Junior Mints
Encyclopedia
Junior Mints are a candy
consisting of small rounds of mint filling inside a dark chocolate coating. Currently produced by Tootsie Roll Industries
, the product is packaged in varying amounts from the fun-size box to the much larger 12.0 oz. box.
Junior Mints were introduced in 1949 by the Cambridge, Massachusetts
-based James O. Welch Company
, manufacturers of candies
and candy bar
s such as Sugar Babies
, Welch's Fudge, and Pom Poms. Born in Hertford, North Carolina
, Welch attended the University of North Carolina
and then founded his Cambridge candy company in 1927. His partner in the company was his brother, Robert W. Welch, Jr., who retired from the confectionery business in 1956 and two years later founded the John Birch Society
.
's Junior Miss
, a collection of her stories from The New Yorker
, which were adapted by Jerome Chodorov
and Joseph Fields
into a successful play. Directed by Moss Hart
, Junior Miss ran on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. According to one past official company history, when James Welch developed and launched the product in 1949, he named the candy after his favorite Broadway show. Yet the candy came six years after the play had closed on Broadway. Current copy on the Junior Mints box incorrectly gives the date of the Broadway play as 1949.
In 1945, the play was adapted to film, with George Seaton
directing Peggy Ann Garner
in the lead role. The Junior Miss radio series, starring Barbara Whiting
, was being broadcast weekly on CBS
at the time Junior Mints were first marketed in 1949. Thus, Welch had cleverly created a product sold at movie theater concession stands and identified with a specific movie and radio series and displaying a name that sounded almost exactly like that property–yet different enough that it avoided any fees for licensing and merchandising. Junior Mints quickly became a popular candy at movie concession stands, and one product in the line is the three oz. box marketed as the "Theater Size Junior Mints Concession Candy".
In 1963, the brand was acquired by Nabisco
, who sold the brand to Warner-Lambert Company (now part of Pfizer
) in 1988, who in turn sold the brand to Tootsie Roll
in 1993. Today, Junior Mints are still manufactured in Cambridge at Tootsie Roll Industries.
and green
fillings), and Christmas Peppermint Crunch edition (featuring crunchy peppermint flakes in the outer chocolate coating). Junior Mints are sold in various amounts from the fun-size boxes to the movie theater-size boxes, since the product continues to sell well in movie theaters. Junior Mints have traveled throughout the world, including Australia's discount department store chain K Mart. Also available in Myer, Supa IGA, IGA, Cornett's, Drakes and Petrol & Convenience stores around the Country. Imported and Marketed in Australia by Confectionery Link Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria.
They are now certified kosher dairy by the Orthodox Union.
released in May 1994
by American
popular music singer-songwriter
Jimmy Buffett
, Buffet expresses extreme frustration by the disappearance of Junior Mints from the concession counter of modern cineplex theaters.
The candy is mentioned in the lyrics to the track "Eiffel Tower High" by the American band Hüsker Dü
off of their 1986 album, Candy Apple Grey
.
The Candy is also mentioned in "cold shower tuesdays" by the American band Bowling For Soup.
titled "The Junior Mint". While observing the surgery of Elaine's
ex-boyfriend Roy, Kramer
offers a Junior Mint to Jerry
, who refuses the offer—to which Kramer later states, "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint; it's delicious!"—and the two accidentally drop it into the retracted
abdominal cavity below. After Roy's condition deteriorates, Jerry calls the hospital intending to confess the whole situation, only to discover that Roy's condition has improved. The doctor attributes the miraculous recovery to "something beyond science — something, perhaps, from above."
Junior Mints are also referred to in a season three episode of Two and a Half Men
.
In Family Guy
episode "We Love You, Conrad", Brian's ex-girlfriend Jillian shows Peter Griffin her iPod
, which turns out to be a small box of Junior Mints.
In Knight and Day Tom Cruise says he can dismantle bombs using a safety pin and a Junior Mint when Cameron Diaz asks how she got in to a bikini whilst being unconscious.
book Possible Side Effects contains a chapter, "Mint Threshold", about the author's experience creating an advertising campaign for Junior Mints.
In the novel I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, the protagonist's friend suggests Junior Mints as the best candy to buy during a date, which is then declared to be the perfect movie candy.
