Plant a Tree, Spread the Glee

In Chinese astrology, 2011 is the Year of the Hare. By declaration of the United Nations General Assembly, it is also the International Year of Forests. There’s no better time to celebrate forest conservation. So, let’s hop to it!

We tend to take trees for granted. But, imagine a world without trees to provide shade, without leaves to mark the passing of seasons, without the sound of wind rustling in those leaves. As Woody Allen once said, “Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing ‘Embraceable You’ in spats.”

Trees do a heck of a lot for us on a daily basis. They sustain wildlife, improve air quality, help filter water, reduce wind speeds, and beautify our surroundings—and that’s just for starters! Here at Verve, inc., we turn to trees for two key ingredients in Glee Gum. We make our gum base with chicle, the sustainably harvested sap of Mexican sapodilla trees, and we sweeten our new Sugar-Free Glee with xylitol, extracted from birch trees.

We want to invest in keeping forests fertile for years to come. Join us! Every time you buy a pack of Glee Gum and register the purchase at GleeGum.com/trees, we will plant a tree. We’ll send you a nifty certificate of thanks, too! Our super swell partner in this tree planting program is Trees for the Future, an agroforestry resource center focused on bringing sustainable land management programs to developing countries.

For more ways to celebrate the International Year of Forests, including events near you, check out the U.S. campaign and the U.N. site. And let us know if you spot any singing moose in the meantime.

Not-So-Plain Vanilla

Photo Credit: Heilala Vanilla

Does the word vanilla make you think, boring? In these action-packed times, vanilla has become a byword for unimaginative. It’s often mistaken for the “plain” flavor of ice cream. Boring? Plain? Nothing could be further from the truth, especially when you consider the history and uses of this fantastic flavor!

Vanilla flavor comes from the beans of the orchid genus Vanilla—a tropical vine. Originally from Mexico, the beans were pollinated by a native species of bee. It’s no picnic to cultivate these beans outside their native habitat. In fact, it took hundreds of years to find an efficient way of growing vanilla plants without special bees buzzing around. This difficulty kept vanilla on the list of rare and expensive ingredients for a long time, making it all the more special as a treat.

Creative gardeners finally developed a painstaking way of artificially hand-pollinating the plants. Using a stick or other simple implement, they allowed the flower’s anther to pollinate its own stigma and, in turn, for the flower to bear fruit. With this innovation, vanilla cultivation took off. The plant is now a major product of Madagascar, as well as areas of Central America and the Caribbean. However, since the process of cultivating it is so laborious, vanilla remains expensive.

The vanilla plant grows among tropical trees. As a result, people can’t cultivate it while also logging for timber. So vanilla is a great example of a non-timber forest product, offering a sustainable livelihood for folks in endangered forest regions. Governments and NGOs are busy working with rural communities to encourage the cultivation of crops like vanilla, rather than logging, in a continued effort to conserve forests and provide ongoing sources of income in developing countries.

So, the next time you take a sip of vanilla chai latte, a bite of vanilla-frosted cupcake, or a lick of vanilla ice cream, consider how this delicious flavor wound up in your food. Pretty peachy, huh!

Here Ye, Hear Glee

Want to see new Sugar-Free Glee Gum on the shelves of your local store? What about your favorite, hard-to-find flavor of classic Glee Gum?

So do we!

And, we would love your help. If your local grocery store doesn’t carry Glee Gum yet, and you think that it should, please consider bringing in this li’l ol’ printable letter. Customer interest provides the best incentive for stores to try something new!

If you’d prefer that we contact your local store directly, please email us at info@gleegum.com with the store name and location. We’d be happy to get in touch!

Lastly, don’t forget to check our store locator for new places to find Glee Gum near you. Thanks in advance, and hats off to you, gum chews!

Rule, Britannia!

Neat news for our pals across the pond! You can now find Glee Gum in the United Kingdom—and beyond.

Community Foods, a natural and organic dried food supplier based in London, recently began importing Glee Gum (much to our delight). In addition to facilitating the sale of Glee in UK stores like the Kensington Whole Foods Market, Community Foods exports  throughout Europe. With their help, distributors in Cork, Ireland, Riga, Latvia, and Barkåker, Norway have just started carrying Glee Gum as well.

This April, our Glee-ful sales reps sally forth and set sail for bonny England themselves. They’re headed to a London tradeshow with an international reputation—Natural & Organics Products Europe—to share the Glee with more potential gum chums (April 3 – 4). With any luck, it will be a Glee-for-all!

Just to re-cap, Glee Gum is now sold in the UK, Ireland, Latvia, and Norway. This, in addition to the US, Canada, and South Korea. Next up? WORLD DOMINATION!

Okay, okay. We’ll settle for the rest of Europe… for now. Stay tuned!

Celebrating with Glee, Locally!

Find more information about Glee Gum at GleeGum.com.