True Gum
It was autumn in 2016. And in the kitchen of a small Copenhagen apartment, the two university friends Morten and Peter were making dinner together. It was an evening like any other and the friends prepared a healthy meal based on wholesome organic ingredients. After finishing the meal, Peter opened up his bag, pulled out a pack of gum and offered Morten a piece.
This particular chewing gum had a liquid centre and green neon-coloured stripes running through it. Looking back at their empty plates that just minutes ago had been filled with fresh wholesome vegetables, the oddly looking neon-coloured chewing gum suddenly became quite a stark contrast. The organic meal was simple, natural and easy to understand. But this gum was exactly the opposite.
That realisation sparked a discussion between the two friends. Did any of them know what chewing gum was made of? And why didn’t it dissolve on a street or in nature like any other food product eventually would? They quickly realised they didn’t know the answers to these questions.
Finding answers
These unanswered questions settled in the back of their minds. Over the next few days, both Morten and Peter spent a lot of time researching how regular chewing gum is made. To their surprise, they learnt that regular gum has a synthetic petroleum-derived rubber base. It contains the same plastic ingredients also found in plastic bottles, glue and car tires. So they agreed that regular gum wasn’t something they wanted to keep chewing on. Instead, they wanted to find out if it was possible to make gum that was better for the environment and the chewer.
Shocked by their discovery, but not willing to give up on their chewing gum habits, Morten and Peter decided they wanted to make their own plastic-free gum alternative. This was anything but a quick fix and turned out to be a much tougher process than first anticipated. More than 1.5 years later, and after countless hours and failed attempts in the small home kitchen, they perfected the True Gum recipes and True Gum became a reality.