---
title: "Incense Gum? Reviewing the Viral Nathan and Sons Underbrush Remineralizing Gum"
description: "You know I had to try a chewing gum made from incense ingredients."
date: 2026-02-23
tags:
 - Incense
 - Incense Review
 - Other Review
 - Food and Beverage
synopsis: "You know I had to try a chewing gum made from incense ingredients."
imageURL: "/img/nathan_and_sons_underbrush_remineralizing_gum/nathan-and-sons-underbrush-remineralizing-gum.webp"
imageAlt: "A tealight cup containing a melted puddle of gum on an MHP30 mini heater. Beside it are packages of the gum."
mastodon_id: "116122384966857793"
---

Maybe this is just my algorithm, but I just can't escape
[Nathan and Sons Underbrush Remineralizing Gum](https://nathanandsons.com/) on
[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nathan.and.sons/). In case your feed
isn't absolutely inundated with Underbrush content like mine, Underbrush is a
chewing gum brand that uses natural botanicals rather than the, well,
[plastic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum#Microplastics) that is
commonly used as a gum base. Instead, Underbrush contains chicle, mastic,
spruce, and acacia gum, myrrh and other natural ingredients. Are you beginning
to see why I'm interested in the stuff? Some of these ingredients might sound
more at home in an incense build than something you put in your mouth, but the
truth is that plant gums have been chewed for centuries. Hell, people died over mastic in antiquity, such was its acclaim as a herbal medicine, flavoring,
and chewing gum. Native Americans used spruce gum in this way, and frankincense
has also traditionally been used as a chewing gum.

Naturally, I *had* to try a gum made, essentially, out of incense materials. The
price deterred me for a while, but my curiosity eventually won out. I elbowed
my way through the aggressive salesy cruft on the Nathan and Sons website and
put in an order for the berry variety (the only vegan option).

[![A tealight cup containing a melted puddle of gum on an MHP30 mini heater. Beside it are packages of the gum.](/img/nathan_and_sons_underbrush_remineralizing_gum/nathan-and-sons-underbrush-remineralizing-gum.webp "Of course I put the stuff on my dusty wee heater.")](/img/nathan_and_sons_underbrush_remineralizing_gum/nathan-and-sons-underbrush-remineralizing-gum.webp)

## Underbrush as intended: gum

With a texture nigh-indistinguishable from any gum you might find on a
supermarket shelf, I found Underbrush pleasantly sweet with a mild berry flavor
as I began to chew. Unfortunately, this only lasts for, quite literally,
seconds before settling down into an ashtray meets lapsang-souchong smoky black
tea flavor. It's genuinely pretty shocking how quickly the flavor changes. I
can only assume that the lingering note comes from the myrrh. It really is
quite unfortunate that this is the only resin with any flavor left in it—myrrh
is [infamous](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#Etymology) for its bitter
flavor[^1].

In the ads for this gum, they show the resins being heated in order to mix them
together, and I can't help but wonder whether that's the culprit here. With
plain old frankincense or mastic, the pronounced flavor of the resin lasts for
just about as long as you can be bothered to chew. As an incense maker, I am
well aware of how quickly heat can evaporate out all of those lovely aromatic
volatile compounds—even now I'm grinding some costus root twenty seconds at a
time, ensuring that the temperature of the material doesn't rise beyond 100°F
with an infrared thermometer. I don't really care about the berry flavor, but
it seems like abject sacrilege to have all of these nice, rare, and expensive
tree resins in a product with their flavor cooked out of them.

After spending close to $40 for 36 pieces of gum,
[my disappointment is immeasurable.](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-disappointment-is-immeasurable-and-my-day-is-ruined)
That said, I didn't buy the stuff just to chew it all anyway. If it's no good
as a gum, how will it fare as incense?

## Underbrush as not intended: incense

At 185°C the gum presents a candy-like sweetness and a fruity acidity with *maybe*
a tiny hint of mastic? Imagine a bag of skittles left in a hot car. The
fragrance didn't change at 250°, but at 300° a toasty note enters and the
acidity ramps up before it begins to darken in color and smell burned.

Even as incense, the resins are practically nowhere to be found. What a shame.

## Conclusion

I'm not at all enamored with this stuff. While the gum circumvents the usual
issues inherent to chewing resin with its excellent texture, all of those
beautiful natural ingredients present little to no flavor. The added flavoring
disappears so quickly that it may as well not be there. I can't speak to
the health claims made by Nathan and Sons, but in purely sensory terms, I prefer
the stuff on an incense heater. And I don't like it much there.

On an emotional level, cooking the flavor out of these beautiful
resins—precious materials that
[wars have been fought over](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios_massacre)
—feels like an
[Ecce Homo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_(Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_and_Gim%C3%A9nez))
moment. Continuing on the religious theme, perhaps more apt is the famous line
from the Gospel of Matthew: "…neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest
they trample them under their feet…." Whether you're looking for something to
chew or a fragrance to enjoy, my recommendation would be to use a chunk of mastic instead.

[^1]: Honestly, it's quite difficult to make myrrh smell nice in incense too.

