FAQ
Questions? Start here.
From how natural spruce resin becomes chewing gum to who harvests our ingredients, this is where we answer the questions customers ask us most.
Spruce gum basics
Traditional spruce gum is very different from conventional chewing gum. These answers cover what it is, where it comes from and what to expect.
What is spruce gum?
Spruce gum is hardened resin produced by spruce trees. When a tree is damaged, it releases resin that helps seal and protect the wound. As the resin ages and cures in the open air, it can harden into amber-like pieces.
For generations, people in northern forests have collected and chewed suitable pieces of this cured resin as a traditional chewing gum.
Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum is made primarily from wild-harvested spruce resin, with a small amount of pine resin blended in for added elasticity.
Is Alberta Wildcraft Spruce Gum sugar-free?
Yes. Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum contains no added sugar or sweeteners. Its natural resinous flavour comes from the spruce and pine resin itself.
Does Alberta Wildcraft Spruce Gum contain synthetic gum base, xylitol, aspartame, or artificial ingredients?
No. Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum contains no conventional synthetic gum base, xylitol, aspartame, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavours, artificial colours, or fillers.
It is made primarily from wild-harvested spruce resin, with a small amount of pine resin added for elasticity.
Where does spruce gum come from?
Traditional spruce gum comes from resin that forms naturally on spruce trees. Resin protects injured areas of the tree and can harden over time into pieces suitable for chewing.
Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum is made primarily from wild-harvested spruce resin. We add a small amount of pine resin for elasticity in the finished chew.
How do you chew spruce gum properly?
Natural resin softens through warmth and saliva.
Place a small piece in your mouth and allow it to warm before biting down hard. Once it begins to soften, gently compress it between your teeth. As the fragments warm and come together, they form a single chewable piece.
For step-by-step instructions, read our complete chewing guide.
Why does spruce gum start hard?
Natural tree resin is naturally firm or brittle at room temperature. Body heat and saliva soften the resin until it becomes flexible enough to chew.
What does spruce gum taste like?
Spruce gum has a natural evergreen flavour that many people describe as resinous, herbal and forest-like.
The flavour softens as the gum is chewed.
How long does spruce gum last?
Natural resin gum can be chewed for extended periods and may be reused later. Its flavour and firmness change over time, but the resin itself can remain chewable for much longer than conventional gum.
Can spruce gum be reused?
Yes. If a piece hardens after chewing, place it back in your mouth and allow it to warm again. The resin will soften and become chewable.
When your gum isn't behaving
Natural resin changes with age, temperature and moisture. If a piece crumbles or refuses to bind, these are the most common reasons.
Why did my spruce gum crumble into powder?
This is usually a matter of resin condition, temperature and chewing technique, rather than body chemistry.
Natural resin contains aromatic oils called terpenes that contribute to flexibility. As resin ages, some of those volatile oils are lost and the resin can become more brittle.
If cold or brittle resin is bitten immediately, it can shatter into many small fragments.
The fix: allow the resin to warm against your cheek or under your tongue for about one to two minutes before compressing it.
Why won't my spruce gum turn into gum?
This often happens when resin is bitten before it has warmed sufficiently.
Cold resin is brittle. Once warmed, the fragments normally soften and can be pressed together into a single chewable mass.
Does alcohol stop spruce gum from turning into gum?
No.
There is a common myth that alcohol, mouthwash or mouth pH prevents resin from forming gum. Strong alcohol can dissolve resin over time, but the small amounts found in beverages are too weak and too brief in contact to normally prevent natural resin from binding in the mouth.
When resin fails to bind, the usual reasons are:
- The resin was too cold when first bitten.
- The resin was very old or brittle.
- There was too much saliva between the fragments for them to press together easily.
Why does natural spruce gum behave differently from commercial gum?
Commercial gum is manufactured for immediate consistency. Natural spruce gum changes with temperature, age and chewing.
Once warmed and worked in the mouth, suitable tree pitch can form a smooth chew.
Who harvests it matters.
We believe customers should be able to know who collected their wild ingredients, what species are in the product, and how the raw material was handled.
Who harvests the resin used in Alberta Wildcraft spruce gum?
We do.
The resin used in Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum is personally harvested by our family. We travel into Canadian forests, locate the spruce resin and the smaller amount of pine resin used in our blend, harvest it ourselves, bring it home, and process it by hand.
This gives us direct knowledge of the raw material we're working with: where it came from, what species we harvested, what condition the resin was in, and how it was handled before it became gum.
We know who harvested your resin because we were there.
Do you buy resin from outside harvesters?
No. The resin currently used in Alberta Wildcraft spruce gum is personally harvested by us.
We do not currently use outside resin harvesters for our gum. Personally collecting our resin is an important part of the traceability behind Alberta Wildcraft.
If our sourcing practices ever change as Alberta Wildcraft grows, we'll tell our customers.
Is Alberta Wildcraft resin harvesting seasonal?
No. We harvest resin throughout the year.
Our harvesting isn't limited to one short season or one location. We travel throughout Western Canada to harvest resin and continue harvesting through changing conditions, including rain, snow and winter weather.
Because harvesting is an ongoing part of our operation, our resin supply isn't dependent on a single annual harvest. As demand grows, we can increase our harvesting activity while continuing to personally collect the resin used in our gum.
Does personally harvesting your own resin limit how much spruce gum you can produce?
