Fruit flavored stick gum with a stripe pattern on it. All the stick gum I’d ever seen up to then was basic Wrigleys, with pretty basic advertising. I think marketing for chewing gum in general picked up in the 60s, at least on TV as did so many other products. I and others may remember the animated Fruit Stripe commercials because they were common in kids shows. Nothing else really special about Fruit Stripe except the marketing, and the kid appeal. If you offered a stick of Fruit Stripe and a stick of Doublemint to a kid they’d probably choose the Fruit Stripe. Also, they made more colorful chewing gum wrapper chains.
I remember being in college 30-some years ago and having this conversation with a woman. As much as I’d like to believe that my flirtatious banter is cutting edge, I doubt any of us were breaking new ground. And we were relating memories of our childhood so… I guess the real surprise is that a gum whose defining quality has seemingly always been “Is good for 15-20 seconds” managed to stay on the market until now.
It makes me wonder if there was no solution to that problem or the company never cared enough to find a way to make it better?
But man, for those 15-20 seconds, what a delicious ride!
You’re describing my sex life.
Based on looking at the image there, this is that fruit-flavored gum with the zebra mascot, right? I remember that it definitely lost its flavor much sooner, and became more gloopy than others.
I guess I’m a bit sad that I can’t try it again, but I’ve not chewed gum in quite a while.
If you can work a zebra into the mix and get your partner to yell “yipes!” at some point, you may have figured out a way to carry on the legacy of Fruit Stripe gum!
Fruit Stripe reminded me of the Life Savers variety rolls. Nice mix of flavors.
I can’t recall the last time that I bought Fruit Stripe. Maybe college? I rarely saw it on store shelves.
Juicy Fruit is my favorite gum. I chew about 3 to 4 packs a year. It’s a nice treat that I don’t buy very often.
Beech-nut is stocked in most Grocery candy racks. Fruit Stripe became harder to find after Beech-nut sold off the brand.
I too liked Fruit Stripe. It tasted quite good. Yeah, the flavor didn’t last, but I thought of it more like candy than gum. You had some good flavor for a couple of minutes then spit out what was left into the trash.
I’ve run across a wrapper now and then, maybe somebody who had a pack, but I don’t recall seeing it sold in a store since maybe the 60s. I haven’t been able to chew gum since I was 10 so I wasn’t looking at the gum for sale. Don’t know when the last time I saw an ad for it either, probably just about as long.
I’ve got no spare cells to give you any more; the few that still work do as much sputtering and sparking as remembering. Fortunately, the Internet never forgets. Here’s a ~1960s version:
Here’s a much later commercial from 1991:
Cracker Barrel is a remarkable time capsule of ancient candy brands.
Said another way, CB is the nursing home for soon-to-be-dead candy brands. Much like a hefty fraction of their customers. Surely not a coincidence.
That’s why the flavor disappeared so quickly. The way I remember it, every brand of chewing gum from the my childhood (1950s-60s) lost its flavor in about 30 seconds.
I hope Dentyne is still selling well.
My grandmother usually had some. I still chew it occasionally when I can’t brush immediately after eating.
I can’t find the original Dentyne anymore. I buy Ice. Fire 
is too extreme.
You used to could get fruit stripe in Walmart where the bagged candy is. In those multi-packs. Haven’t looked down that aisle lately.
ETA: looked on my store website. No Fruit stripe on the first few pages. But, oddly you can get a T-shirt with their logo on it. $19.97
I never tried Fruit Stripe gum because I didn’t care much for chewing gum in general, but I liked the jingle, and could sing it now.
Yipes, stripes, Beech-Nut’s got 'em,
yipes, stripes, in Fruit Stripe gum
Yipes, stripes, five different flavors,
get Beech-Nut Fruit Stripe gum!
Cherry stripe,
Lemon stripe,
Orange too,
Mixed fruit and lime stripe,
all for you in every pack of Beech-Nut Fruit Stripe gum,
get Beech-Nut Fruit Stripe gum!
Yes, I did that from memory. The odds and ends that we somehow remember after we forget whole years worth of stuff…
I had no idea there was Beech-nut gum. I grew up in a rural area where bags of leaf tobacco were the norm: Beech-nut, Levi Garrett and Red Man (I see they have wisely renamed their product but it is now dubiously named "America’s Best). I played baseball from a very young age (before the invention of t-ball) and this tobacco chewing started early - I would say around junior high. I was offered Beech-nut at some point and while I didn’t actually puke, came damn near.
If only other tobacco products didn’t have the same effect: Smoked for a decade then switched to canned tobacco for another 5 years (Copenhagen) before finally getting rid of that bullshit. If it wasn’t for my very active lifestyle (I was hiking, mountain climbing and biking, all while I was a young smoker), I might still be going.
Now, completely on topic: Fruit Stripe was a waste of money for this poor child. As others mentioned, you got precious good time out of that gum. Juicy Fruit was the way to go for a similar gum. I was a Bubbalicious or Hubba Bubba guy though. Related to my Beech-nut chew intro, Big League Chew gum was popular in the dugout, but my mom wouldn’t let me buy it because, well, you can guess why (candy cigarettes anyone?).
My first job as a market researcher was at a personal-care products company called Helene Curtis. While I was there, we introduced a new brand of shampoos and conditioners: Vibrance. The fragrance which had been developed for it smelled exactly like the orange variety of Fruit Stripe gum. The R&D developers didn’t like it when I pointed that out. 
Perhaps in your neck of the woods, but here in the Chicago area, I’ve not seen it in decades.
Ooh. I would use that.
I’ve had Fruit Stripe gum, but don’t remember much about it. My favourites were Teaberry and Black Jack.
Reminds me of Jerky Stuff, shredded beef jerky sold in little containers the size and shape of a Copenhagen snuff tin. Beef jerky flavor lasted just a little bit longer than a stick of Fruit Stripe gum. Pure marketing genius, I believe I was paying about $10,000 per pound of jerky, and a container would last me about 5 minutes, max. Loved that stuff, but it was also the reason I never had quarters for the video arcade.