13 Gum Brands That Vanished From Checkout Lanes
late 2022. The brands below quietly slipped off the shelves in the meantime.
Fruit Stripe
Introduced by Beech-Nut in the 1960s, Fruit Stripe came in zebra-striped packs with a temporary tattoo of its mascot, Yipes the Zebra. It was sold in five flavors: Wet n’ Wild Melon, Cherry, Lemon, Orange, and Peach.
Ferrara quietly halted production in 2022 and confirmed in January 2024 that the brand was being discontinued.
Super Bubble
Super Bubble was a bubble gum that sold for five cents at first, then dropped to one cent to compete with Dubble Bubble. It disappeared from stores as Ferrara halted production in 2022.
The company told CBS MoneyWatch that it no longer produces any chewing gum.
Stride
Cadbury’s U.S. division launched Stride in 2006 as a long-lasting, sugar-free gum backed by heavy advertising. It later added flavor-changing varieties and Stride Spark, a vitamin-fortified version that arrived in February 2011.
Stride is no longer sold in North America or Europe, but it is still available in China.
Surpass Antacid Gum
Wrigley introduced Surpass about two years before it stopped shipping the product on March 28, 2003. The gum was designed to offer heartburn relief, and it came from the company’s healthcare division.
Wrigley said sales did not meet expectations, which ended a brief experiment in medicated gum.
Extra Dessert Delights
Wrigley’s Extra Dessert Delights line offered flavors such as Pumpkin Spice, Cinnamon Roll, Lemon Square, Key Lime Pie, and Apple Pie. Most of the flavors were discontinued in 2018 or 2020.
Their disappearance marked a retreat from creative fruit and bakery flavors toward familiar mint varieties.
Topps Trading Card Gum
For about 40 years, packs of Topps sports cards came with a stiff pink slab of gum that was often brittle and flavorless. Topps stopped including gum in 1991 after collectors complained about stains on their cards.
The company brought it back in limited form with its Heritage line in 2001, wrapped in plastic to protect the cards.
Black Jack
Black Jack is an anise-flavored gum that spent time off the market before returning. It was reintroduced in 2018 after a company bought the brand, along with two other old-fashioned gums from the same family.
A retail display now sells it alongside its fellow survivors, with branding built on vintage imagery.
Beemans
Beemans, a gum known for pilot Chuck Yeager’s loyalty to it, disappeared for a short time before returning. Its reintroduction came in 2018 along with Black Jack and Clove.
Like its siblings, it now survives mostly on nostalgia and retro-inspired displays.
Clove
Clove gum has a spicy flavor that few modern gums try to match. It was discontinued for a short time and then returned in 2018 with Black Jack and Beemans.
Its comeback shows that a flavor too strong for the mainstream can still find a small, loyal audience.
Teaberry
D. L. Clark’s Teaberry was promoted heavily in the mid-1960s with commercials featuring Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass performing a song called “The Teaberry Shuffle.” The gum disappeared for a time and was reintroduced in 2021.
It now sits on retro racks beside Black Jack, Beemans, and Clove.
Clorets
Clorets was marketed as a breath-freshening gum made with chlorophyll. It appears on a retailer’s list of discontinued candies, with a discontinuation year of 2016.
The brand is a reminder of an era when breath freshness was the main selling point of a pack of gum.
Freshen-Up
Freshen-Up was known for a liquid-filled center. One columnist counted it in 2024 among the well-known brands discontinued within the past decade.
Its novelty was part of what made it memorable, and part of what made it hard to replace.
Beechies
Beechies took their name from Beech-Nut, the company that introduced Fruit Stripe. The candy-coated gum is now listed among discontinued candies at a longtime candy retailer.
Beech-Nut’s other gum lines have faded as well, leaving only the name in memory.
The Quiet Retreat of the Impulse Buy
Checkout gum was an impulse purchase, and impulse purchases depend on habit. When fewer people reached for a pack, the racks and the brands behind them shrank.
Some of the discontinuations were announced, but many were simply noticed when a favorite stopped showing up.
A few names have returned in nostalgic form, which suggests the appetite has not disappeared entirely. Still, the discontinued lines on this list show how quickly a candy aisle staple can become a memory.
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