Junior Mints: It’s chocolate, It’s Peppermint—It’s Delicious!

A vintage Junior Mints box from the early 1970's when Junior Mints were still being produced by Nabisco

Sharability: 1 Denture Danger: 4 Convenience: 4 Novelty: 7 Overall: 10 The Junior Mint name originated from a collection of stories by Sally Benson that were published in the New York Times, titled Junior Miss. The Junior Miss stories influenced the idea for a play called Junior Miss and the play was featured on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. This play is where James Welch found the influence for the name of his candy that he first marketed in 1949. The Junior Miss play became a movie and this made the Junior Mints quite successful at movie concession stands. Nabisco acquired the James O. Welch Company in 1963, who then sold it to Warner-Lambert Company, which was then bought in 1993 by Tootsie Roll who currently manufactures the 15 million mints that are produced daily. Junior Mints are popular among many, including my mom. When buying Junior Mints I always have to take caution when eating them around my mom because she will be sure to steal at least half the box. Junior Mints are definitely a candy that I would label as too good to share. Putting it in your mouth you can crush the soft candy with your tongue and taste the dark chocolate melt onto your tongue as the smooth minty sweetness seeps out onto your taste buds. (You can’t tell me that your mouth isn’t watering right now). The Junior Mint was featured on the sitcom, and one of my favorite shows, Seinfeld, on the episode titled, The Junior Mint. Kramer and Jerry are observing a splenectomy surgery from a viewing area above. Kramer offers Jerry a Junior Mint and Jerry refuses. Kramer insists for the reason that he later explains as, “Who is gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint—it’s delicious!” While trying to force Jerry to take the mint, it slips out of Kramers hand and falls into the patient’s body without any of the doctors noticing. Though Junior Mints are extremely tasty, one thing you might not want to know about them is that they are not only not vegan, but they are not vegetarian either. The gelatin that makes up the peppermint filling is made from boiling animal hides and animal bones. And boy do those boiled animal hides taste delicious! In the UK and Canada, however, the gelatin is replaced by agar making the mints vegetarian and vegan. I am a vegetarian and I did eat the Junior Mints. I was not aware that they were not compatible with my vegetarian diet, but even now that I do know, unless there were to be chunks of meat in the filling, I would eat another box right now. Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Mints
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Benson
• http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheJuniorMints.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Junior_Mint