Once upon a time, a little Italian candy maker, well, actually a big Italian candy maker (famous for their Nutella confection) began making tiny mints in a nifty little plastic case. Introduced to the U.S. market back in 1969, Tic Tac became a small wonder. I know Ferrero Rocher best for their almond roca, which I just adore.

Ferrero U.S.A., Inc. repositioned their little candies as low-calorie breath mints in 1980, and they soon grabbed the number one position in that market, which they still hold today.

Tic Tacs are hard little mints that come in several flavors, including fresh mint, cinnamon, spearmint, lime and orange. Each mint has only 1.9 calories, but just look at their size! I need at least three or four of them to know that I have a piece of candy in my mouth. In 1980 they had 1 ½ calories, but they recently increased the size of the mints.

The little plastic case has a tab in the lid that pops open but stays attached to the case. It is fairly easy to pop it open with your thumb, opening the case with one hand. Then you just pour out as many mints as you want, and then you can push it shut with your thumb.

The little plastic case keeps them clean and fresh, no matter how long they suffer inside my purse or my jeans pocket. Once in a while, the lid will come open in my purse and spill out all the mints, but usually they hold up just fine if I put the little plastic case into a smaller pouch of my purse to keep it from getting knocked around.

I like the orange flavor because it is different. The mint flavors sometimes bite too hard, making my mouth burn. The orange flavor ahs a nice citrus edge to it, with just a hint of mint. You are not supposed to bite into them, but I can’t help myself. I always do it.

These little mints are about a quarter inch long and an eighth of an inch wide, and rounded. The orange ones are orange, the fresh mint ones are white, the cinnamon ones are red, the spearmint ones are dark green and the lime ones are light green. There are also some tropical flavors, but they are not as widely available.

Each mint has just under half a gram of carbohydrates, no fat and no protein. The U.S, regulations allow manufacturers to list any product that has less than half a gram of sugar as zero sugar per serving. As a result, even though these mints are made of almost 100 percent sugar, they can list them as having zero sugar by defining one serving as one mint.

The ingredients are sugar, fructose, rice starch, dextrin, stabilizer (gum arabic), glazing agent (carnauba wax), and filling agent (magnesium stearate). They also have artificial flavors.

You get 36 Tic Tacs in a case, and the weight will come in between 15 and 18 grams.

Recommended with some reservations

these little mints are almost pure sugar, and the other ingredients are chemicals. Even so, I do like them.

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Thank you so much for reading my Epinion!

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This is an entry in the Best Little Write-Off Ever, hosted by Dianapinions:

http://www.epinions.com/content_5141209220/s_~na

Please join us!

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Ferrero has a web site at:

http://www.ferrerousa.com

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If you saw the movie Juno, then you know that it featured Tic Tacs.

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Recommended: Yes