Mentos
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Mentos.jpg
Mentos is a popular brand of candy sold across the world. It is produced by the Perfetti Van Melle Corporation. Mentos were first produced in the Netherlands during the 1950s. They are small and disc-shaped, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior. They are sold in rolls, each of which traditionally contain 14 Mentos, although the new "Sour Mix" flavor only has 11. They are also sold in individually-sized boxes in the United States, as well as three and six-packs of the rolls.
It is unclear what the correct term for a single piece is. Some claim the word is "Mento", while others maintain the singular is also "Mentos". The singular has never been used in a commercial, and has probably never been officially specified by the company.
A similar candy, called "Chewz", is manufactured by Lance, Inc. Mentos aficionados have jokingly referred to this as the "anti-Mentos".
Flavors
Mentos are available in a variety of flavors, the most common of which are mint and mixed fruit, being an assortment of orange, strawberry, and lemon. They were originally liquorice-flavored, and can still be purchased in the Netherlands as "Drop Mentos".
Other known flavors 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. Chocolate Mentos were produced in 1989, but the flavor was discontinued.
Commercials
The popularity of Mentos can be attributed to its commercials, which usually feature a person who encounters a problem and solves it in an ingenious way. Examples include a woman who breaks her shoe-heel, or a man getting paint on his new business suit after sitting down on a freshly-painted bench. In each case, after eating a Mentos, the person proceeds to solve the problem at hand: the woman breaks off her other heel, and the man rolls around on the bench, creating pinstripes on his suit.
The commercials were blatantly parodied in an episode of Family Guy, when John Wilkes Booth kept botching Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The candy in the program was called "Mintos" but used the same slogan, "the freshmaker." The Foo Fighters' 1996 music video, Big Me, also parodied the Mentos commercials, using an imaginary candy called Footos.
External links
- http://www.mentos.com/ - Official Mentos website
- http://www.mentosfaq.com/ - Unofficial Mentos FAQ