Marukawa’s Long-Selling Felix the Cat Chewing Gum

Marukawa Seika (丸川製菓) is a Japanese confectionery company well known for its Dagashi chewing gum series. 

Dagashi (駄菓子) is the generic name for cheap, unique, relatively small Japanese snacks and candies.

And here in Japan, most of Marukawa’s chewing gum products are priced at 10 yen and bought at supermarkets, convenience stores, or Dagashiya candy shops.

Marukawa Marble Gum

Among others, the fruit-flavored chewing bubble gum Marble Gum (マーブルガム) is probably the best-known, which I used to often buy at a Dagashiya in my neighborhood when I was a kid. 

In addition to the Marble Gum line, Marukawa Seika has one more well-recognized chewing gum, which I purchased this time for this blog article.

Marukawa Seika Felix Gum

What I picked up this time is this Felix Gum. Marukawa Seika Confectionery introduced the Felix the Cat chewing gum, dubbed Neko Gum (ネコガム: cat gum), in 1960.

As you know, Felix the Cat is a famous American cartoon character, and unlike Marble Gum, the maker packages this Felix Gum with paper and sells it individually.

Lottery 

When you open the silver foil, accompanied by a slip of lottery, a piece of strawberry flavor chewing gum comes into sight.

If the word あたり is on the lottery paper, you can get one more Felix Gum for free at the store where you bought it. This time, ハズレ appeared, which means you lost the lottery.

Taste

The strawberry gum tastes so good for the price; it is pleasantly soft, refreshing, and satisfying with the right sweetness.

The Felix Gum is nowadays available even on Amazon.com, where the product has gotten a lot of high ratings from customers. 

Ingredients

Lastly, let’s see the ingredients. Based on the list pictured above, the Felix the Cat chewing gum consists of sugar, dextrose, starch syrup, starch, gum base, softener, acidifier, flavoring, and purple corn pigment.