Gum – Not Just for Bad Breath!
This thing amuses me to absolutely no end. Goddamn do I love this country called Japan.
Let me explain. Kanebo Foods has rereleased this gum (apparently they sold it in the past so in Japan this is a rerelease…but I’ve never heard of it until now so it must have been pre-internet) called Otoko Kaoru that not only freshens your breath but also make you smell better.
…yes…SMELL BETTER
As you can see, it has a pretty slick packaging and the flavor is “rose menthol”. Otoko kaoru literally means “man to be fragrant”. Apparently, this is how it works. By using a fragrance compound called geraniol, after chewing it, in about an hour, the scent will make its way up into your sweat glands and you will actually start to smell better.
Does it work? I’m about to find out in about 45 minutes :) Though frankly, I can’t imagine it will work real well unless I eat a buttload of this stuff. But then again, maybe geraniol is some powerful stuff.
The actual gum wrapper is pretty slick too with the whole red rose on black with no wording thing. The flavor? Subtle. The menthol is there but not overpowering and it does smell like roses. While chewing it’s actually pretty pleasant and I liked it. It’s different than, say, Juicy Fruit. But alas, the flavor lasted all of 5 minutes. I chewed it for about 10 to get maximum effect.
There is ONE thing that troubles me… On the label it states that if you eat a whole bunch at once, you may experience digestive problems (it uses the term “loose stomach”) but that it’s temporary and you shouldn’t worry. Interesting. Well, we’ll just try one right now.
Man…if this thing works, I’m buying a whole bunch and taking it back with me. If nothing else it’ll make a great gift (^_^)
(update coming later tonight on how the whole “smelling good” thing went)
