Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

You Can Save the World Just By Chewing Project 7 Gum

Elizabeth Dahl
By

Your dentist is rarely glad you bought the impulse gum in the cashier line, but if you reached for a pack of Project 7’s gums, mints, or gummies, you could tell said-judgmental dentist your purchase actually change the world.

Recommended Videos

Tyler Merrick is an entrepreneur who’s always been socially minded, but he realized one day in 2008 that little purchases really add up. And if you put a portion of the profits of these small purchases toward important causes, big things happen.

Related

So in 2013 Merrick relaunched a line of uniquely flavored gums and mints made with no artificial colors, preservatives, or flavors. They’re also made here in the United States. He got creative with the flavors. Gum flavors include Birthday Cake, which tastes incredibly like birthday cake, but doesn’t require the aging; Wedding Cake, which demands no lifelong commitment in exchange; Rainbow Ice which is all the fun of a snow cone without the brain freeze; grapefruit melon; Sour Caramel Apple; Coconut Lime; even Front Porch Lemonade is like chewing summer afternoons in your mouth. In honor a century of Girl Scouts, Project 7 launched Girl Scout cookie flavored gum: You’ve got perennial favorites like Thin Mints and Samoas (though they call them Caramel Coconut). The gums are sugar free, so your dentist can’t be that mad.

Tyler-Merrick-2011 Project 7
Image used with permission by copyright holder

A new edition to the delicious Project 7 line is their gummies. But these aren’t your average gummie bears. Instead, Project 7 offers Champagne Dreams gummies, flavored like brut and rosé champagnes. Or get the party pack that combines some of the most popular gum flavors: Rainbow Ice, Birthday Cake, and Front Porch Lemonade. And the gummies use only organic sweeteners.

What’s the changing the world bit of enjoying these treats? It’s all in the name. Merrick chose seven areas of need to support with proceeds from sales: Save the Earth, House the Homeless, Feed the Hungry, Quench the Thirsty, Heal the Sick, Teach Them Well, and Hope for Peace. Within each category Project 7 has partnered with leading organizations in the field. For example, to Feed the Hungry they work with Feeding America and Children’s Hunger Fund; Plant with Purpose and Trees, Water, People help them save the Earth; Samaritan’s Purse has Project 7’s help in housing the homeless, and Camfed, Love Does, and Pencils of Promise help education issues.

To date, Project 7’s delicious gummies and gums have helped plant 4 million trees, provided 3.7 million meals here in the US, allowed for 1.1 million hours of education, provided 1.3 million hours of shelter for the homeless, ensured 1.3 million months of clean water, provided 35,000 students with anti-bullying education, and given 106 thousand malaria treatments.

These thoughtfully made, uniquely flavored candies are the answer to sweet tooth cravings and a desire to better the world. That’s a delicious combination.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Elizabeth Dahl
Elizabeth Dahl
Elizabeth Dahl is a southern girl in the heart of Los Angeles who lived far too long before learning what an incredible food…
The 10 best rosé wines that everyone should drink
It's time to finally try rosé
Rose wine glasses

Rosé rules -- no ifs, ands, or buts. You’ve most definitely seen dudes drinking rosé, with the pink wine sold in forties. Chances are, you’ve heard the term “brosé” at least once or twice in your life. Heck, people are cooking with rosé. Can you believe that? It's a sweet wine worth talking about.

All this talk about the drink prompted us to go on a quest to find the most exceptional ones this rosé season. With plenty of great options in the market, we chose to narrow down our list to these best rosé wines for your next hot date, guys' night, or solo Netflix binge. Still reluctant to try this magical wine? We listed seven reasons why you should start drinking rosé.
Best rosé wines

Read more
How to start your own home bar: the essential spirits
Home Bar

When you start getting into cocktails, drinking them is only half the fun -- making them is part of the appeal too. If you start making your own drinks at home, you'll soon find that you can often create better or more interesting drinks than what you're served in most bars. And even better, making drinks for other people is a great way to try out new combinations, learn about spirits, and make your friends and family happy too.

However, moving beyond the simple spirit plus mixer style of drinks which most people make at home and into the world of cocktails means that you'll need a wider array of spirits on hand than you might be used to. It can take some time and research to build up a well stocked bar, and choosing high quality spirits isn't a cheap endeavor. It's worth it, though, for the pleasure of being able to try out classic cocktail recipes and experiment with making up your own creations too.

Read more
You’re overlooking the most important ingredient in your cocktail
Steel Hibiscus cocktail.

When you list off the most important parts of making a good cocktail your mind likely goes immediately to good ingredients: quality spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices, and well-matched mixers. You might also consider the importance of using the right tools, like getting a proper mixing glass so your stirred drinks can be properly incorporated, or a good strainer so that there aren't little shards of ice in your cocktails. And then there are the fun additions like elaborate garnishes, bitters, or home-made syrups which can add a personal touch to your drinks.
All of those things are important, absolutely. However I think there's one ingredient that can make or break a good cocktail, and it's something many drinkers don't ever stop to consider. It's the humble but vital ingredient of ice.

Why ice is so important
In mixed drinks like a gin and tonic or a screwdriver, ice is added to the drink primarily to chill it down to a pleasing temperature. That's a topic we'll come back to. But in cocktails which are shaken or stirred, ice is far more important than that. Cocktails are typically composed of between around 20 to 30 percent water, and this water comes from the ice used in the preparation process.
When you stir ingredients in a mixing glass or shake them in a shaker with ice, you are chipping away small pieces of the ice so that it dissolves and blends with your other ingredients. You might imagine that water doesn't make much of a difference to taste, being tasteless itself. But it's vital in opening up the flavors of other ingredients. That's why many whiskey drinkers like to add a dash of water to their whiskey when they drink it neat.
If you're ever in doubt of how important water is to cocktails, it's worth trying to make a drink with no ice. Even if you mix up the ideal ratios for a drink that you love and put it into the freezer so that it gets to the chilled temperature that you usually enjoy it at, if you sip it you'll find that your drink tastes harsh, unbalanced, and incomplete. Even for special room temperature cocktails like those designed to be drunk from a flask, you'll generally find water being added at a rate of around 30%.
When you make your cocktails you should be sure to stir for a long time – around 30 seconds is a good start – or to shake for a good while too – I typically do around 12 to 15 seconds – in order to melt enough ice to get plenty of water into your cocktail. Despite what you might imagine, this won't make the cocktail taste watery but will rather make the flavors stand out more as well as often improving the mouthfeel of the drink. A good rule of thumb is to mix or shake until the vessel is cold to the touch. That means your ingredients are sufficiently incorporated with the ice.

Read more