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title: "Incense Gum? Reviewing the Viral Nathan and Sons Underbrush Remineralizing Gum"
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description: "You know I had to try a chewing gum made from incense ingredients."
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date: 2026-02-23
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tags:
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- Incense
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- Incense Review
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- Other Review
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- Food and Beverage
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synopsis: "You know I had to try a chewing gum made from incense ingredients."
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imageURL: "/img/nathan_and_sons_underbrush_remineralizing_gum/nathan-and-sons-underbrush-remineralizing-gum.webp"
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imageAlt: "A tealight cup containing a melted puddle of gum on an MHP30 mini heater. Beside it are packages of the gum."
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mastodon_id: "116122384966857793"
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---
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Maybe this is just my algorithm, but I just can't escape
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[Nathan and Sons Underbrush Remineralizing Gum](https://nathanandsons.com/) on
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[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nathan.and.sons/). In case your feed
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isn't absolutely inundated with Underbrush content like mine, Underbrush is a
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chewing gum brand that uses natural botanicals rather than the, well,
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[plastic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum#Microplastics) that is
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commonly used as a gum base. Instead, Underbrush contains chicle, mastic,
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spruce, and acacia gum, myrrh and other natural ingredients. Are you beginning
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to see why I'm interested in the stuff? Some of these ingredients might sound
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more at home in an incense build than something you put in your mouth, but the
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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,
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and chewing gum. Native Americans used spruce gum in this way, and frankincense
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has also traditionally been used as a chewing gum.
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Naturally, I *had* to try a gum made, essentially, out of incense materials. The
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price deterred me for a while, but my curiosity eventually won out. I elbowed
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my way through the aggressive salesy cruft on the Nathan and Sons website and
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put in an order for the berry variety (the only vegan option).
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[](/img/nathan_and_sons_underbrush_remineralizing_gum/nathan-and-sons-underbrush-remineralizing-gum.webp)
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## Underbrush as intended: gum
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With a texture nigh-indistinguishable from any gum you might find on a
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supermarket shelf, I found Underbrush pleasantly sweet with a mild berry flavor
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as I began to chew. Unfortunately, this only lasts for, quite literally,
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seconds before settling down into an ashtray meets lapsang-souchong smoky black
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tea flavor. It's genuinely pretty shocking how quickly the flavor changes. I
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can only assume that the lingering note comes from the myrrh. It really is
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quite unfortunate that this is the only resin with any flavor left in it—myrrh
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is [infamous](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#Etymology) for its bitter
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flavor[^1].
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In the ads for this gum, they show the resins being heated in order to mix them
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together, and I can't help but wonder whether that's the culprit here. With
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plain old frankincense or mastic, the pronounced flavor of the resin lasts for
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just about as long as you can be bothered to chew. As an incense maker, I am
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well aware of how quickly heat can evaporate out all of those lovely aromatic
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volatile compounds—even now I'm grinding some costus root twenty seconds at a
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time, ensuring that the temperature of the material doesn't rise beyond 100°F
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with an infrared thermometer. I don't really care about the berry flavor, but
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it seems like abject sacrilege to have all of these nice, rare, and expensive
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tree resins in a product with their flavor cooked out of them.
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After spending close to $40 for 36 pieces of gum,
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[my disappointment is immeasurable.](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-disappointment-is-immeasurable-and-my-day-is-ruined)
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That said, I didn't buy the stuff just to chew it all anyway. If it's no good
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as a gum, how will it fare as incense?
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## Underbrush as not intended: incense
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At 185°C the gum presents a candy-like sweetness and a fruity acidity with *maybe*
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a tiny hint of mastic? Imagine a bag of skittles left in a hot car. The
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fragrance didn't change at 250°, but at 300° a toasty note enters and the
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acidity ramps up before it begins to darken in color and smell burned.
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Even as incense, the resins are practically nowhere to be found. What a shame.
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## Conclusion
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I'm not at all enamored with this stuff. While the gum circumvents the usual
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issues inherent to chewing resin with its excellent texture, all of those
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beautiful natural ingredients present little to no flavor. The added flavoring
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disappears so quickly that it may as well not be there. I can't speak to
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the health claims made by Nathan and Sons, but in purely sensory terms, I prefer
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the stuff on an incense heater. And I don't like it much there.
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On an emotional level, cooking the flavor out of these beautiful
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resins—precious materials that
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[wars have been fought over](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios_massacre)
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—feels like an
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[Ecce Homo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_(Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_and_Gim%C3%A9nez))
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moment. Continuing on the religious theme, perhaps more apt is the famous line
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from the Gospel of Matthew: "…neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest
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they trample them under their feet…." Whether you're looking for something to
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chew or a fragrance to enjoy, my recommendation would be to use a chunk of mastic instead.
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[^1]: Honestly, it's quite difficult to make myrrh smell nice in incense too.
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7
content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-02-18_14:15.md
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content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-02-18_14:15.md
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---
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title: Sumire
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manufacturer: Tennendo
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date: 2026-02-18 14:14:00
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time: 2:14 PM
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---
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I've heard it called “soapy,” but I quite enjoy this violet incense.
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7
content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-02-20_08:59.md
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content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-02-20_08:59.md
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title: Excellentia (Shira-giku)
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manufacturer: Shoyeido
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date: 2026-02-20 8:59:00
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time: 8:59 AM
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---
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With a 7-8 hour burn time, this coil is a bit of a commitment!
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5
content/status/Status_2026-02-17_15:47.md
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content/status/Status_2026-02-17_15:47.md
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---
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date: 2026-02-17 15:44:00
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emoji: 🫠
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comment: Mefjus’ *Manifest* is a hell of an album. No one puts out such pristinely produced tracks as Drum and Bass artists.
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---
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