I don’t review gum on here for one main reason – there’s not that much to be said about gum.  In fact, after some exhausting research (hit ctrl+f on home page, search for “gum”), there has never been a gum review on here.

Because really, unless it’s some novelty gum introduction, like if this site had been around when Big League Chew or Bubble Tape came out, gum reviews seem like a two paragraph review and that’s it.  I don’t have the gum-writing experience to make an interesting review out of gum on a regular basis.  I leave that to the experts over at “Chewing” and “Gum Action”.  Although as I get older, I begin to appreciate the vintage aspects of “Chewers Illustrated” more and more.

Extra’s Pumpkin Spice became the first gum review ever for a couple reasons.  First, it’s pumpkin flavored and it’s October.  So I think I’d be breaking some sort of unwritten agreement with society if it was ignored.  Second, I felt like personally giving it a shot.  I was interested to see if they could pull it off, or if it would be a terrifying cacophony of spices – which is what I was assuming would happen.

I never really bother with the more complicated flavors, like the ones designed to taste like completed dishes.  No Key Lime Pie, no Strawberry Cheesecake, and no Hungry Man Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, Corn, and Brownie Dessert.

So I wasn’t really looking forward to Pumpkin Spice-flavored gum.

As part of their “Seasonal Edition” collection, Extra also had an Apple Pie flavor, but I didn’t want to attempt that.  I will follow along with the rules that we all have to talk about pumpkin, but no one ever said apple was required.

I was a little disappointed in the color of the gum itself.  I was hoping for more of a novelty color with all sorts of orange and tan artificial coloring – a shade more similar to the color on the packaging.

The scent of the gum was troubling.  It didn’t smell like pumpkin pie or other pumpkin spice-flavored foods.  It smelled like pumpkin Febreze or a pumpkin-scented candle.  And not even like, a Yankee Candle – more like the Yankee Candle ripoffs from that big candle shelf in Walmart.

Thankfully, the taste is a bit more normal.  It’s worrisome at first – the onslaught of spices hits you immediately.  After about thirty seconds, the spice levels drop to normal levels, and actually offer a good flavor.  The flavor lasts a really long time, or maybe it just seemed really long because I don’t know how long I actually want to chew pumpkin gum for.

(I’ll restrain myself and not put a picture of the chewed gum here.)

Overall, Extra’s Pumpkin Spice gum was much better than expected.  But at the same time, it’s still pumpkin gum and, well, I don’t really want or need that.  So if you’re perversely into pumpkin spice as a flavor, then go for it.