Making gum and mints is actually quite complicated. It’s a delicate balance to get the flavour and texture right whilst making sure they don’t go too soft, too hard, dry out etc etc. So as well as mint, chicle and wood sugar we also use some other naturally derived ingredients…

MENTHOL (IN OUR EUCALYPTUS MINTS)

Our natural menthol comes from mints plants. We use it as it has a lovely cooling effect so goes great with our eucalyptus.

GUM ARABIC (IN OUR GUM AND MINTS)

We use gum arabic to help all the ingredients stick together. We get ours from the stems and branches of the acacia tree (Acacia Senegal). An incision is made in the bark and the dried tears of the gum are collected. The only further processing is the removing of any foreign objects like twigs.

VEGETABLE GLYCEROL (IN OUR GUM)

We use glycerol to stop the gum drying out and becoming hard. Glycerol is produced naturally by all plants and animals. Many confectionery companies use bovine gelatine. but we prefer to leave the animals be and get ours from vegetables.

CALCIUM CARBONATE (IN OUR GUM)

We use calcium carbonate (aka chalk) to get the right texture. It does a great job of making the natural chicle a bit less hard and sticky. Chalk is a mineral extracted from limestone rocks and is so special Vera Lynn once sang a song about it.

RAPESEED LECITHIN (IN OUR GUM)

This helps us get an even mix of the ingredients. Again you have to be careful where you get it from; soya is a good source but getting non-GM soya can be problematic as can making sure soya cultivation does not damage rainforest areas. This is why we get ours from GMO free European rapeseed.

CARNAUBA WAX (IN OUR GUM AND MINTS)

When we’ve made the gum and mints we coat them with carnauba wax to seal in the ingredients and help protect them from the effects of humidity. The carnauba wax we use is from the leaves of the Brazilian Wax Palm (Copernicia cerifera).

CALCIUM STEARATE (IN OUR MINTS)

We use this when we make our mints as without it the other ingredients stick to the machine that compresses them to make each individual mint. A lot of the stuff used in the industry is from animal sources but ours is high quality and derived from vegetables.