Earthborn Elements Gum Arabic Acacia, Multitude of Uses, Resealable Tub (1.25 Pound)

I purchased this large container for adjusting the viscosity of my fountain pen inks, which flow differently on each paper from each different nib used. The value on this container is great! You can also mix your own gum Arabic fluid by blending it directly with water if you are new to altering the viscosity of your ink or if this is your preferred method. Be advised that adding a liquid gum Arabic also adds more water to your ink and may dilute the color in an undesired manner. Test with small amounts before applying to large quantities of ink. I have not yet used it in cooking, but I may try it out soon in frozen desserts like "ice cream" bars where I do not want to use a thickener like egg yolks. The product itself is great, the only question here is getting a recipe down that gives me the results I want in consistency.

I have never tried this product before so I did not know what to expect and after using it for a few months this is what I have to say. 1. this is a lot of gum arabic, taking up just over a liter of volume which I'm convinced is roughly enough to supply one person for a lifetime. 2. this bottle is not air tight, and the bottle is less ridged then you'd hope.. Together it makes it a mess. However it seems totally competent at keeping the moisture out just not the gum arabic in. And finally 3. this actually kinda works, I've used this gum arabic in a number of drinks to prevent separation and it works well on very fine particles under about half a millimeter with around 3-8 grams per liter of water with about 1 gram of gum arabic being able to become fully suspended. It has a mild sap like taste that at this ratio cannot be detected over any other decent flavors. It dissolves well. And does the job If you know what you need in your life and it happens to be just over 2 pounds of gum arabic then this is exactly what you want

So far so good I have used it making my watercolor medium, and it seems to work very well. I will be buying more when it’s time.

If you're looking to use to make DIY watercolor paint, this works wonderfully!! This is a white powder, so it mixes well. I'm still working on figuring things out with it. But this was what I do that works: 1/2 cup distilled water 1/2 cup gum Arabic 1 teaspoon sodium benzoate 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin Mix cold, then heat in microwave til almost boiling. Then I would cycle between heat 30 sec to mix 2 minutes, until all the lumps have dissolved. I just use a spoon to mix, so it does dissolve pretty well. Once it is fully dissolved, let set 24 hrs, binder is complete. I haven't used any other gum Arabic, so I don't have a comparison as to better or worse, but for my first use of gum Arabic, I would definitely recommend this one. I will be purchasing more in the future as using this 1/2 cup at a time, it will last a good long while

remains free flowing so far

I use it for paint and ink. I've included bananas for scale :).

This tub came in a sealed plastic bag. When I took the tub out of the bag it was sticky and coated with gum arabic. When I opened up the container, the seal was not attached to the container, explaining how the gum arabic got everywhere. The gum arabic itself smells vinegary, something I have never noticed with another brand. It seems my gum arabic very well may have been tampered with. This probably wouldn't be a big deal if I wanted it for paint or ink, but I got food grade so I could eat it. Unfortunately, this product is non-returnable, wich means I can not get a replacement or refund. What a waste of $16.99

I bake bread with spelt flour. Spelt has "weak gluten," which means less elasticity. I added one tablespoon of this finely powdered gum arabic to two cups of warm water and let it sit for about five minutes; by that time, it was completely dissolved as far as I could tell. Then, I just went ahead and added sugar and yeast to the warm water, let it sit about 20 minutes to develop the yeast, and went ahead with spelt bread-making (I also add one egg, and only let the bread rise once, again to compensate for the weak gluten in spelt flour). This does seem to be a good addition, the bread has a great texture, and a nice pleasantly crunchy crust (I also threw some water into the preheated oven for steam in the first few minutes of baking, which is also supposed to help with a nice crust.) I LIKE gum arabic!