Astra Hemp CBD Chewing Gum 36mg, Mango

This is almost certainly a gum we already list

On our listing for MediCBD's mango chewing gum we raised the possibility that the two products are the same thing under two labels, and we were careful to call it a strong suspicion rather than a fact, because we could not open the manufacturer's own pages to check.

We have since sourced this Astra Hemp declaration independently, and it settles the question as far as anything from outside a factory can.

The ingredient list is identical to the MediCBD one, character for character, down to the additive numbers and the comma placement. Both are made by Multitrance in Amsterdam. Both are thirty six milligrams across a blister of twelve pieces. Both blisters weigh seventeen grams. Both come in a display of twenty four blisters weighing four hundred and eight grams. Both are mango.

There are two further tells worth mentioning because they come from outside the labels entirely. The first is that search engines already conflate them: a search for this Astra Hemp gum returns our own distributor's page for the MediCBD one. The second is arithmetic. A European wholesaler publishes this product with four hundred and thirty two milligrams in its web address, which is thirty six multiplied by the twelve pieces in a blister. That same wholesaler publishes two hundred and four milligrams for the seventeen milligram mint, which is seventeen multiplied by twelve. The identical error on both brands is what you would expect if one product record is being reused under two names.

We are not going to write the word identical as though we had opened both packets, because we have not. What we can say is that every specification either brand publishes matches, the manufacturer lists both, and we have asked for confirmation.

So here is the honest recommendation, which is an odd one for a product page to make. If you want this gum, buy the MediCBD listing instead. It is the same product on all available evidence, it is the one we intend to keep, and our own rule is that a product gets listed once. This page will come down when the manufacturer confirms.

Why one factory runs three brand names

This is worth explaining properly rather than leaving as an insinuation, because it is normal and it is not dishonest.

Multitrance lists this same mango gum under three names of its own: MediCBD, Astra Hemp, and its own Multitrance label, where it is called Mango Kush. Nothing is concealed. The ingredient declaration is the same on all of them and it is published openly.

The reason is positioning. Different retailers, different countries and different shelves want different things from one production line. MediCBD reads clinical. Astra Hemp reads botanical and wholesome. Mango Kush reads recreational. One factory, one recipe, three audiences.

That happens across food generally and nobody is being defrauded by it. But there is a consequence worth stating plainly, because it applies to this whole category and almost nobody selling CBD will say it: the number of brands on a shelf tells you very little about the number of actual products. A shop can carry thirty brand names and rather fewer real formulations.

The practical upshot for you is simple. When two CBD products look suspiciously alike, compare the ingredient declarations rather than the front of the box. The declaration is the part that has to be true. The brand name carries no such obligation, and elsewhere in this catalogue we have found the same gummy bear sold under three different labels as well.

What is in it

Three milligrams of CBD in each piece, thirty six across a blister of twelve. That is double the seventeen milligram gums in the same family and still one of the smallest per-unit figures in this shop, which is the nature of chewing gum rather than a fault.

It contains soya, in the gum base, which is a declarable allergen that no page ranking for this product mentions.

It is sugar free by way of three sugar alcohols, sorbitol, isomalt and maltitol syrup, with acesulfame K and sucralose alongside. Three polyols in one product is worth reading up on, and the labelling rule that applies to foods high in polyols is set out on the Hempthy sugar free gummies listing.

The colours published are E171 and E141ii. Both need a note. E171 is titanium dioxide, which Great Britain retained as a permitted food additive when the European Union removed it, and which Northern Ireland therefore does not permit in food, so we are not shipping this line to a Northern Ireland address until our supplier confirms the position. The full account is on the MediCBD strawberry listing.

E141ii is the odder one. It is a green colourant, and this is a mango gum. The same colour list is published for every flavour in this family including the mint, which is where a green belongs, and we have set out on the mint listing why one declaration appears to be serving several differently coloured products. If you are avoiding a specific colour, ask us rather than trusting the published list.

E321 is butylated hydroxytoluene, an antioxidant that stops the gum base going rancid. Hemp essential oil appears at three tenths of one per cent as a flavour ingredient.

What it is like

A confectionery mango: sweet, a little floral, closer to sherbet than to fresh fruit. It arrives strong and thins out faster than a sugared gum would, which is what a base sweetened with sugar alcohols does.

The CBD contributes nothing to the taste. Three milligrams of it, worked into a gum base as an oil, is not something you would detect.

Compared with the mint in the same family, the mango is the one that fades. Mint holds up on a polyol base because cooling compounds register whether or not the gum is still sweet, and a fruit flavour has nothing to lean on once the sweetness goes. If flavour longevity matters to you more than fruit does, the mint is the better pick.

The blister itself is a sensible format for gum, better than a paper sleeve, and twelve pieces is a reasonable thing to carry about.

Who should skip this listing

Anyone who was going to buy it. We mean that seriously. Buy the MediCBD mango gum instead, which is the same product on all the evidence we have and is the listing we are keeping.

Anyone with a soya allergy, because of the lecithin in the gum base.

Anyone in Northern Ireland, until our supplier answers the question about E171.

Anyone avoiding a particular colour additive, because one published declaration appears to be covering several differently coloured flavours in this range and we cannot tell you with confidence what is in this one.

And anyone who has had trouble with sugar-free confectionery before, given three different sugar alcohols in a single product.