In This Issue

Exclusive offers for you

From now through June 30th, 2009, all online orders of $30* or more placed on GleeGum.com will receive a free Mini Glee Variety pack! Each Mini Glee Variety pack contains a fun, fruity assortment of 21 Mini Glee Gum boxes in Tangerine, Triple Berry, and Bubblegum flavors. Featuring biodegradable packaging on the outside and all-natural chewing gum on the inside, the Mini Glee Variety pack makes a neat sweet treat for parties and a great "green" goody for gift bags. Enjoy! * Not including shipping

In these trying economic times, it doesn't make sense to spend more cents than necessary. And whenever you do spend, you deserve to get more bang for your buck! To that end, we are pleased to present... the Glee Gum Buy One - Get One coupon! Redeemable at your favorite local store, the coupon can be accessed here. Who knew saving cents could be so sweet?

Glee club book pick

SPRING READING

Spring cleaning? Bah. How about spring reading? We've got a super-duper book recommendation for you!

Coming this spring from the University of Arizona Press, the must-read book of the season is Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley.

Now, don’t let the long title throw you. This is one riveting read! Written by Jennifer P. Mathews, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Trinity University, Chicle is an in-depth study of the sticky story behind chewing gum. Interweaving history, biology, industry, and adventure, it’s guaranteed to give you lots to chew on!

For example, did you know that North Americans were first introduced to chewing gum in 1893, by way of "Juicy Fruit" gum? Or that Native Americans in Mesoamerica enjoyed the treat thousands of years earlier? The Maya and Aztecs were actually the first to discover the chewing power of chicle, a sticky white tree sap that drips from the cut bark of the sapodilla tree. From the botany of the hardy sapodilla tree itself to the surprisingly cut-throat business of chewing gum, Chicle covers all the bases. Special attention is paid to the role of chicleros, the skilled laborers who wield machetes to harvest chicle deep in the rainforest, and are considered icons of local pop culture.

We liked Chicle so much that we added it to our online store. Now, for your convenience, you can order a copy directly from GleeGum.com. So what are you waiting for? Pack a picnic, park yourself in a sunny spot, and read away. You'll love it!

focus on non-timber forest products

CUCKOO FOR CACAO

Cutting down trees for lumber is one way of making money. Unfortunately, it can sometimes destroy whole eco-systems and, ultimately, communities. And once trees are gone, they're gone for a long time! On the other hand, harvesting non-timber forest products (NTFPs) like chicle (the tree sap used in Glee Gum), maple syrup, berries, mushrooms, and other plants can provide a sustainable means of income for folks. One of the sweetest, neatest NTFPs is cacao, the source of chocolate!

Cacao trees grow in the shade of larger, native tropical trees. This helps to conserve the habitat of threatened plant and animal species, as well as to protect natural pollinators and predators of cocoa pests. Cacao pods are the "fruit" of the tree, and look a bit like footballs. After they're planted, cacao trees can take up to five years to produce pods; they then continue to produce pods annually until they're twenty-five to thirty years old. Every six months, the pods are harvested by hand (cut down from the cacao tree). Each cacao pod contains about thirty to fifty beans; they look like flat almonds surrounded by a sweet pulp. Chocolate, in turn, is made from the beans!

The ancient Aztecs once told a romantic legend about cacao. They described how their god, Quetzalcoatl, brought the cacao tree from paradise to earth, traveling on a beam of the morning star. He gave the tree as an offering to the people, and they learned how to roast and grind its beans into a paste. They added spices and mixed it with water, calling it "xocolatl" or "bitter water" and believing that it brought wisdom and knowledge to those who drank it. In fact, the scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao, which means "food of the gods"!

Cacao continues to be an important part of agriculture in tropical regions around the world. The cool cats at Equal Exchange partner with co-operatives of small-scale farmers across the globe to produce high-quality, fairly traded, organic chocolate (as well as coffee, tea, and more). They have an exclusive offer for Glee fans below!

For more information on the process behind chocolate, check out our story on the subject: "The Sweet Saga of Chocolate." To try your hand at making it, test out our Make Your Own Chocolate Kit. Either way, you simply must treat yourself to one of Equal Exchange's goodies!

 

SWELL CHOCOLATE SPECIAL:

Who's ready to enjoy the fruits of the cacao tree? By which, of course, we mean sweet, succulent chocolate!

In honor of our NTFP focus on chocolate, our friends at Equal Exchange have an exclusive offer for you!

You can receive free shipping on orders at Equal Exchange's online retail store, simply by clicking here and entering the following discount code: gleeme09

This special offer* expires May 31, 2009. So get your chocolate fix now!

*May not be combined with any other offer. Free shipping limited to the continental United States.

Love to Compete? Sweet!

GLEE POETRY CONTEST

Everyone's favorite chewing gum mascot, the Glee Guy, absolutely loves to rhyme. Take, for example, his recent composition:

"A Salute to Spearmint"
O Spearmint Glee, so sweet and tart
You hold a dear place in my heart
So mint-y fresh and full of flair
Your eternal devotion I must swear!

Think you can beat this candy bard? Try your hand; see, it's not so hard! Just send us a poem, in any form - whether haiku, sonnet, or limerick it be. But be sure to include the word "glee" - and at least one rhyme for it, like "yippee"!

The top three Glee-ful poets will each win a brand new, fully loaded Glee Gum Dispenser. Talk about poetry in motion!

To enter the Glee Poetry Contest, send your poem in the body of an email along with your name and zip code to gleeguy@gleegum.com by June 30, 2009. To be eligible for consideration, poems must include the word "glee" and at least one rhyme for it. Poems must not contain profanity. There is no limit to the number of poems you can send, and they can be on any subject. We plan to post as many submissions as possible to GleeGum.com, so keep your eyes peeled for 'em!

Glee, Globally

THE POWER OF TREE PLANTING

There wouldn't be Glee Gum without trees, so we wondered what we could do to help keep forests fertile for years to come.

Enter Trees for the Future! Trees for the Future is an agroforestry resource center that introduces sustainable land management programs to developing countries, primarily through tree planting programs. All across the world, Trees for the Future empowers rural groups to restore forests, protect the environment, and preserve traditional livelihoods and cultures.

Glee Gum is proud to partner with Trees for the Future in their efforts to plant trees in Central America. Now, for each pack of Glee Gum that you purchase and then register online here, a tree is planted! We'll even send you a nifty certificate of thanks. Planting trees is an immediate way to offset our carbon footprint, and have a lot of fun to boot. Join us!

To learn more about our partnership with Trees for the Future and all the great work they do, please click here.

Sneak Peek

CHEW GLEE, WATCH "GLEE" ON TV!

"Glee" is many things. Delight, for one. Chewing gum, for another. And, this fall, it's the most eagerly anticipated television show of the season!

Glee Gum is proud to cross-promote its products in conjunction with FOX and "Glee," a new one-hour comedy musical series from Ryan Murphy ("Nip/Tuck"). "Glee" is an uplifting show with biting humor that features a soundtrack of hit music from past to present. The show follows an optimistic high school teacher as he tries to refuel his own passion while reinventing the high school's glee club and challenging a group of underdogs to realize their star potential. Tune in to a special "Glee" preview event Tuesday, May 19 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

And stay tuned for more info on special Glee Gum promotions related to the show. In the meantime, chew Glee, watch "Glee" and go Glee-fully!

Glee in the Community

Places You're Apt To Find Glee: Basically, Far As The Eye Can See!

Find more information about Glee Gum at GleeGum.com.