Breath of Fresh Air
Left your toothbrush at home and worried about insulting your client with coffee breath? Not to worry. It’s almost certain someone in the office will come to your rescue. Not with a toothbrush, though. With a mint. And not just any mint--a strong, expensive one in a beautifully designed tin.
The trend for mints in portable tins seemed to start around 1995 with an ad campaign for Altoids, “The Original Celebrated Curiously Strong Peppermints” in the distinctive red and white tins. After the launch of the quirky campaign, featuring a drawing of an old-fashioned muscleman and the slogan “Nice altoids,” the tins began showing up on desktops and dressers everywhere.
But now, mints in designerly tins are everywhere. They aren’t just peppermints either--some are wintergreen or cinnamon; some are caffeinated, some are sugarless. In a world of cell phones, palm pilots and beepers, mint tins have become a nearly ubiquitous urban status prop.
The National Confectioners Assn., in McLean, Va., reports that annual mint sales grew from $378 million in 1995 to $557 million in the most recent period.
Their popularity has not been lost on retailers and manufacturers . . . Neiman Marcus and Starbucks have house brands; Alfred Dunhill does too. Even accessories designer-of-the-moment Kate Spade has gotten into the act. Three years ago, she began stocking her boutiques with chewy mints in teensy round tins for $4.
“We’re always looking for things that can be put in a handbag,” explained company spokeswoman Susan Anthony. “We like things that are interesting and when you press on the little round lid, it makes a little popping sound when it opens, which is really cute.”
Those who follow the changing American tastes in sweets say that the popularity of these mints is a byproduct of a certain change in social behavior.
“Breath-conscious Americans used to chew gum but that is declasse now,” said Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. “Instead, the sophisticate will open a tin and pop a mint, not unlike the days when men took snuff.”
Those who pay attention to aesthetics say the tins are just too irresistible.
“Tins are so pretty. They’re designed to walk around with,” said Lisbeth Echeandia , publisher of “Confectioner Magazine,” a trade publication in Northbrook, Ill. “And tins are hot because of convenience, primarily. They are portable for traveling, meetings or after dinner when you have what I call the ‘bottom of the canary cage’ feeling.”
Tinned mints are easy to share, she added. “A nice hygienic package makes it easier to offer a mint to somebody else. You don’t get fuzzy mints like you do at the bottom of your purse when they’re in nice packaging.”
Naturally, the packaging makes a relatively inexpensive product a relatively pricey one.
Tinned mints, which usually hold less than two ounces of candy, cost between $2 and $5. A regular tin of Altoids (which is made by Callard & Bowser, a division of Kraft Foods Inc.) holds about 75 pieces of candy. (The company sells a larger version that holds about seven times that amount, and recently introduced a “tiny tin”--the size of a small matchbox--that holds about 17 pieces and costs around $1.) A silver-plated millennium version of Neiman Marcus’ mints costs $100 and includes a year’s worth of refills.
And there is always the issue of what to do with the tins after the mints are gone. Although they can be recycled with other household cans, some consumers like to refill them from larger tins, collect them to display, or keep them to store small items such as paper clips or pushpins. Some imaginative schoolchildren have painted the tins and turned them into treasure boxes.
The only thing missing when it comes to tinned mints, so far, are designer pouches.
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Candace Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com.
