5 Gum (by Wrigley - for teens)

So recently I went to the San Diego Comic-Con with my friend Kathy. On the home, we made a pit stop at her parents' place (so we might actually sleep in actual beds and not have to answer to an alarm or a six-foot redheaded crack fraggle looming over us so early in the morning.

After having a yummy lunch (yes, we slept in that late) and packed the car with tidbits Kathy got from her parents, we headed to a gas station to top of my tank before our long trek home, and while the gas was a-pumpin', we stopped off inside the mini-mart for snacks and beverage-y goodness. When I brought my items to the cashier, I saw these interesting packages of what was apparently gum. What caught my eye, aside from the black packaging and the giant number 5 on them, were the names of the flavors.

Now normally when you get gum, you get flavors that range from the relatively normal (like peppermint or cinnamon) to things that sound almost like gibberish and plucked straight out of the Wonkaverse.

The names of these flavors: cobalt, rain, and flare.

I almost placed the back of my wrist to my forehead in dramatic, sarcastic response.

This is GUM people. I welcome Wonkaverse names over... these.

Upon searching the internet, apparently the gum is put out by Wrigley and focused toward teens who, per an article I read, chew "one-third of the gum sold in the U.S.". It's supposed to appeal to the five senses - hence the name.

My reaction to each gum?

• Cobalt - this is peppermint, bright blue in color, and tastes just like any usual pepperminty gum.
• Rain - this is spearmint, they claim it 'tingles', but really it's just bright green with a nice spearminty flavor.
• Flare - ah yes, the cinnamon. Well, it's red. (Kind of obvious there, wasn't it?) I don't really care for this flavor. It starts off fine... nice and cinnamony like it should be, but like with some cinnamon gums, the flavor aftertaste after having been chewed for a while (not really a long while for me either) starts to get this taste, and I can't really describe it well. It borders on rubbery, mediciney, and just downright not good.

Would I try it again? Not the cinnamon. The flavor morphs into this other flavor that I personally do NOT care for. The cobalt/peppermint and the rain/spearmint taste just dandy and actually have long-lasting (good) flavor. They need to work on the cinnamon. I mean, these are the people that put out Big Red. Couldn't they make it taste more like that?

http://promomagazine.com/news/wrigley_targets_teens_5_gum_031907/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_%28gum%29