Polo mints (next to a ruler for scale).

Polo is a brand of different flavour mints which share the shape of a mint with a hole in them. The polo was first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948. The name ‘Polo’ is reportedly from the word ‘Polar’ and is to symbolize the cool and fresh feeling one gets from sucking a Polo. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 441 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Polo mints with a ruler for scale. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 441 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Polo mints with a ruler for scale. ...

History

It all began when Rowntree opened a tea and coffee shop in York in 1725. The Rowntree confectionery line gained popularity and in 1948 they launched the Polo Mint. It was similar to the Lifesavers that could be found in America and the British Navy Sweets but Rowntree attacked this problem with gusto and an aggressive marketing strategy and have since become known for their slogan and the shape of their mints, especially in the UK. Rowntrees is now a brand of Nestlé SA and is used to market a range of fruit gums and pastilles formerly owned by Rowntree Mackintosh. ... York shown within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state Constituent country Region Yorkshire and the Humber Ceremonial county North Yorkshire Admin HQ York City Centre Founded 71 City Status 71 Government  - Type Unitary Authority, City  - Governing body City of York Council  - Leadership: Leader & Executive  - Executive: Liberal Democrat  - MPs: Hugh Bayley (L) John... LifeSavers Five-Flavor Roll For the band see Lifesavers Underground LifeSavers is a traditional American brand of hard candy. ...

Polos have lasted through the years but in the meantime Rowntree underwent a couple of corporate changes. First, they merged with Mackintosh. Then in 1988 Nestle bought them out. Rowntrees is now a brand of Nestlé SA and is used to market a range of fruit gums and pastilles formerly owned by Rowntree Mackintosh. ... Mackintosh shop, Burlington Arcade, London. ... Nestlé S.A. or Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. (SWX:NESN), headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, is the worlds biggest food and beverage company. ...

Different Polos

Over the years Rowntree and Nestlé have come up with variations of the Original Polo mint. Some of these have been successes, whereas others have flopped. However, none have been as successful as the Original Polo mint. This article is about the company. ...

• Spearmint: This Polo had a strong spearmint flavor and aroma. The sweet had turquoise flecks on it.
• Fruit: This Polo had different fruit flavored Polos in one tube. These Polos were not mints but boiled fruits. Flavors included were strawberry, blackberry, orange, lemon, and lime.
• Sugar free: The sugar free version of the Original Polo.
• Polo Holes: Nestlé experimented with this variation for a while. It was the original Polo flavor in the shape of the hole from the middle of the sweet.
• Mini Strong Polo’s: These were tiny Polos (about 1 cm in diameter) with a strong minty flavor. They were packaged in a box shaped like a Polo Mint. They were also available in a not so successful orange flavor.
• Smoothies: These came in flavors such as blackcurrant, sunshine fruits and strawberry. They were creamy.
• Citrus: Lemon flavoured Polos
• Butter Mint Polos
• Cinnamon flavoured Polos
• Paan flavoured Polos (Previously available in India)

The mint

A Polo is approximately 1.9cm in diameter, 0.4cm deep and has a 0.8cm wide hole. The original Polo is white in colour with a hole in the middle, and the word 'POLO' embossed on both sides3 around the ring – hence the popular slogan –The Mint with the Hole.

The ingredients include: sugar, glucose syrup, modified starch, stearic acid (of vegetable origin), and mint oils. They are usually sucked until they are thin and spindly and crushed under the eater's teeth.

Packing and look

They are found in all major and minor newsagents, sweet shops, and supermarkets. Usually sold separately in tubes just about 10 cm tall containing 25 Polos, but can be found in multi-packs ranging from 3 to 6. The tube of Polos is tightly wrapped with silver foil backed plastic. A green and blue paper wrapper, with the word ‘POLO’, binds the foil wrapper. The O’s in ‘Polo’ are the images of the sweet. For the spearmint flavour, the paper wrapper is a darker green.

Glowing Polos

When Polos are crushed in a darkened room, triboluminescence can be seen.^{[citation needed]} This blue light is the result of friction between the sugar crystals when the Polos are broken. The sweet tends to crack or break along planes that are oppositely charged. When these positive and negative charges try to get back together, these charges ‘jump’ across the rift, like tiny lightning bolts. Triboluminescence is an optical phenomenon in which light is generated via the breaking of asymmetrical bonds in a crystal when that material is scratched, crushed, or rubbed. ...

Trademark Woes

In 1994 when the new Trade Marks Act was introduced in UK, Nestlé applied to register the shape of the Polo mint. The application featured a white, annular mint without any lettering. This application however was opposed by Kraft Food, the current owner of Lifesavers, and Mars UK because of the lack of distinctive character of the mint in question. Nestlé’s application was allowed to proceed if it agreed to narrow the description of the mint i.e. the dimensions of the mint were limited to the standard dimensions of the Polo mint and that it was limited to ‘mint flavoured compressed confectionery’.

Kraft Foods and Swizzels Matlow (owner of British Navy Sweets) have made similar applications for annular sweets bearing the mark LIFESAVERS or NAVY. Nestle has tried to oppose these trademark applications but have failed as the court ruled that customers would be able to distinguish between a Polo, a Lifesaver and a British Navy mint as all of them have their marks boldly and prominently embossed on the mint.

Marketing slogans/formula

• "The Mint,The Hole Mint and Nothing But The Mint!"
• "Polo, the mint with the hole"
• "HOLE-Y REFRESHING"
• "Life's a Hole Lot Cooler!"

Trivia

• On 26 July 2004 Nestlé lost its appeal against an earlier High Court rejection of the proposal "to register the sweets shape, without the word Polo embossed on it, as a trademark" .
• In 2004, Nestlé were making around 38 million Polos each day - meaning that 440 were consumed every second.
• There is a recurrent theme of polos in the BBC,BBC Three Comedy programme The Mighty Boosh.
• Polo mint has become rhyming slang for skint.
• A recent advertisement claims that Polos are now 13.063% mintier.

is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... In law, an appeal is a process for making a formal challenge to an official decision. ... Her Majestys High Court of Justice (known more simply as the High Court) is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in England and Wales: see Courts of England and Wales. ... Embossing is the process of creating a three-dimensional image or design in paper. ... “(TM)” redirects here. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the company. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... BBC Three, the successor to the similar BBC Choice, is a British television channel from the BBC broadcasting only on digital cable, terrestrial and satellite. ... The Mighty Boosh is a British cult comedy about two friends who go on magical adventures. ... Cockney rhyming slang is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London. ... Skint Records is a Brighton based dance music record label owned by Damien Harris, who releases records through the Midfield General pseudonym. ...

See also

• Nestlé
• Life Savers
• List of breath mints
• Toxic Waste (confectionery)

This article is about the company. ... A Life Savers Five-Flavor roll. ... This is a list of breath mints: Altoids Aqua Drops Bawls Mints Benoids Blitz Mints BreathSavers Certs Clorets Cyphoids Eclipse Fishermans Friend Flirt Hint Mints Hiyamints Ice Breakers Jila Lifesavers (Pep-o-Mint, Cryst-o-Mint, Wint-o-Green, etc. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ...

Other UK Sweets/mints/Candy

• Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles
• Smarties (Nestlé)
• Love Hearts

Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles are circular sweets formerly made by Rowntrees, who were later acquired by Nestlé. They appear in different colours, each with a different flavour, and are coated in sugar. ... Nestlé Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular in Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and other countries. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• Polo mints on Nestlé's website
• A legal case with a hole in the middle
• BBC article

Categories: Brand name snack foods

Polo Gallery