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.
For the unfamiliar, “Dagashi (駄菓子)” is the generic term for cheap, unique, relatively small Japanese snacks and candies.
So in Japan, the majority of Marukawa’s chewing gum products are priced at 10 yen (about 0.1 USD) and can be bought at supermarkets, convenience stores, and Dagashiya candy shops.
Marukawa Marble Gum
Among others, the fruit-flavored bubble gum “Marble Gum (マーブルガム)” is probably the best-known. In fact, I used to often buy these chewing gumballs at a Dagashiya in my neighborhood when I was a boy.
In addition to the Marble Gum line, Marukawa Seika actually has one more well-recognized chewing gum, which I purchased this time for this blog article.
Marukawa Seika Felix Gum
Actually, what I picked up this time is this Felix Gum. The Felix the Cat chewing gum, dubbed “Neko Gum (ネコガム: Cat Gum)”, was introduced in 1960 by Marukawa Seika (Confectionery).
As you know, Felix the Cat is a famous American cartoon character, and unlike Marble Gum, this Felix Gum is packaged with paper and individually sold.
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 printed on the lottery paper, you can get one more Felix Gum for free at the store where you bought the chewing gum. This time, “ハズレ” appeared, which means you lost the lottery.
Taste
The strawberry gum tastes great for the price of 10 yen (about 0.1 USD), pleasantly soft, refreshing, and satisfying with the right amount of sugar.
As a matter of fact, as shown at the bottom of this article, this Felix Gum has gotten a lot of high ratings from Amazon.com 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 colors.