Personally harvesting our resin is a sourcing and traceability standard, not a seasonal production model.
We harvest throughout the year across a broad range of Western Canada rather than relying on one forest, one trip or one short harvesting season. As demand changes, we can increase how often and where we harvest while continuing to collect the resin ourselves.
Why does Alberta Wildcraft spruce gum sometimes sell out?
A finished production run can sell through before the next run is ready.
That does not mean our harvesting has stopped or that we have to wait for a future harvest season before making more. We harvest resin throughout the year and continue preparing additional production runs as needed.
Who harvests the herbs used in Alberta Wildcraft products?
All of the wild plants and herbs used in our products are also personally gathered by our family.
When we describe an Alberta Wildcraft ingredient as wild harvested by us, we mean exactly that: we were the people who identified it, gathered it and brought it home for processing.
Not every ingredient we use comes from the forest. Ingredients such as organic coconut oil, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil and other materials used in our soaps and balms are sourced separately.
What does “wildcrafted” mean at Alberta Wildcraft?
To us, wildcrafted means more than selling something made with an ingredient that once came from the forest.
It means knowing the land, identifying and gathering the raw material, harvesting responsibly, understanding what we've collected, and carrying that knowledge through the making process.
That's why we talk openly about who harvests our resin, which tree species are in our gum, natural differences between batches, and how our products are made.
Read more about our approach in The Alberta Wildcraft Standard.
Why chew Alberta Wildcraft spruce gum?
Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum is wild harvested by our family and carefully selected for chewing quality.
Not every piece of resin on a tree makes good chewing gum. Experience helps us recognize pieces with suitable age, texture and condition. We gather the resin by hand, select suitable pieces and clean them for chewing.
Our gum is made primarily from spruce resin with a small amount of pine resin added for elasticity. Ingredients: 100% Tree Pitch. There are no sweeteners, fillers or synthetic gum base.
Why is Alberta Wildcraft gum different from raw pitch picked from a tree?
Resin collected directly from a tree varies widely. Some pieces are sticky, some brittle, and others contain bark, needles or debris.
We harvest and sort resin for chewing, then carefully clean and process the raw material before it reaches the tin.
Because natural tree pitch varies in age, texture and condition, every piece remains unique.
Why can't every piece of resin from a tree be chewed?
Resin varies enormously in age, moisture, texture and condition. Some pieces are simply unsuitable for a pleasant chew.
Experience helps harvesters recognize resin with the characteristics needed for chewing.
What is Alberta Wildcraft spruce gum made from?
Alberta Wildcraft Canadian Spruce Gum is made primarily from wild-harvested spruce resin, with a small amount of pine resin blended in for added elasticity.
Ingredients: 100% Tree Pitch. No sweeteners, artificial ingredients, fillers or synthetic gum base are added.
Why do you add pine resin to your spruce gum?
Spruce resin is the primary ingredient in our Canadian Spruce Gum. We blend in a small amount of pine resin for added elasticity, helping create the firm, long-lasting chew we want from the finished gum.
How many pieces are in a tin?
Because spruce gum is a natural product, pieces vary in size and shape. Each tin is filled by weight rather than by a fixed number of pieces.
How should Alberta Wildcraft gum be stored?
Store your tin in a cool, dry place away from direct heat. Temperature affects the firmness of natural resin.
Is Alberta Wildcraft gum biodegradable?
Alberta Wildcraft gum is made from natural tree pitch rather than synthetic gum base, so it will naturally weather and break down over time.
“Hand harvested” tells you how something was collected. We believe transparency should also tell you who collected it.
How tree resin compares
Why is spruce gum different from regular chewing gum?
Most modern chewing gums use a manufactured gum base designed for consistent texture and flavour.
Traditional spruce gum is natural tree resin. It begins firm and softens gradually as it warms in the mouth.
Why do people say modern chewing gum is plastic?
Many commercial gum bases use synthetic rubber-like polymers. Natural resin gums such as spruce gum use tree resin instead.
What is the difference between spruce gum and mastic gum?
Both are natural tree resins traditionally used for chewing.
Mastic gum comes from the mastic tree in the Mediterranean, while traditional spruce gum comes from spruce trees in northern forests.
Each resin has its own flavour, firmness and chewing character.
Why are natural chewing gums becoming popular again?
Growing interest in traditional foods, simple ingredients and natural materials has brought renewed attention to traditional chewing resins such as spruce gum.
Chewing resin and the mouth
Is spruce gum good for your teeth?
Traditionally, people chewed tree resins as part of everyday life, and the chewing action naturally stimulates saliva.
Spruce gum does not replace normal dental care such as brushing and professional dental care.
Does spruce gum freshen breath?
Spruce resin has a naturally fresh evergreen aroma that can leave the mouth feeling clean after chewing.
Does chewing spruce gum exercise the jaw?
Natural resin gum is generally firmer than conventional gum, so chewing it requires more work from the jaw muscles.
A very old kind of chewing gum
How long have people been chewing spruce gum?
People in North America have chewed spruce resin for centuries. It was used long before modern chewing gum and later became one of the earliest commercially sold chewing gums in the 1800s.
Natural gum takes a little learning.
Start with a small piece, give it time to warm, and let the resin do what people have been asking it to do for generations.
Shop Canadian Spruce Gum Read The Chewing Guide