Make your own chewing gum

One of the things I like doing best when I cook is making something that normally people buy. Sure, making the greatest Macaroni and Cheese is really cool, but making my own Chili Powder is being one step closer to godhood. Along those lines, I love the idea of the make your own gum kit. You get the basic materials, heat, mix, add some flavor, and Bob's your uncle.

What would be better, though, is finding a good source for chicle gum base (or, for that matter, any gum base). Then I could just make my own gum, without all that messy working with a kit thing. But where can I find chicle gum base? TIC gums seems a good source for some serious gum bases, but no chicle gums, and these seem to be the sorts of additives that are great for mass production of food, but aren't so useful for the home cook.

And that's where you get into the need for a kit. Play around with the pre-packaged, ready-to-assemble stuff, then work hard to find the basic ingredients if it seems at all worthwhile. I just like being able to go to my local market and grab the necessary ingredients and supplement it with what I already have. It works for a lot of foods, but I'm not sure if it'll work well with gum.

However, if anyone knows anything worth knowing on the subject of gum and gum making, please post here.