In Fannie Flagg
's bestseller Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
(1987), Evelyn brings Junior Mints to share with her friend Mrs. Threadgoode.
In Sarah Dessen
's book "Dreamland" Junior Mints are mentioned in Chapter 7 when her boyfriend tells her to "shut up and eat your Junior Mints."
In Michael Grant's book "Hunger", Junior Mints are mentioned several times. Most notably when bug steals them and when they become a part of Sam's dream.
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
consisting of small rounds of mint filling inside a dark chocolate coating. Currently produced by Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll Industries is a manufacturer of confectionery in the United States. Its best-known products have been Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops....
, the product is packaged in varying amounts from the fun-size box to the much larger 12.0 oz. box.
Junior Mints were introduced in 1949 by the Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
-based James O. Welch Company
James O. Welch Co.
James O. Welch Company was an American confectionery manufacturer. James O. Welch founded the company that bore his name in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1927. The company introduced many enduring brands, including Junior Mints, Sugar Daddys, and Sugar Babies. Other candies they produced were...
, manufacturers of candies
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
and candy bar
Candy bar
A chocolate bar is a confection in bar form comprising some or all of the following components: cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, milk. The relative presence or absence of these components form the subclasses of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. In addition to these main...
s such as Sugar Babies
Sugar Babies (candy)
Sugar Babies are an American confection originally developed in 1935 by the James O. Welch Co. Sugar Babies were named after a song called "Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby."...
, Welch's Fudge, and Pom Poms. Born in Hertford, North Carolina
Hertford, North Carolina
Hertford is a town in Perquimans County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,185 at the 2008 census. It is the county seat of Perquimans County. Hertford is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region and is part of the Elizabeth City Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, Welch attended the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
and then founded his Cambridge candy company in 1927. His partner in the company was his brother, Robert W. Welch, Jr., who retired from the confectionery business in 1956 and two years later founded the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
.
Origin of product name
The name of the product is a pun on Sally BensonSally Benson
Sally Benson was an American screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St...
's Junior Miss
Junior Miss
Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in The New Yorker, some under her pseudonym of Esther Evarts...
, a collection of her stories from The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, which were adapted by Jerome Chodorov
Jerome Chodorov
Jerome Chodorov was an American playwright and librettist.-Biography:He was born in New York City, and entered journalism in the 1930s. He is best known for his 1940 play My Sister Eileen, its 1942 screen adaptation, and the musical Wonderful Town, which based on his play. Joseph A. Fields was...
and Joseph Fields
Joseph Fields
Joseph Albert Fields was an American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Life and career:Fields was born in New York City, the son of vaudevillean Lew Fields...
into a successful play. Directed by Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
, Junior Miss ran on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. According to one past official company history, when James Welch developed and launched the product in 1949, he named the candy after his favorite Broadway show. Yet the candy came six years after the play had closed on Broadway. Current copy on the Junior Mints box incorrectly gives the date of the Broadway play as 1949.
In 1945, the play was adapted to film, with George Seaton
George Seaton
George Seaton was an American screenwriter, playwright, film director and producer, and theatre director.Born George Stenius in South Bend, Indiana, Seaton moved to Detroit after graduating from college to work as an actor on radio station WXYZ. John L...
directing Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
in the lead role. The Junior Miss radio series, starring Barbara Whiting
Barbara Whiting Smith
Barbara Whiting Smith was an actress in movies and on radio and television, primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Background:...
, was being broadcast weekly on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
at the time Junior Mints were first marketed in 1949. Thus, Welch had cleverly created a product sold at movie theater concession stands and identified with a specific movie and radio series and displaying a name that sounded almost exactly like that property–yet different enough that it avoided any fees for licensing and merchandising. Junior Mints quickly became a popular candy at movie concession stands, and one product in the line is the three oz. box marketed as the "Theater Size Junior Mints Concession Candy".
In 1963, the brand was acquired by Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
, who sold the brand to Warner-Lambert Company (now part of Pfizer
Pfizer
Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
) in 1988, who in turn sold the brand to Tootsie Roll
Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll Industries is a manufacturer of confectionery in the United States. Its best-known products have been Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops....
in 1993. Today, Junior Mints are still manufactured in Cambridge at Tootsie Roll Industries.
