Mentos

This article is about the mint and fruit-flavored candy. For the Jamaican musical style, see Mento.

A number of different Mentos flavors

Mentos is a popular brand of candy sold in many markets across the world by the Perfetti Van Melle Corporation. Mentos was first produced in the Netherlands during the 1950s. The candies are small oblate spheroids, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior. They are sold in rolls which typically contain 14 candies, although the new "Sour Mix" flavor contains only 11. Certain flavors are sold in boxes in the United States, and the rolls in three and six-packs. The slogan of Mentos is "the freshmaker".

Flavors

Mentos is available in a variety of flavours, the most common being mint and mixed fruit, an assortment of orange, strawberry, and lemon. Mentos first appeared as a liquorice-flavored candy which can still be purchased in the Netherlands as "Drop Mentos". New flavors were initially test-marketed in the Netherlands and throughout Europe, but more recently, most flavors are available worldwide.

Mentos Sugar Free

Other flavours include green apple, cinnamon, strawberry, tropical fruit, grape, wintergreen, grapefruit, peach and spearmint. Another version of the mint flavor, known as "Strong Mentos", is sold in the Netherlands, and is akin to an Altoid. A currant-flavored Mentos is available in Europe. Chocolate Mentos were produced in 1989, but the flavor was discontinued. In 2006, the citrus mango flavor was introduced to the Japanese market. A new product line, Mentos Sours have recently become available in the United States, featuring Watermelon, Green Apple, and Lemon flavors.

In August 2005, Mentos began running TV ads announcing a new sugar-free variety of the candy which comes in "mixed berries" and "cool mint" flavors sweetened with Splenda.

Commercials

One source of popularity of Mentos can be attributed to its campy commercials, which debuted in late 1992 on American television. In the commercials, individuals facing various day-to-day dilemmas consume Mentos and are subsequently inspired to solve their problems at hand in a creative, often humorous fashion.

Dilemmas presented included a woman who breaks her shoe-heel and a man who gets paint on his new business suit after sitting down on a freshly-painted bench. After consuming a Mentos, the female character proceeds to break off the heel to her other undamaged shoe, and the man rolls around on the still-wet bench, creating a pinstripe pattern on his suit. These unusual behaviors are typically witnessed by nearby, sometimes antagonistic characters, and a roll of Mentos is boisterously displayed by the commercial's respective protagonist to the observer as an explanation for their actions.

The commercials have been widely parodied in popular culture. In a vignette from an episode of Family Guy, John Wilkes Booth botches the assassination of Abraham Lincoln until assisted by a candy called "Mintos" which is presented with the Mentos slogan, "the freshmaker". The Foo Fighters' 1996 music video, Big Me, also parodied the Mentos commercials, using an imaginary candy called Footos. In this video, the methods employed to solve problems are virtually direct copies of those portrayed in the actual commercials, sans the final "commercial". There exist also a number of amateur-made parodies on the World Wide Web. Mentos were also parodied in the Leslie Nielsen movie Wrongfully Accused.

Competing brands

• A similar candy in the U.S., called "Chewz", is manufactured by Lance, Inc. Mentos fans have jokingly referred to this as the "anti-Mentos".

• Trebor Softmints and Softfruits, introduced in 1981 and sold in the UK and Ireland by Cadbury-Schweppes are also similar to Mentos, although with softer exterior coatings.

Trivia

• The singular form of the word "Mentos" is considered "Mento."

• Due to its high surface area, Mentos allow for a rapid release of carbon dioxide when dropped into a carbonated liquid. (Diet soda is most commonly used to avoid such a sticky mess that results from the sugar in regular soft drinks.) The escaping bubbles quickly turn into a raging foam, and the pressure can build dramatically in a restricted container such as a two-liter bottle. The resulting geyser can shoot as high as 6 meters (20 feet). It is rumored that if the container is closed then the resulting pressure can blow a fender off a car (if positioned properly) when the bottle explodes. [1]

• a TV ad for Democratic Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont featuring blogger Markos Moulitsas was re-cut by various bloggers into a parody of a Mentos commercial.

• In the original version of M&M's by blink-182, Scott Raynor holds up a pack of Mentos after being shot.

• Recent American commercials for Mentos have diverged from the widely-parodied format entirely, and feature a rendition of 2 Unlimited's No Limit.

External links

• Official Mentos website
• Unofficial Mentos FAQ