After Eight
Encyclopedia
Confectionery
Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...
product described as "mint
Mentha
Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally...
enrobed in dark chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
" (although a milk chocolate version became available in 2006) and are intended, as the name suggests, to be used as after-dinner mints. They were created in 1962 by Rowntree
Rowntree's
Rowntree's was a confectionery business based in York, England. It is now a historic brand owned by Nestlé, used to market a range of fruit gums and pastilles formerly owned by Rowntree's. Following a merger with John Mackintosh & Co., the Company became known as Rowntree Mackintosh, was listed on...
& Company Limited. Since the 1988 acquisition of the United Kingdom-based company, the mints have been produced by Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
.
The Thin Mints have been made in the factory in Castleford
Castleford
Castleford is the largest of the "five towns" district in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It is near Pontefract, and has a population of 37,525 according to the 2001 Census, but has seen a rise in recent years and is now around 45-50,000. To the north...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
since 1970, whereas the Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate truffle
A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center coated in chocolate or cocoa powder, usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape...
are made in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
. After Eights are now sold across Europe and North America, and one billion After Eight mints are made annually.
In 1967, After Eights were also manufactured at the Rowntree factory in the Wandsbek district of Hamburg.
After Eights were originally just made from dark chocolate which was dairy-free. However, in 2007 Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
started adding butterfat
Butterfat
Butterfat or milkfat is the fatty portion of milk. Milk and cream are often sold according to the amount of butterfat they contain.- Composition :The fatty acids of butterfat are typically composed as follows :...
to After Eights, so they are no longer dairy-free. Nestle also make special editions of After Eights, including orange After Eights and milk chocolate After Eights.
Manufacture
The fondant in the centre of After Eights is made as a stiff paste of saccharoseSucrose
Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...
, water, and a small amount of the enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
invertase
Invertase
Invertase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose . The resulting mixture of fructose and glucose is called inverted sugar syrup. Related to invertases are sucrases. Invertases and sucrases hydrolyze sucrose to give the same mixture of glucose and fructose...
. This fondant can readily be coated in dark chocolate. After manufacture, the enzyme gradually splits the saccharose into the much more soluble glucose
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...
and fructose
Fructose
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a simple monosaccharide found in many plants. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbed directly into the bloodstream during digestion. Fructose was discovered by French chemist Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut in 1847...
, resulting in a more liquid consistency. Maturing of the mint is said to take over three months.
Related products
The After Eight family of products includes:- Thin Mints: the original After Eight product, these comprise square dark or (less commonly) milk chocolate, enclosing the mint fondantFondantFondant is one of several kinds of icing-like substance used to decorate or sculpt pastries. The word, in French, means "melting", coming from the same root as "foundry" in English....
.- Mint & Blood Orange: This variation on the thin mints was a special edition for Summer 2011.
- Delights: round sweets of dark chocolate with a mint fondant filling.
- Straws: long, thin sticks of soft dark chocolate with a mint fondant filling.
- Biscuits: the newest addition to the After Eight family, these combine dark chocolate with mint in a biscuitCookieIn the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have...
. - Chocolate Santa Claus: during the Christmas season, Nestlé Germany features a 125g Santa ClausSanta ClausSanta Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
made out of white or dark mint chocolate. - Chocolate Truffles (Discontinued)
- Dark Chocolate Irish Creams (Discontinued)
- Ice Cream Dessert (Discontiuned)
- Lemon Sorbet (Discontinued)
- Bitesize: plain chocolate with mint fondant filling, similar in appearance to original MunchiesMunchies (confectionery)Munchies are a type of confectionery produced by Nestlé. They were introduced by the British firm Rowntree's in 1957. The brand was later acquired by Nestlé as part of its takeover of Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988....
. Originally known as Mintola, then renamed Mint Munchies in 1995 before being brought under After Eight brand in 2006.
Other related products:
- Pfefferminz: a variety of Ritter SportRitter SportRitter Sport is a German chocolate bar made by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG. It is distributed throughout the world. Each 100 gram square-shaped bar is divided into 16 smaller squares, creating a four-by-four pattern...
which has similar taste as the normal After Eight in shape of a Ritter Sport. - After Eight (cocktail): a layered shooter consisting of Crème de cacao, Crème de mentheCrème de mentheCrème de menthe is a sweet, mint-flavored alcoholic beverage. Its flavor is primarily derived from Corsican mint. It is available commercially in a colorless and a green version...
and Baileys Irish CreamBaileys Irish CreamBaileys Irish Cream is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur, made by Gilbeys of Ireland. The trademark is currently owned by Diageo. It has a declared alcohol content of 17% alcohol by volume...
. - After Eight (Easter Egg): An Easter Egg with a pack of After Eight Dark Chocolate Thin Mints