We were rather pleased Monday, yesterday, and again today to be subjected to nice young lasses offering free gum to those exiting the Embarcadero Station on the corner of Market and Spear.

In fact, today was best of all three so far-- while Monday's Dentyne-dealer gave us two packets (each with one piece of gum), and yesterday's ignored us to where we stomped off in a gumless huff, today's "Carefree" (ha, there we go biting the hand that feeds us) young lady just stuck out a massive, double handful of gum and invited commuters to grab as much as they liked.

We went for three.

These samples are the new "Dentyne Blast," the flavor is "Winter Chill." While the center contains a less-than-delightful goo, the overall flavor is nice and minty -- and the price was right.

Much preferable to the energy-bar extravaganza at the same stop a few weeks back, anyway.