The present invention relates to the art of chewing gum confections, and, in particular, to a gum-containing candy product.
It has been known in the art of confections to provide chewing gum products with high sweetness levels which can include candy components. Such products are known for, among other things, their appeal as novelty confections. These confections can be sugar-containing or sugarless, depending on the desired product.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,460,695 discloses a candy chewing-gum having a hard, candy-like appearance and a longer shelf life than conventional chewing-gum products. However, the process for making requires mixing gum base with sugar in its hot liquid state, thereby resulting in a mixture which is too viscous to be cast; it must be extruded or pulled to produce the final gum product. Furthermore, the sugar chars upon heating in its liquid state.
Japanese publication 5 3026-355 discloses a prepartion of a chewing gum which includes mixing 20-40% by weight of gum base and 60-80% by weight of material for hard candy in melted state at elevated temperature, following by foaming the mixture by kneading or agitating at 55.degree.-100.degree. C., and solidifying by cooling the mixture after expansion at reduced pressure and elevated temperature. The candy material includes 40-80% sugar by weight, 20-60% by weight of starch syrup (or sugar alcohol consisting of 7-18 glucose units) and 1.5-4% by weight of water, and the gum base includes a resin component, such as vinyl acetate and natural chicle, and glycerin ester of polyisobutylene-rosin and polybutene. The candy material and base should be miscible and have proper viscoelasticity at &gt;115.degree. C. The process requires foaming by bubbling air into the mixture under agitation. The foamed product is then expanded to a volume of 120-400%, having an apparent density of 0.31-1.13. The process results in a porous chewing gum which hardens upon aging, but does not in any way suggest a hard candy matrix product which can include chewing gum in the matrix for scoring or grinding into a particulate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,199 to Cherukuri, et al. discloses a chewing gum with a soft, smooth, consistency, and an amorphous bite through which includes a premixed recrystallized combination of liquid and solid sweeteners. Preferably, the Cherukuri, et al. product includes high fructose syrup alone or together with liquid glucose, corn syrup, sorbitol syrup and/or invert sugar in combination with sucrose or sorbitol and water, and flavors, softeners, and other conventional chewing gum ingredients. The formulation has a short nougat-like or fondant-like structure and is particularly suitable as a non-stick bubble gum which does not stick to its wrapper. It is essential to the Cherukuri, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,199 composition that the liquid and solid sweeteners comprise a preformed combination of particulate solid sweetener particles which are coated with a syrup sweetener, and that the mixture be heated, dried to a homogeneous mass, and then cooled to recrystallize the mass into an amorphous solid. The confection resulting from the composition of Cherukuri, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,199 is a chewing gum having a nougat-like texture.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,965 to Ream describes a method for making a chewing-gum composition which includes melting crystalline sorbitol or concentrating a sorbitol solution by heating, mixing chewing-gum base and a crystallization retardant with the sorbitol, homogenously blending and then forming the mixture, either by casting into a mold or by product-forming after cooling to a viscous state. Inasmuch as sorbitol composition will re-crystallize and become crumbly upon standing it is necessary to add crystallization retardant.
None of the above-products, however, provide a quick set hard candy matrix which includes a chewing gum and which can be ground to a particulate for use with other confection products.