other is about Slurpee. Okay, so how's the how's the Sour Patch? I'm gonna let you wave in terms of like, shape, size and candy shell vibes, all the way for me.
Molly 22:22
Oh yeah. Trident vibes, I like it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:27
I like it too. There were like, two or three seconds of, like, not a lot of foods have, like, a weird before taste. Like, a lot of things have a weird aftertaste, but like, the first few seconds, like, I think it might be the taste of, like whatever's in that candy shell or
Molly 22:42
something. It could be the taste of, like the six other gums in our mouths. That could
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:47
also be, but yeah, of all these Trident vibes is definitely the one I would buy again, and I would be happy with either of
Molly 22:53
these. Yeah, Trident vibes, I'm gonna say this is a very well engineered product. So here's what I feel that I have learned. I've learned that I like this stupid space taking up container. I've learned that I really like the candy shell. Contrast it with a nice chewy interior.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:14
It's like, yeah, it's what I like. It's why I wanted Chiclets. And now Now it's like, chubby Chiclets. Yeah, no. And you know that the singer of the twist, the twist,
Molly 23:24
no, but it's also another thing I'm really liking about the Trident vibes. I love how much you're cracking yourself up right now. So you know what these remind me of, in terms of their shape, they remind me
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:36
of the bean bags like corn hole. What was it? The chibi gummies, chibi chibi chibi gum, chibi chibi chibi gummy, gummy gummies,
Molly 23:44
the like, really kind of chunky square ones, yeah. Or were those tough? Tough gummy,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:50
tough gummy. Are the chunkies? Yeah, okay, those are really tough.
Molly 23:54
It's fascinating to me, the idea of, like, wanting to choose something that is tough, I mean, that isn't meat, for instance, like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:03
it is weird to want to choose something that isn't
Molly 24:05
meat, but, like, like, you know, I can understand that beef jerky or right, you know, like chewing something that's tough, that's meat, yeah? But I like the tough gummy. This is a Japanese candy. I like the tough gummy too. But just philosophically, yeah, it does seem strange. Is your jaw aching at all right now? Because mine aches a little a little bit. Yeah, this is a lot of gum. It is when I'm out of practice.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:29
Yeah? No, we gotta, we gotta get back into like, Gum. Gum season is coming up, like, like, like, competition season. Tone up those jaws. Yeah. Like, we've been out of the game, the gum game, too long. Like, if there was, you know, like, there was a gum equivalent of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, what would it consist of? Oh, would you have to, like, it couldn't make you swallow it, because probably you die. But I
Molly 24:55
don't think you can have a gum chewing competition. Because, like. You know,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:01
competition where, like, you're measuring the diameter the bubble. But like, like we said, Bubble, bubble gum is kind of on the
Molly 25:06
outs. Matthew, I I just wonder if our episode is incomplete because we didn't have any five
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:13
gum. I mean, what do we what do we do about this? I should have gotten five. It was right. Well, you know what we do? We do. Gum, three, colon, five, okay, okay, and it'll try and find gay like respawn, okay, maybe, maybe I can order respawn online. Gum, three, five, yes, yes. Abby, producer, Abby, that's what we're gonna call the episode, Gum. Gum, Roman numeral three, colon, Arabic, numeral five. There we go. Okay, wow, Matthew, what did you learn? So I think I learned the same thing as you. Like, you know, I like having a little gum barrel, but I was, I was, like, more sold on the gum barrel before you sounds like I'm saying gun barrel. I'm saying gum barrel. Yeah, let's be clear. We are neither armed nor dangerous. But
Molly 25:58
I'm sad that I don't like the Mentos because, yeah, them. I like the label. I don't care for the label, but I really like the shape of the container.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:09
Oh, yeah, it's got, like, it's got, like, curves, yeah, like, if you're doing like, you know, curves with your fingers, but like, a bunch of them,
Molly 26:15
yeah, it's like, a wavy, it's wavy. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:19
she's Yeah, she's not just curvy, she's wavy. And tried it. Vibes is really, really good gum. I long may it vibe
Molly 26:28
also, I want to say that, Matthew, I know you can't see all of your chewed up pieces of color
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:33
of yours, it's kind of pleasing color looks like, like sea glass. Is that what that's called? Like, if I saw this for sale, like at a at a beach souvenir shop, I'd be like, yeah. Like, I'll stick a handful
Molly 26:44
of, why don't I go just dump these on the beach? Yeah? You
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:47
should. That's like, yeah, yeah. I know you. I know you try hard to be a good citizen and
Molly 26:51
environmentalism, this is our anti environmentalism episode. Just kidding, just kidding. No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:57
but, but, like, maybe we'll pick up some new sponsors, like, like, Exxon, are
Molly 27:02
you out there? The NRA? Yeah, great.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:05
All right. We're desperate. We'll take anything. No, no, we're, this is, that's the, it's the new us. We've, we've pivoted. That's right. All right. Spilled mail, yeah, we do
Molly 27:22
