I first stumbled on Vermints one day while browsing Amazon’s candy section and was intrigued by them. For one thing, I had never heard of them before, and for another, they are touted as containing 100% all natural ingredients, no animal products, and they are vegan-friendly. Vermints come in a 1.41 oz “Altoidian” tin and they are in the usual shape (round disks – they call them pastilles), and they come in five flavors: PepperMint, WinterMint (Wintergreen), Chai (Tea), Cafe Express (Coffee), and GingerMint.
All flavors of the mints (except GingerMint) are all just a bit too sweet for me – this could be because they are sweetened with “Organic Powdered Evaporated Cane Juice” instead of the sugar or artificial sweeteners I am used to. I’m not sure. One of the interesting things about the PepperMint and WinterMint is that they contain actual leaves in them. It’s really weird to suck on a mint until it’s gone and to have small leaf bits and sprigs left in your mouth. 100% natural? There you go.
So let’s look at each individual flavor:
- PepperMint: The PepperMint has a really good peppermint flavor to it. It’s not “knock you off your feet” like a peppermint Altoid, but it’s got a nice kick to it. If Altoids are too strong for you, give these a whirl.
- WinterMint: The WinterMint has a good wintergreen flavor – it doesn’t knock you out like other mints (Altoids) … it’s more subtle and it’s quite enjoyable.
- Chai: Flavored with Fair Trade tea, Chai is a little peppery, a little cinnamony. The inside of the tin says it’s “Kashmiri Chai, Spiced Indian black tea”, though I don’t know tea so that tells me nothing. The taste reminds of of one of those Necco Wafer flavors that I don’t really like. I didn’t care for them at first, but the more I ate, the more they grew on me. They’re quite good unusual.
- Cafe Express: When you open the tin, a sweet coffee smell hits you, but unfortunately, the coffee flavor is just not strong enough. They are sweet with just a hint of coffee – I can’t recommend this flavor.
- GingerMint: I like the flavor of ginger in my lunch or dinner, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from a ginger-flavored candy. It’s not minty at all, but it’s very gingery, with a good spicy kick. A serious spicy kick. Like, “keep away from children” spicy. Good stuff – my favorite flavor of Vermint.
To summarize, GingerMint and Chai are quite tasty and unusual. PepperMint and WinterMint are good, and not nearly as strong as that “other” mint. The Cafe Express flavor was a serious letdown – just not enough coffee flavor.
Very nice candies for tea. :)
July 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am