Mentos is a brand of
mints, of the "
scotch mint" type, sold in many markets across the world by the
Perfetti Van Melle corporation. Mentos was first produced in the
Netherlands during the 1950s. The mints are small
oblate spheroids, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior. They are sold in rolls which typically contain 14 mint discs, although the new "Sour Mix" flavor contains only 11 discs per roll. Certain flavors are sold in boxes in
Australia, the
United States,
Brazil and the
United Kingdom, and the rolls are available in four packs. The slogan of Mentos is "The Freshmaker." Most Mentos packages describe the mints as "chewy
dragées." The typical Mentos roll is approximately 3/4-inch in diameter, 6/16-inches long and 37.5g.
Flavors
Mentos are available in several flavors including
mint, mixed fruit, and in an assortment of
orange,
strawberry, and
lemon. Mentos first appeared as a
liquorice-flavored sweet.
which can still be purchased in the
Netherlands as "Drop Mentos." New flavors were initially test-marketed in the Netherlands and throughout Europe, however recently, most of the flavors have been available worldwide.
Other flavors include
green apple,
cinnamon,
strawberry, mixed fruit (which contains a mix of cherry, strawberry, orange, and lemon flavors),
grape,
wintergreen,
raisin,
grapefruit,
peach,
plum (or
ume),
spearmint,
strawberry yogurt, lemon yogurt, pineapple (pine fresh), red apple, wild fruit mix, cherry, watermelon, pear, cassis (blackcurrant), red orange,
currant and two versions of
black licorice flavored Mentos. Two varieties of the
mint flavor, known as "Mentos Strong" and "Air action Mentos" are sold in the Netherlands. Also available in the Netherlands is the Special Mix 4 pack, containing the flavors mint, fruit, berry mix and mango orange. Two varieties of the
mint flavor are also sold in China, known as "Mint" and "Strong Mint." Grape and 'N Cream (presumably Apples and Cream), Strawberry 'N Cream, and Banana 'N Cream are also marketed in Asia.
Chocolate Mentos were produced in 1989, but the flavor was discontinued. In 2006, the citrus mango flavor was introduced to the Japanese market. In the
Philippines, a "Dalandan Fresh" variant is available. Other varieties of Mentos include: Mentos Sours, which recently became available in the
United States, featuring Watermelon, Green Apple, and Lemon flavors; caffeinated "Energy" Mentos, sold mainly in Germany, where one roll equals the amount of caffeine in two cups of coffee; "Fresh Cola" flavored Mentos released in New Zealand, Australia and parts of Europe and Asia; and "AIR Mentos" containing
Menthol, which are sold primarily in Belgium and the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, Mentos Gum is sold in blisters and bottles in 6 different varieties: Pure (4 flavors), Fruit (4 flavors), Regular (5 flavors), Bubblegum, Cubes (4 flavors) and White (3 flavors). Mentos Gum is also available in Australia, Greece, China, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, and recently, the United States in blisters and bottles, both in three different flavors.
Mentos Sugar Free
In August 2005, the variety of the mint which comes in "mixed berries" and "cool mint" flavors was changed to be sweetened with
sucralose. In the Netherlands the flavors mint, licorice and fruit are also available in the sugar-free variety.
Australian varieties of Mentos are Mint, Fruit, Strong Mint, Berry Blast, Spearmint, Grape, Cola, Sour Mix, and Tropical. Mentos Gum is also available in Peppermint, Spearmint and Orangemint.
Rainbow flavours (with 2 flavors of each of the following - Raspberry, Watermelon, Apple, Pineapple, Orange, Black Grape and Strawberry).
In the UK, Mentos Gum is also available stick packs (peppermint, spearmint, pure white, air action (menthol) and fruit), Bottles (spearmint, peppermint and red fruit - which retails for approximately £0.99), as well as flip top boxes in peppermint or spearmint with green tea extract, and a pure white with white teas extract. Sugar free versions are available, but these are rarer to find, usually only found in large supermarkets. Mentos gum holds a 4% market share of the UK gum market. A new Mentos 3 was launched in January 2011, in two flavors - mint and Strawberry/Apple/Raspberry, which are similar to Wrigleys' 5 in packagaing.
In
Greece, Mentos is very popular, and is available in the following formats:
Mint
Strawberry
Melon
Watermelon
Fruit (Orange, lemon and strawberry),
Energy (each roll is equivalent to 2 cups of coffee)
Mentos gum in Bottles
Mentos Cube
Mentos in Boxes (mint and Fruit).
Cinnamon Mentos
Mini Mentos, somewhat smaller than ordinary Mentos, are available in the Netherlands in two varieties: Mini Mentos Fruitmix, which contains the flavors orange, lemon, strawberry and apple, and Mini Mentos Yoghurt, with the flavors strawberry yoghurt, raspberry yoghurt and blueberry yoghurt. Also sold is Mentos KIDZ, a bag with 12 boxes containing 10 miniature candies, in the flavors strawberry, orange, lemon, apple and blueberry.
"Mentos Teens" is available in
Brazil and the rest of
Latin-America. They come in a rectangular box. The mint is basically miniature Mentos roughly the size of
Skittles, and they come in mixed flavors: white grape (green), lemon (yellow), strawberry (pink), orange (orange), raspberry (blue), and cherry (red).
