TBG (Quickly) Eats: Wrigley's Extra "Dessert Delights" Key Lime Pie Sugar-Free Gum

Current Weight: 162.2 lbs.

I'm not sure when it happened, but key lime pie has ascended to the top of my personal pie chart.*

When I was very young; my pie preferences were kid-friendly selections such as apple or pumpkin. Later, with feelings similar to Alicia Silverstone's harmless adolescent appreciation of Cary Elwes, I counted down the days until my mother's homemade pecan pie – which only appeared at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Back before certain dairy products began betraying my digestive tract, banana cream pie and I had a tawdry affair for a few years. And, I've previously posted tributes to Mrs. Bootleg's holiday sweet potato pie.

* -- I suppose I should acknowledge that admittedly awful play on words. I regret nothing.

Key lime pie, however, is a dessert that's difficult to prepare properly. I'm fine with the green food coloring that occasionally added to the filling and while I can appreciate the traditional meringue topping, it's not a necessity for me. I only need two things from my key lime pie: (1) an appropriate amount of tartness and (2) filling consistency that's not too stiff. Believe it or not, both qualities are in play with Wrigley's Extra "Dessert Delights" Key Lime Pie Sugar-Free Gum.

The gum's list of ingredients includes a polysyllabic array of artificial flavors. Surprisingly, this mix gives off a strong key lime pie scent. Seriously, you can smell it through the cellophane wrapping. An open pack of this gum was sitting on my desk at work and, after a few minutes, I had to move it inside a drawer.

The key lime pie flavor is pretty intense when that first stick of gum touches your tongue. Grading on the chewing gum curve of real food flavors, Wrigley's Extra comes awfully close to capturing key lime pie. It leans more sweet than tart, but achieves some of the pucker you'd expect from a citrus-based dessert. There's a subtle creaminess in the few chews that I can't ever remember experiencing in a stick of gum.

Like all chewing gums, the flavor in "Dessert Delights" dissipates fairly quickly. Consequently, I found myself popping sticks all afternoon as much to keep the flavor alive as for the almost-overwhelming taste of those first few chews. And, I don't know if it's a Wrigley's-only attribute, but after 10-15 minutes, chewing "Dessert Delights" was like gnawing on a Superball. Nitpicking aside, "Dessert Delights" Key Lime Pie is a tasty little gum that -- superficially -- exhibits more truth in advertising than you might think.

Grade: 4 (out of 5)