Mints are possibly one of  the most universally appealing forms of sweet and have been around for literally centuries.  Long held to be good for the digestion, mint is served with lamb to aid digestion of a rather rich and fatty meat.  Most mint sweets use the hotter peppermint as flavouring whilst the milder spearmint is also popular and tends to be used in jellies, sauces and other culinary delights.  Both are members of the Mentha genus of the Lamiaceae family.  Found widely throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and North America these tough little plants, which prefer moist soils, will actually cope with a wide range of conditions including full sun.  So successful are they spreading through prolific runners they are viewed as invasive plants in domestic gardens they are often grown in sunk pots to check their rampaging tendencies.

The plant's name comes from the unfortunate Minthe, a nymph after whom Pluto lusted.  His wife, Prosperina, was suitably miffed and decided to change Minthe into a green shrub that could be trodden underfoot.  Some mints are only 4 or so inches high whilst others grow to up to four feet, it was the practise of strewing mint across the floor of Roman rooms which was being referred to.  As well as smelling pleasant, mint is also held to deter insects, the leaves being used by campers to deter mosquitoes, whilst mint planted by the door is believed to deter ants.

Peppermint oil is used to flavour confectionery and has been for many years and from the same peppermint oil, menthol is derived.  This is a waxy crystalline substance that melts just above room temperature and is commonly used in cough and cold remedies due to it's anaesthetic qualities. Think of the menthalyptus sweets which combine menthol with eucalyptus oils.  As well as it's digestive properties, peppermint is a renowned breath freshener. As early as the middle ages people used dried mint leaves as part of their dental hygiene regime, not that dental hygiene was a big thing in those days!

When we refer to a mint, we generally refer to a small sweet, whether peppermint or spearmint flavoured although some mints actually use wintergreen, oil derived from the American plants of the Gaultheria species.  Hard mints are often called breath mints as they feel cool in the mouth and the taste and smell of peppermint seems clean and fresh.  For the same reason mint is often used in toothpaste and mouth washes.  

The Mint Imperial, with echoes of empire building days is still popular both in Britain and Commonwealth countries.  The defining characteristic being the hard shell with the relatively soft centre.  Some people enjoy sweets just for the flavour, others find the texture is all part of the sensory experience and the Mint Imperial, available also as Spearmint Imperials is a cracker in this respect.  Suck the sweet just long enough to allow the outer shell to weaken,  put it edge on between your teeth and attempt to split the sweet open. If you have timed this just right you will be left with two saucers that you can suck the rapidly dissolving middle out of ñ hours of entertainment and a hobby requiring some skill!

After dinner mints hark back to the digestive qualities of the mint plant and in practice vary from the mini pebbles common in Italian restaurants to chocolate covered fondants designed to be decadently consumed with rich coffee.  However, for puritans, there is only one true After Dinner Mint and that, like the Mint Imperial is very much a sweet to be enjoyed for it's texture as much as it's flavour.  This sweet, whose appearance of an over stuffed bolster belies it's hard shell and undergoes some sort of transformation the minute it hits the mouth, becoming almost paste like as it's chalky body literally melts in the mouth. 

For the tough mint eater there is the extra strong mint, the entertainment in these puritanical stamped out discs being in the fact that every  now and again you will hit one softer than the others, oh the joy!  Otherwise the punch packed by these really does give the pepper part of the name relevance. 

Mint cake is another one for the tough nuts, most famously being eaten by Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing as they stood on the top of Everest, Tenzing leaving some to appease his gods. Being almost entirely sugar and glucose, Mint Cake was one of the first energy bars! Almost 40 years before the successful attempt on Everest, Mint cake was supplied to Shackleton's trans-arctic exhibition.  Said by  legend to have come about by accident, Mint Cake was the result of a confectioner attempting to make clear Glacier mints.  However, having lost attention at the crucial point, the mix started to granulate and become cloudy producing the mint cake we know today.  Back in 1869 a Mr Wiper started commercial production, initially for a purely local market then as it's popularity spread to the whole of the North East via Kendal station. 41 years later Mr Wiper retired to Victoria British Columbia where one of his son's carried on the family trade and the Kendal business was left to his great nephew. Poured out on trays to cool, mint cake is available in either neatly wrapped bars, with brown sugar, plain chocolate and milk chocolate coated varieties or in random crazy paving pieces.  Like many mints the texture is a muddle of different sensations, cool and hot at the same time these brittle bars also manage to be soft and creamy.

Another opaque form of mint is the mint fondant, often robed in chocolate but making the most of the fondants ability to absorb flavours whilst keeping a mellow feel in the mouth.  Soft, almost liquid fondant appears in the After Eight Mint, a slightly firmer fondant in the Clarinco Mint Creams.  Back in the 50's a half pound carton would have cost 1s 8d and still worth every penny today. This wrapped sweet with it's cool green text on a white wrapper is a classic in it's simplicity.  Slightly more luxurious is the chocolate enrobed mint fondant, the After Eight mentioned above is a liquid fondant, the firmer fondant is ideal for enrobing in chocolate, dark chocolate  having the strength of flavour to make it  the natural partner to the fresh mint taste of the fondant. Dark chocolate wafers with small pieces of mint flavoured sugar crisp are also irresistible. As an aside here's a little known fact; It's the chocolate that carries the mint flavour in dark chocolate mint crisp and not the crispy bits. They are actually taste inert!

However, roving into the realms of chocolates is getting us somewhat off the subject of mint sweets.  All the above are sweets that come in shades of white. From the chalky white of an after dinner mint to the slightly creamy white of mint cake.  But there are also the zebra varieties of mints. Bulls eyes leap to mind, supposedly named because the round shape is  reminiscent of a cow's eye.  Alternatively it could be argued, tenuously, that the stripes on this spherical street are reminiscent of a target.  A superficially similar sweet, well it does have black or white stripes although sometimes a hint of brown may creep in on this sweet, is the Mint Humbug.  These cunningly conceal a chewy core inside a satin candy striped exterior.  A certain variety of approaches exist with this sweet, all stripy but should they be cellophane wrapped chunky torpedoes or the odd snipped optical illusions of not quite pyramids sold loose?  I would be intrigued if this is a North/South divide or a new school/old school issue.

Having started with white sweets and then worked through stripy mints we now get to the all black zone with Jesmona Black Bullets. These small cellophane wrapped spherical mints do indeed look remarkably like musket balls. Originating in the North East, they were very popular with the miners who were not allowed, for obvious safety reasons, to smoke underground. So when nicotine cravings hit during the long shift underground a black bullet hit the spot in a macho kind of way ñ none of your effete girly sweets here.

Another famous north-eastern sweet is Berwick Cockles, originating from the town of that name on the Scottish/English border. Berwick is so close to the border that there is a story that, being mentioned specifically when the UK went to war in in 1914 but not specifically when peace was declared, that the town was still at war all through the 20's and 30's!  Still manufactured in Berwick these sweets are claimed to have first been produced back in 1801 ñ a truly traditional sweet. It is also alleged they are named for their similarity in shape to the cockle, can't see it myself!  Either way they adopt the zebra coat so associated with humbugs and bulls eyes but this time in red and cream combination. Perhaps this colour scheme reminded someone of the beige and coral of a real cockle?  This zebra coat is hard and crunchy but the startling white interior is soft and crumbly ñ truly melts in the mouth.

In short the nature, form and texture of mints includes a spectrum wide enough to satisfy all but the most ardent anti-menthist!  Flavours can be from a nasal clearing punch to soft and mild and the long history of the mint covers social, industrial and geographical history.  Enjoy!