Today
Over 15 million Junior Mints are produced daily. Tootsie Roll also makes Junior Caramels (caramel filling with a milk chocolate coating) and limited edition "Inside Outs" (mint-chocolate filling with a white chocolate shell). Other limited edition Junior Mints include Valentine's Day Pastels/Valentine's Day Regulars (not pastel), Easter Pastels, Senior Mints, Christmas edition (featuring redRed
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
and green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
fillings), and Christmas Peppermint Crunch edition (featuring crunchy peppermint flakes in the outer chocolate coating). Junior Mints are sold in various amounts from the fun-size boxes to the movie theater-size boxes, since the product continues to sell well in movie theaters. Junior Mints have traveled throughout the world, including Australia's discount department store chain K Mart. Also available in Myer, Supa IGA, IGA, Cornett's, Drakes and Petrol & Convenience stores around the Country. Imported and Marketed in Australia by Confectionery Link Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria.
They are now certified kosher dairy by the Orthodox Union.
Music
On the title track of Fruitcakes, an albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
released in May 1994
1994 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.-January–February:*January 25 – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so....
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
popular music singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
, Buffet expresses extreme frustration by the disappearance of Junior Mints from the concession counter of modern cineplex theaters.
The candy is mentioned in the lyrics to the track "Eiffel Tower High" by the American band Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
off of their 1986 album, Candy Apple Grey
Candy Apple Grey
Candy Apple Grey is the fifth album by the alternative rock band Hüsker Dü, released in 1986. It was their first major label album, though Warner Bros. had initially lobbied to release Flip Your Wig until the band decided to let SST have it...
.
The Candy is also mentioned in "cold shower tuesdays" by the American band Bowling For Soup.
Internet, TV and films
Junior Mints were prominently featured in an episode of SeinfeldSeinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
titled "The Junior Mint". While observing the surgery of Elaine's
Elaine Benes
Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...
ex-boyfriend Roy, Kramer
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
offers a Junior Mint to Jerry
Jerry Seinfeld (character)
Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld . The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, based on, and played by Seinfeld himself.The series revolves around...
, who refuses the offer—to which Kramer later states, "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint; it's delicious!"—and the two accidentally drop it into the retracted
Retractor (medical)
A retractor is a surgical instrument by which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The two are each available in many shapes, sizes, and styles...
abdominal cavity below. After Roy's condition deteriorates, Jerry calls the hospital intending to confess the whole situation, only to discover that Roy's condition has improved. The doctor attributes the miraculous recovery to "something beyond science — something, perhaps, from above."
Junior Mints are also referred to in a season three episode of Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
.
In Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode "We Love You, Conrad", Brian's ex-girlfriend Jillian shows Peter Griffin her iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
, which turns out to be a small box of Junior Mints.
In Knight and Day Tom Cruise says he can dismantle bombs using a safety pin and a Junior Mint when Cameron Diaz asks how she got in to a bikini whilst being unconscious.
Books
The 2006 Augusten BurroughsAugusten Burroughs
Augusten Xon Burroughs is an American writer known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors .- Life :...
book Possible Side Effects contains a chapter, "Mint Threshold", about the author's experience creating an advertising campaign for Junior Mints.
In the novel I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, the protagonist's friend suggests Junior Mints as the best candy to buy during a date, which is then declared to be the perfect movie candy.
In Fannie Flagg
Fannie Flagg
Patricia Neal , known professionally as Fannie Flagg, is an American actress, comedienne and author. She is perhaps best-known for the 1988 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was adapted into the 1991 movie Fried Green Tomatoes; Flagg was nominated for an Academy Award for...
's bestseller Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg. It was adapted into the film Fried Green Tomatoes, which was released in 1991.-Plot:...
(1987), Evelyn brings Junior Mints to share with her friend Mrs. Threadgoode.
In Sarah Dessen
Sarah Dessen
Sarah Dessen is an American writer who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.- Background :Sarah Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois on June 6, 1970. She moved with her family to Virginia then North Carolina where she now resides with her husband, Jay, daughter Sasha Clementine, and dogs...
's book "Dreamland" Junior Mints are mentioned in Chapter 7 when her boyfriend tells her to "shut up and eat your Junior Mints."
In Michael Grant's book "Hunger", Junior Mints are mentioned several times. Most notably when bug steals them and when they become a part of Sam's dream.