If you thought Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was the only place to innovative and create new sweets, you might be surprised to hear that German chemical company Wacker is now making similarly creative inroads in the confectionery sphere. At ProSweets Cologne 2017, Wacker will be presenting what it is calling “two world firsts for the confectionery industry”: a new CANDY2GUM technology, and a method for 3D printing chewing gum. The latter breakthrough could allow for the creation of custom-shaped chewing gum.

With its CANDY2GUM technology, Wacker has managed to create a sweet that first tastes and feels like a chewy candy and then gradually becomes chewing gum. If you’re wondering what the distinction is between this and regular bubble gum (as we were), the company assures us that the new hybrid sweet features a “mouthfeel and chewing experience [that] are absolutely unique.” This new texture is due to the boiling process used to make the gum, which replaces the normal kneading process.

Another notable feature of CANDY2GUM is that the boiling process allows for a slew of new (and somewhat unconventional) flavors to be added to the gum. So if you’ve been yearning for a coffee or milk flavored chewing gum, you might soon be able to try it. As the company explains, “The secret behind this confectionery innovation is the production process—CANDY2GUM products are simply boiled. Conventional chewing gum, on the other hand, is made in a dry kneading process. Waterbased and fat-containing ingredients, such as fruit juice and cocoa, are exactly what the traditional kneading process cannot handle.”

Most exciting for us, however, is the prospect of being able to 3D print chewing gum into an assortment of customized shapes and forms. The company claims that its method for additively manufacturing the gum is a world first, and is planning to demonstrate it at the ProSweets convention at the end of January. Though not much has been divulged about the technology itself, Wacker’s 3D printer is reportedly designed specifically to print chewing gum, and has been optimized for the task in terms of both its software and hardware.

With its chewing gum design software, we imagine Wacker will introduce an interface that allows users to choose not only which shape they want their chewing gum in, but also what flavor and color it will be. And though the average person might not be willing to sacrifice their handy (and inexpensive) pack of Juicy Fruit for the added novelty of a custom piece of gum, the personalized chewing treat could become popular for marketing purposes, as companies could 3D print their logo as gum and offer it to clients.

Prepared on the basis of information from 3D Printing Technology