this one is from listener Mari. Listener Mari says a random mailbag question, what are some foods that you exclusively eat at certain times of year and refuse to consume in other seasons? I'm not talking about seasonal eating. Obviously a tomato in February is never an ideal experience. But rather meals, baked goods, desserts or drinks that really fit a certain time of your setting and feel wrong at any other time. For example, I am crazy about the taste of pumpkin, but if it's not a chilly morning in October, the flavor feels totally wrong and freaks me out. For another I look forward to the first gin and tonic of the year, which has to be on one of those magical first warm days of late spring.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:03
Okay, so this is a great question. Listener, Mari and like, I have a couple of things came to mind. So first of all, it's kind of obvious, but jell O, outside of summer feels weird to me. Do you eat a lot of jell O, no. But like, if I was, if I think about, like, you know, it's a summer day like today, it's a hot day in the studio in August, while we're recording, and like, someone you know, gave me a dish of lime. Jell O, I'd be this, like, this is great, yeah, but it's not a seasonal food. And yet, if you gave me lime, jell O, in November, I'd be like, okay,
Molly 28:34
yep, you know, I'm thinking things like, I love like, a really good gingerbread maybe with a frosting, or, like, a ginger cake. I don't think I would ever make that outside of fall.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:44
Yeah? Now, Watson will sometimes make gingerbread muffins in the summer, like she'd recently and, like, so, so, like, I'm fine with Gingerbread muffins in the summer, but I also get that gingerbread feels like a fall, winter thing. Yeah,
Molly 28:55
I'm trying to think about beverages. You know, how Tony Negroni, you know, had her season cold Sauvignon Blanc. There we go. Yeah, I've never really had like a seasonal drink, or not seasonal, but like a drink I associate with certain temperatures. Yeah. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:11
was thinking about, you know, lemonade in the summer, but that's such an obvious answer, yeah, that I didn't even write it down, and now I retract it. Okay. What about other things? I love rhubarb season, but what I really love is, like, concentrated rhubarb season. So like, actual rhubarb season around here lasts for like, maybe three months. But I don't actually wanna eat three months of rhubarb desserts. What I want is to see that first beautiful rhubarb, seize upon it, and then have rhubarb for like, four weeks after that, and then just let it go, even though, and just walk past the rhubarb for the rest of the season. This is
Molly 29:45
a really interesting point, because I love picking the blackberries that grow invasively, horrendously all over Seattle. And I always pick them, and then I freeze them on a sheet pan and put them in a freezer zip lock, and then later you notice them in there, like. It's like three years later. Yes, exactly. But there have been times when and my favorite thing to do with these blackberries is to make blackberry cobbler. I will often notice in the middle of winter, right, that I've got some blackberries in there, and I have, on multiple occasions, made a Blackberry cobbler far out of BlackBerry season. And it's fine, like, I don't have anything against it, because I know that it was last summer's blackberries, yeah? But it's not, it's like the rhubarb thing. It's just not quite as delicious. Or I have part,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:35
yeah, part of what makes the rhubarb so good is that I've been craving it for so long.
Molly 30:39
Exactly the same thing for me sometimes goes for plums. You know, when it's like, prune plum season or Italian plum season, they actually freeze really well. Like, if you have them and pit them, you can freeze them and then you could put them into cakes or whatever. I have done that, and I've always wound up just wasting them, yeah, freezer because I don't want a plum cake when it's not plum
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:01
time, yeah. No, I get it, yeah. My last one, I have to pick something from Japan, obviously. So in the rest of the world, like in China, for example, like a barbecue pork bun is not really considered a seasonal dish. In Japan, it kind of is, because, like in fall and winter, they are sold, like at the the cashier, at the at the convenience stores. And, like, a classic image of Japan in the winter is like a young person walking down the street warming their hands by holding a steaming nikuman pork bun. And so, like, it's become kind of a seasonal thing for me too.
Molly 31:34
Oh, that's lovely. I like that. Gosh, I'm gonna be thinking about this for a while. Yeah, it's a good question. Yeah, that's a really good question. All right, our producer is Abby circuitella, yeah. You can rate and review us wherever you get your stuff, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:47
you can catch up with other spilled milk listeners at reddit.com/r/everything, spilled milk. What new gums have you noticed that we should do on gum? Three, colon, five. We can't wait to hear, we can't wait to hear about your new gums when you tried the flavor, flavor morphing gum, you might Mighty Morphin Power gum.
Molly 32:07
Do you think Trident vibes is a truly superior product compared to its competitors?
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:14
Yeah, just, just tell us, we're right. Come on, we want to know. All right, until next time. Thank you for listening to spilled milk,
Molly 32:20
the show that's powered by crystals.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:24
I'm Rose Quartz and I'm you took the only credit, the only crystal. I'm a dime, a diamond in the rock. Oh, you're a Dark Crystal. I'm the Dark Crystal.
Molly 32:37
Bye. I'm Molly And I'm Matthew. You
Molly 32:45
I'll save that thought. Yeah.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai