Black Jack (gum)

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Black Jack is an aniseed flavored chew made by Cadbury Adams.

In 1869, exiled former Mexican president and general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (infamous for his victory over the Alamo defenders) was living in New Jersey. He brought a ton of Mexican chicle with him, in hopes of selling it to raise funds to help him return to power in his own country.

He persuaded Thomas Adams of Staten Island, New York to buy it. Adams, a photographer and inventor, intended to vulcanize the chicle for use as a rubber substitute. However, his efforts at vulcanization failed. Adams had noticed that Santa Anna liked to chew the chicle (the Mayans chewed chicle).

Disappointed with the rubber experiments, Adams boiled a small batch of chicle in his kitchen to create a chewing gum. He gave some to a local store to see if people would buy it. They did and he began production.

In 1871, Adams received a patent on a gum-making machine and began mass producing chicle-based gum. His first product ("Snapping and Stretching") was pure chicle with no flavoring, but sold well enough to encourage Adams in his plans.

He began to experiment with flavorings, beginning with sarsaparilla. In 1884, he began adding licorice flavoring and called his invention Adams' Black Jack, the first flavored gum in America. At this time, chewing gum changed shape from lump or chunks, to sticks. It was also the first gum to be offered in sticks as we know it today.

Black Jack Gum was sold well into the 1970s, when production ceased due to slow sales. Adams became part of the American Chicle Company which was purchased by the Warner-Lambert Company in 1962, which became part of Pfizer in 2000. In 2002 Adams was purchased by the Cadbury Company.

Cadbury Adams also makes other nostalgic brands of chewing gum - Beeman's, Chiclets, Clove, Sour Apple and Sour Cherry.