By Vic T
These reviews were written by the grandchild of a dietician. My Gran worked at the Dental Hospital in Sydney and had a passion for educating diabetic children and their families. You can probably imagine the type of sweet-deprived childhood I experienced! However my big sister and I experimented with making confectionery from an early age, with the aid of a long out-of-print rural women’s cookbook, that was until we found out my older sister had allergies......This however explains my lifelong fondness for vaguely “medicinal” sweets, for these were all we were permitted.
Peppermint and Liquorice have been long known to contain health-giving properties. In the 1653 publication by physician Nicholas Culpeper, “The Complete Herbal – Natural Remedies for Ancient Ills”, he claims that mint “helps a cold liver, strengthens the belly, causes digestion, stays vomit and hiccough, is good against gnawing of the heart AND stirs up bodily lust”! Liquorice is good for “dry coughs, hoarseness, wheezing, shortness of breath and for all griefs of the breast and lungs”.
You will not be surprised then to find that Salted Liquorice also called drop originated in drugstores that made their own cough elixirs, around the 1930s. In Europe, liquorice is often flavoured with ammonium chloride, which is not to everyone’s taste. While it is well-known in Scandinavia and Germany, the Dutch make and eat more salted liquorice than any European country.
Dutch “Licorice Drop" from the Confectionery Hub www.theconfectioneryhub.com.au do indeed contain ammonium chloride, and as far as the global range of salted liquorice goes, these ones are mild. About the size of a ten cent piece, they are emblazoned with different Euro values, lest you forget they are from overseas. They are true black, as all good liquorice should be.
They are chewy and tough, lasting a long time in your mouth, and even longer between your teeth! They are good value for money, being long lasting. And being mid-way between salty and sweet, you can eat more than one in a sitting.
If you are an expat European or you know one, a pack of “Licorice Drops” will really hit the spot. Or if you love liquorice and crave a change – give these a try. Next time you have a dry cough or wheeze, I recommend you give liquorice a go. Documented as a natural remedy nearly four hundred years ago.
Mini Mints@ The Confectionery Hub
If you are after a small mint that you can pack in your coat pocket and pop before a meeting or date, this is it!. Mini-Mints also get a tick for food miles as they are Australian Made. A Mini-Mint is a mint high on flavour rather than sugar. Not so hot as to cause distress, but perfectly suited to freshening the breath. It is quick to eat, another advantage for the time pressured. It is discreet by nature of its size, for both pockets and mouths. Another great feature is its cylindrical shape. Why? It won’t roll around in a container quite as much as other round mints.
Extra Strong Peppermints @ The Confectionery Hub
Taken your date out for a spicy meal? Eaten too much garlic (NOT possible!!!!) If you don’t feel. right in the guts or are conscious of your unsavoury exhalations, then these mints are for you. Extra Strong Peppermints are perfect for staving off travel sickness, and they sure beat sucking down toothpaste in the backseat of the car (trust me on that one).
Best for slow sucking, this hard mint releases a steady dose of peppermint flavour. Sweetness is overtaken by the mint, but is balanced enough to still be pleasurable.
As a road-trip companion, or to end a meal with a special friend Extra Strong Peppermints are the perfect mint for the occasion.
Empire Granny Mints @ The Confectionery Hub
This is the first time I have met Empire Granny Mints. Probably the simplest of all the mints at The Confectionery Hub, they are the most nostalgic. I think I now know where all my peppermint home experiments fell short. That four simple ingredients could combine to make such a pleasurable mint is a revelation!
It has a matt-white irregular form similar in size and shape to an almond. It is sweet but not overly minty. Then it starts to dissolve, slowly at first, with such a fine texture – finer even than icing sugar! Sublime! Then it is gone!
A sweet, mild, old style mint. Uncomplicated. It is simply impossible to eat only one. This would make a lovely gift for an invalid or old-timer. Or someone who is dentally-challenged.
Peppermint Pencils @ The Confectionery Hub
Remember the olden days when classrooms still had blackboards? These peppermints will take you back there. Peppermint Pencils have a shape and texture almost identical to blackboard chalk. Fortunately they taste a whole lot better. Harder than chalk but with a flavour that Really Does Get In, these are long-lasting mints. They are somewhat inelegant to eat, however, as they don’t fit in your mouth at about 12cm long. If you chew, the mint intensifies.
I’d recommend these for solo movie nights and for those who are trying to break a habit – overeating, drinking, smoking, talking. All these are hard to do with a peppermint pencil in your mouth. These mints are mild enough to share with your children, thinking of long car trips that could benefit from silence (tested on a five year old).
Mentos Mints @ The Confectionery Hub
From the shiny, mint-rich exterior (the dragee part) to the chewy mild-mint pleasure that is the centre, Mentos are a burst of sweet freshness that is over too soon. If, like me, you can’t resist chewing, you discover that most of the mint flavour is in the coating, and slightly crunchy bits of it remain until the very end.
Mentos are apparently good for science experiments too. Drop one into a bottle of soft drink and see what happens (outside!)
I love Mentos, but have a couple of disadvantages to list. Firstly, you need two hands to open these individually wrapped sweets. Then the plastic sticks to you via static electricity. (On the other hand, these are great mints to share with strangers, like the stinky guy next to you at a concert!)
Also, curiously, there are five colours listed in the ingredients for a product that is pure white...
Arctic Mints @ The Confectionery Hub
Arctic Mints, strangely enough, are made in New Zealand. Perhaps they should be named Antarctic Mints? A very appealing aqua colour, they are from the boiled lolly camp and therefore a long sucker. They are a very mild flavoured mint.
Individually wrapped, they are great for sharing and will also survive an extended time lost in the depths of your handbag.
They have only a few ingredients, but one of these is Soy Lecithin, so the intolerant should beware.
There truly is a mint for every occasion at the Confectionery Hub!
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