It is a good question!
And well worth asking.
I all comes down to the [Dragee technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag%C3%A9e)!
ELI5 part:
In the gum, producers put a layer of hard-stuff around the taste-part of the gum.
Your spit dissolves that hard-stuff slowly, letting out -the taste- slowly.
That is why some gum taste longer.
There are even companies dedicated to the technique:
[https://www.tastetech.com/updates/create-chewing-gum-that-lasts-longer-with-encapsulated-high-intensity-sweeteners/](https://www.tastetech.com/updates/create-chewing-gum-that-lasts-longer-with-encapsulated-high-intensity-sweeteners/)
I found another reddit thread that asked a similar question a while ago.
Perhaps it is worth a read?[https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31jh9n/eli5_how_does_the_science_of_chewing_gum_keeping/](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31jh9n/eli5_how_does_the_science_of_chewing_gum_keeping/)
I’ve had this question myself, and later on I wondered if I had it backwards: if you chewed on anything for as long as you chewed on a stick of gum, would it still have flavor?
My suspicion is that gum isn’t particularly special in this regard. Maybe mint flavorings last in the mouth longer than fruit and artificial fruit flavorings, so Fruit Stripe stands out as being particularly ephemeral as far as taste goes. But I would be surprised if a piece of fruit retained its flavor longer than fruit gum does.
Gum is made out of rubber, and it’s mixed with sugar and flavorings. Once those flavor crystals and sugar crystals dissolve, you’re chewing on vaguely flavored rubber. It won’t take long before the flavor is gonna dissipate with almost any gum, and the lower quality product (looking at you, fruit stripe) will fade faster.
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