How we grade
Every wad we sell is placed on one scale, whatever it was or who chewed it. The grade is set by flavor remaining, which we measure by weight against an unchewed piece of the same gum, and confirmed by firmness and by the state of the tooth pattern. A wad can only move down the scale.
| Grade | Flavor remaining | What that means |
|---|
Provenance
The tier describes what we know about where the wad has been. It has nothing to do with the grade. A Vintage wad is always a Fossil; a Reserve wad can be anything from Fresh to Cured.
Registration
Reserve wads are chewed in front of a grader. When the chewer is done, the wad goes straight onto velvet and under the macro lens, and we photograph the upper and lower impressions before anything can soften them. That photograph is printed on the certificate. Hold the wad next to it and the pattern should match, tooth for tooth.
We do not keep dental records of the chewers and we do not ask for them. The registry proves the wad is the wad on the certificate. It does not prove anything about the person, and our certificates say so.
Dating
Gum does not carry a date. The surface does. A cinema seat has an installation record, a pew has a varnishing log, a sidewalk has a pour date on the contractor's stamp. When we recover a Standard or Vintage wad we photograph it in place, note what it is stuck to, and ask the owner of the surface for paperwork. The year on the certificate is the surface's year, and the certificate says "recovered from" rather than "chewed in" for that reason.
Wads that arrive already lifted are graded but not dated. We list the year as unknown and price them accordingly.
The counter
Ilse trained as a gemstone grader and spent nineteen years on the bench before joining us. She grades every Reserve and Vintage wad personally and has signed the certificate on all of them. Her rule for new staff is that a wad is examined with the same attention as a stone, because the customer will look at it just as closely.
She has chewed for the catalog twice, both times peppermint, and declines to say which lots.
What ships
Every wad leaves us in a clear archival sleeve, heat sealed, inside a hinged black card box with a gold rule on the lid. The certificate lists the lot number, original flavor, grade, flavor remaining, chew time, chewer, surface, and year, and is signed by the grader. Reserve certificates include the bite registry photograph. Vintage lots ship with the surface paperwork and the removal photographs. Sets come in a velvet tray with one card per compartment.
Browse the lots