Dubble Bubble gum, counted by the piece

Dubble Bubble has been in commerce since 1928, the year given in its trademark registration. The gum that carries the name is a pink chunk in a twist of paper, and it is sold by the count: 165 pieces in the team tub, 300 in the fruit flavored tub.

The pink one is the original. The packs call it the Original 1928 Flavor, and the fruit flavored tub puts grape, apple and watermelon beside it.

Dubble Bubble pieces are small. The tub label counts 1 piece (4.5 g) as a serving, at 15 calories. Each one has its own wrapper, so a tub can sit in a dugout or travel around a classroom.

Count matters more than weight with this gum, because it is handed out one piece at a time. Across the 17 packs that print a count, one piece costs from 4.5¢ to 71¢ today. The lid goes back on a tub, so what is left after a game goes back on the shelf.

Cry Baby is the sour member of the Dubble Bubble family, with the mark printed on the box. The standard tube holds four extra sour gumballs, and a box holds 36 tubes.

Sour gum is not for everyone. The Cry Baby box carries its own caution sticker: you will only cry for 40 seconds.

The seasonal packs change the shape and the art. Easter brings speckled gum eggs, and Halloween brings a mix of 120 wrapped pieces in seven named varieties.

The Easter hunt bag holds 88 speckled eggs. Each egg has its own wrapper, so it can hide in the grass until somebody finds it.

Most people who buy this gum buy it for a crowd: a coach filling a dugout bucket, a teacher with a prize jar, a parent planning a birthday. The questions are the same every time: how many pieces are in the pack, is each one wrapped, and what does one piece cost.

Holidays work the same way under a different wrapper. A Halloween bowl and an Easter hunt both start with a headcount.