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A lament for after-dinner mints

Along with the check, after dinner one night last week, the waiter brought over a few stick of gum to our table. It wasn't a subtle hint that our breath needed freshening, but the restaurants way of presenting diners with an "after dinner mint" of sorts. The gum, as it turned out, was melon flavored and, though it was excellent, made me wonder what ever happened to real after dinner mints.

For years and years, it seemed as though every single restaurant either had a small basket of mints at the host/hostess stand near the front door or delivered a few mints to the table with the bill. Mints gradually faded from popularity until they were only found at a handful or family-friendly restaurants, left in the face of declining popularity to appease children. Now, those restaurants seem to only grudgingly offer toothpicks. While the mints weren't necessarily candies of the highest order, I still enjoyed them, whether peppermint, cinnamon or, on occasion, chocolate. Can we get them back, please? Melon gum is lovely, but it just doesn't provide the same satisfying conclusion to a meal.

Filed Under: Ingredients, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: after dinner mints, candy, comfort food, dining, gum, melon, mint, mints, peppermints, restaurant, restaurants, starlight, starlight mints

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

Camille Bauman

9-19-2006 @7:16PM Camille Bauman said... My absolute favorite after dinner mint (or anytime) that I hardly ever see anymore is the licorice or anise flavor. They are hard to find in the candy counters, too. Why is that? Not everyone is a chocoholic.
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Baron

9-21-2006 @10:47AM Baron said... You should come for a visit down to the southern states. I honestly can't think of a time or place that I have eaten here in the past many years that they haven't either given us mints or had them available on the way out (granted, we tend to stay away from most mainstream chains like Applebees, Outback, etc.etc).
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2 Comments / 1 Pages

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