By Rafe Calder
A tree cut open bleeds a white latex to close the wound. That is the whole of chicle. The rest of the story is what people did with the bandage.
What it is
Wikipedia says chicle is a latex traditionally used to make chewing gum, taken from several Mesoamerican Manilkara species. Smithsonian Magazine calls it a resin from the sapodilla tree, found in southern Mexico and Central America, and says the tree produces it to seal cuts in its bark. Yucatán Today, a travel magazine, uses the local name chicozapote. The Wikipedia name for the gum likely comes from the Nahuatl tzictli, “sticky stuff,” though it allows a Mayan origin, tsicte.
How it is gathered
Wikipedia says that, as with rubber tapping, zigzag gashes are cut into the trunk and the dripping gum is collected in small bags. The gum is then boiled until it reaches the right thickness. People who collect it are called chicleros. Atlas Obscura, a general-interest website, says chicleros tapped the tree with a machete, following ancient Maya practice. None of our sources gives a harvest season or a yield, so we give none.
Before the factory
Smithsonian says the Maya cooked and dried chicle into “cha,” which quenched thirst and staved off hunger, and that the Aztecs used it as a breath freshener. Yucatán Today dates the earliest evidence of Maya gum use to around 200 A.D. and says the friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded gum etiquette. Smithsonian is careful here: it says the Aztecs “seemed” to view public chewing as unacceptable for adult men, citing a sixteenth-century missionary.
A general, an inventor and a failed rubber
The best-known story involves Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican president who spent years in exile, and Thomas Adams, an American inventor. The sources tell it differently. Wikipedia’s American Chicle article says Adams worked as secretary to Santa Anna. Atlas Obscura says Santa Anna’s interpreter introduced the two men. Smithsonian says Adams obtained chicle through a connection to Santa Anna and calls the history “murky.” Yucatán Today calls it a legend. All four agree on the plan: to use chicle as a rubber substitute, which failed. Atlas Obscura places the failed attempts in the late 1850s.
From rubber to gum
Wikipedia says Adams made his first flavorless chicle balls in 1859, sold as Adams New York Gum No. 1, and the Atlas Obscura piece also dates the first sales to 1859. Wikipedia adds a flavored licorice gum in 1870, a gum-making machine patent in 1871, and a Sands Street factory in 1888, and says Adams retired in 1898 and died in 1905. American Chicle was incorporated on 2 June 1899 in Trenton, New Jersey, merging six companies. Smithsonian says William Wrigley, a soap salesman, found gum sold better than soap, and that by the 1920s the average American chewed about 105 sticks a year.
Side by side: Chiclets
Wikipedia’s chicle article says American Chicle’s brand Chiclets derives from the word chicle. Its American Chicle article says the company acquired Chiclets from Fleer in 1914. The two statements do not conflict, and we set them next to each other because the second one is about ownership, not naming.
Dates in order
- About 200 A.D.: earliest Maya gum use, according to Yucatán Today.
- Late 1850s: failed rubber attempts, according to Atlas Obscura.
- 1859: first gum sold, according to Wikipedia and Atlas Obscura.
- 1899: American Chicle incorporated, according to Wikipedia.
- 1914: Chiclets acquired, according to Wikipedia.
- 1920s: about 105 sticks a year per American, according to Smithsonian.
- 1952: Guatemalan land reform; Wrigley stops buying Guatemalan chicle, according to Wikipedia.
- By 1980: the United States no longer imports chicle from Mexico, according to Smithsonian.
What happened to the trees
Smithsonian says unsustainable harvesting killed at least a quarter of Mexico’s sapodilla trees by the mid-1930s, and that scientists predicted total depletion within four decades. Yucatán Today, citing Smithsonian, says about a quarter of the trees in southeastern Mexico were tapped between 1880 and 1930. “Killed” and “tapped” are different words, so the two accounts do not match. Our reading: the Yucatán Today line is a paraphrase, and the Smithsonian wording is the stronger source.
When it ended
The sources give four endings. Wikipedia says most gum companies switched to cheaper polybutadiene in the 1960s. Yucatán Today says synthetic gum replaced the resin in the 1950s. Atlas Obscura dates a synthetic polymer developed by a Staten Island chemist to 1909. Smithsonian says imports from Mexico had stopped by 1980. We do not reconcile them.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (open encyclopedia, two articles); Smithsonian Magazine (magazine); Atlas Obscura (general-interest website); Yucatán Today (travel magazine blog, 2017). We read no archive, museum or producer, and we name no current brand.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the gum chicle or a synthetic base? Where was the latex gathered? Our sources do not cover how gum is made from chicle today or what to look for on a label, so ask the maker.
What we left out
We left out costs and company sums, the claims about presidential terms and a prosthetic leg, a famous inventor’s opinion on chewing, and the small-brand revival, which rests on marketing claims.
Quick answers
- What is chicle? According to Wikipedia, chicle is a latex from Mesoamerican Manilkara trees, traditionally used to make chewing gum. People who collect it are called chicleros.
- How is chicle collected? Wikipedia says zigzag gashes are cut into the trunk, the dripping gum is caught in small bags, and it is boiled until it reaches the right thickness.
- When did the US stop importing Mexican chicle? According to Smithsonian Magazine, by 1980 the United States was no longer importing chicle from Mexico, after makers moved to synthetic bases.
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Roam first. Shop later.