During the World Cup, a Brazilian team Mentos was released in
Brazil to support the national team. The mint was green and yellow.
Ume, Fuji apple, and Pine Fresh (pineapple) Mentos are sold exclusively in Japan.
Mentos in Arabic countries, such as Egypt or Morocco, are often sold in smaller rolls roughly half the size of a regular Mentos roll.
Mentos have often been subject of heated debate as to whether Mentos is both the singular and plural form of the word. According to the maker of Mentos, however, the term Mentos is both singular and plural.[1][failed verification]
Marketing
Part of Mentos's popularity can be attributed to its
campTV adverts and catchy jingle, which debuted in late 1991 on American television. Shot in South Africa, 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.[2]
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 ad campaign was parodied in the
Foo Fighters music video for their song "
Big Me."[3]
Recently, Mentos
Gum has gotten its own commercial. It displays a man sitting near a business water tank, and pops a piece of Mentos Gum in his mouth. A woman then walks by, pushes his nose up, and proceeds to kiss him, the kiss making a slurping sound. The woman then wipes her mouth, and pushes the man's nose back down as if to close it. The phrase "Mouthwatering" was used. However, more recently, the slurping, kissing sounds have been removed.[4]
In India, the slogan of Mentos is 'Mentos Khao Dimaag Ki bati jalao' which translates to 'Eat mentos and turn on your mind's idea lightbulb'. TV Ads are generally based on a situation where a loser eats Mentos and becomes a winner.
Another Mentos advert highlighted the multicolored variety of the sweets by showing a scene where two young lovers are sat in the living room of one of the two's house, the teen girl screams as a small seemingly harmless spider is crawling across the carpet which prompts the teen boy to get off the couch that they are sat on to pick up the spider only to be violently thrown about by the spider, the slogan at the end reads "sometimes it's best to be ready for the next thing"
Competing brands
A similar
mint in the
U.S., called "
Chewz", is manufactured by Lance, Inc. Mentos fans have jokingly referred to this as the "anti-Mentos."[citation needed]
Trebor Softmints and Softfruits, introduced in 1981 and sold in the
United Kingdom and
Ireland by
Cadbury-Schweppes are also similar to Mentos, although with softer exterior coatings.
A
Diet Coke bottle, shortly after Mentos were dropped into it.
First demonstrated by chemistry teacher Lee Marek on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999,[5] and later popularized in a June 2006[6] viral Internet video by
Eepybird, a Mentos mint expedites a rapid release of carbon dioxide when dropped into a
carbonated liquid, such as a
soft drink, because of its high
surface tension; so when the carbon dioxide is removed from the soda (a simple way to do this is to shake the bottle) it can't burst. Also, the small dents in the surface of the candy provide a great site for
nucleation, which is how the carbon dioxide molecules can escape so rapidly. 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.
As
Jamie Hyneman and
Adam Savage, special mechanical effects experts who have come to be known as "The MythBusters," explained on an episode of MythBusters (
Episode 57, Season 4; "Mentos and Soda," aired on August 9, 2006), diet sodas (particularly colas due to their visible brown color) are most commonly used for the experiment. The MythBusters also found that the fruit flavored Mentos produced a smaller reaction, supporting their theory that nucleation is the largest factor in the reaction, because the wax coating blocks the pits that allow nucleation. People are often under the illusion that aspartame causes the reaction—this is only partly true; the MythBusters have shown
aspartame to be one of many reactive components and/or
catalysts in both the soda and the Mentos. Diet colas are also preferred because they do not contain large amounts of sugar like regular colas.
Artificial sweeteners in diet colas are much sweeter per molecule, and so make up a smaller proportion of the solution and allow a faster reaction; they also enhance the reaction.
The resulting geyser (popularly known as a "
Diet Coke and Mentos eruption") can shoot as high as 6 meters (20 ft). The unofficial record[citation needed], reached in MythBusters, was over 34 feet with the use of a nozzle.
On April 23, 2008, students in the
Belgian city of
Leuven set a new world record, simultaneously launching 1,360 Mentos
geysers.[7]
Besides making geysers with cola and Mentos, the bottles can also be fired as rockets by unscrewing the lid until a thin stream shoots and slamming horizontally into the ground, creating enough pressure on impact to blast the lid off and launch the bottle in the opposite direction. These work best when the bottle is shaken for about 20 seconds vigorously after quickly putting in the Mentos. It takes a few practices to work out how much to twist the lid off (usually approximately one full turn) but can travel large distances with this technique, often up to 20 ft high and between 40–70 ft horizontally.[8]
In November, 2006, the
Urban Legends Reference Pages examined the rumors of people dying from eating Mentos and drinking cola. Their research found that while eating Mentos and drinking cola can result in people regurgitating the foamy result (as evidenced by numerous online videos), no actual news accounts exist of anyone dying from it.[9]MythBusters also tested this hypothesis using sheep parts and found that the act of drinking the cola releases enough of the carbonation to prevent the violent reaction caused when the Mentos is added to the cola directly.
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