![]() ![]() ![]() Similar to breath mints, there are multiple brands like After Eight and Philadelphia Candies, however, the one that feels most synonymous with really dining out is Andes Chocolate Mints.Īccording to a representative from Tootsie Roll Industries, which acquired Andes Mints in 2000 from candymaker E.J. One could argue (and I do) that chocolate-covered mints are slightly more confection than medicine in their composition. Created at the turn of the 19th century by London confectioner William Smith, he marketed his mints - which were made from sugar, gum arabic, peppermint oil, gelatin and glucose syrup - as "a stomach calmative to relieve intestinal discomfort." Through time, there have been numerous after-dinner mint companies, one of the most famous being Altoids. One of the oldest surviving medical texts in the world, the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus from 1550 B.C., cites mint as a digestive, while in 1597, John Gerard, author of " The Herball" recommended it for "stomacke" ache. The history of "better than sex" cake, a sweet dessert with a sinful reputation Mint has long been used as a digestive aid after dinner. It makes sense that there would be an association with traditional dining. When I think of the types of restaurants that still provide a chocolate after-dinner mint with the check, I think of steakhouses and red sauce joints, places with hearty entrées, linen tablecloths and whose kitchens are probably brimming with the round, sumptuous scent of garlic frizzling in olive oil. This is when a chocolate-covered mint is best enjoyed - amid the flurry of finding jackets and mittens and calculating the tip - the milky, slightly saccharine surface giving way to a tingling chill that coats your tongue and the inside of your cheeks, momentarily blending with and then masking any lingering traces of dinner. It begins after the check arrives and there's a gradual change in the rhythm established during the meal: stories that have unspooled over the evening reach their end, along with the wine, and the conversation start-stops a bit as people reach for their wallets and adjust their weight away from the table. There's something deliciously old-school about the way a thin, chocolate-covered mint ushers diners through the brief liminal space that exists between dinner and after-dinner. ![]()
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