Minties

‘Minties’ is a brand of confectionery originating in Australia and manufactured in both Australia and New Zealand for their respective markets.

They are a hard, white and chewy, rectangular mint-flavoured confection, which on chewing become so sticky that they are notorious for causing dental fillings to come out.

Minties are wrapped in waxed paper with a cartoon underneath the logo with the common caption “It’s moments like these you need Minties”.

Minties were invented in 1922 by James Noble Stedman, the son of Australia’s first confectioner, James Stedman. They were patented in 1926 and manufactured by Stedman-Henderson Sweets Limited at the “SweetAcres” factory at Rosebery, New South Wales.

In 1968, Stedman-Henderson was taken over by Hoadleys, which was itself acquired in 1971 by Rowntree’s. Nestlé took over the Rowntree’s brand globally in 1981.

They are now sold as “Allens Minties” (Nestlé acquired the Allens brand in 1985) and about 500 million are still consumed each year.

‘Spearmint Minties’ were briefly sold during the 1990s but these were discontinued in 1999.