Looking for the name of a candy

quote:

Originally posted by RubyRose
Oh, yes, I remember them so distinctly. There was orange (both flavor and color), yellow (lemon), white (peppermint), green (spearmint) and pink (wintergreen). I'm pretty sure they had the word "pastel" in the name and were made by the same people who made very thin round chocolate covered mint patties. The boxes were the same size and used to be next to each other on the grocery store shelf.

Are you thinking of NECCO wafers?

no-they are not Necco,Necco are hard wafers-these were softer...

quote:

Originally posted by Big Ugly Mich

quote:

Originally posted by RubyRose
Oh, yes, I remember them so distinctly. There was orange (both flavor and color), yellow (lemon), white (peppermint), green (spearmint) and pink (wintergreen). I'm pretty sure they had the word "pastel" in the name and were made by the same people who made very thin round chocolate covered mint patties. The boxes were the same size and used to be next to each other on the grocery store shelf.

Are you thinking of NECCO wafers?

There aren't too many 8-page threads about a candy as easy to find as Necco wafers.

Hi Delamere-
Like those that have posted before me, I have been looking for years to find another source for those special mints that my aunt brought out for special meals. I remember the peppermint, orange, lemon, wintergreen, and spearmint flavors, as well as the sandwich with a thin layer of chocolate. They were much larger than a quarter, about the size of a half dollar and about an eighth inch thick.

I am from Pittsburgh. I recall my aunt saying she obtained them from Demmlings. I believe this was a candy store in the downtown area. I haven't been back in 20 years and can't locate the store through the telephone directory. Perhaps it has gone out of business.

I relocated to Chicago from Pgh. Marshall Fields downtown store had a candy kitchen that produced the full line of these mints. The five colors, the strong mint taste, the ridged side and the gritty feel when you bit into the smooth top and the wafer began to melt. They even had the chocolate sandwich versions.

I later relocated to Phoenix. My in-laws, knowing of my fondness for these wafers, would annually send a selection. About 10 years ago, they stopped. Marshall Fields stopped making them. I let a few years pass, thinking I could and would find another source. No dice. Finally, I called Marshall Fields' candy kitchen and was informed that their chief candy maker had died and had not recorded the recipe for this confection. That seemed to end the search.

Frankly, I think Marshall Fields (now Macy's) must have kept the recipe. This candy was always in their case. It may be that it deteriorated so quickly that it wasn't profitable to continue making it and suggesting an employee death was a quick way to end the discussion. Perhaps someone has an inside track into Macy's to re-ask the question.

Like the rest of you, I would like to find someone that still makes them the way we remember.

I ordered the orange pastel mints from Olivers last week. I just ordered orange since I'd tried all the other colors in my post Christmas taste-test frenzy. They arrived incredibly well packed and in excellent shape. Not a one stuck to another. But they don't seem right somehow. They *look* right and the texture is right but the taste isn't quite what I think I'm looking for. I think orange was my favorite as a kid but these aren't them. So far, Oliver's yellows have come closest to my memory.

I still need to order Ben& Bill's but not till after the next pay day. This is an expensive quest...

Vlad

quote:

Originally posted by Delamere"Question: What Ever Happened to Fannie Farmer?

Nothing. www.fanniemay.com/aboutus/ Yet another reason I love Chicago.

Or do you mean Frances Merritt Farmer (sp?), who invented cookbooks with well defined measurements in the recipes?

MerriMints were a favorite in our Williamstown, WV household in the 1960s. We purchased them at the Big Bear grocery store in Marietta, Ohio. My brother and I both associate these mints with our late father who bought MerriMints regularly. During the past decade we have periodically searched the Internet for information about MerriMints and have exhausted the conversation several times. Recently my brother resurrected the MerriMints discussion. That’s when we found this site with eight (now nine)pages of posts about MerriMints! Over the years, I pieced together some information that I think will be of interest to this group.

I believe this information is very reliable.

MerriMints were made by the Delson Candy Company of New York, New York. On the front of the green and white oblong box with the cellophane window, it said Delson MerriMints. They were round, semi-soft candy wafers, about 2-inch disks with ridges on the bottom of each mint. They were made in five flavors, peppermint, wintergreen, spearmint, lemon and orange, each flavor with its own color, white, pink, green, yellow and orange.

The mints were grouped by color and stood on end in a single row in the box, their edges resting on top of a piece of white corrugated confectionary paper that mimicked the corrugated ridges on the bottoms of the candies themselves. There was another piece of that corrugated, white, confectionary paper between each color group of mints. This company also made Delson Thin Mints, a chocolate covered mint patty, probably the item referred to in a recent post.

Delson Thin Mints (the chocolate covered patties) were the subject of litigation filed against Delson Candy by the US Government in what was only the government's fourth attempt to enforce 403D of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. Apparently, the government claimed the package looked like it contained more than it did because of the dividers between sections of candy. I do not know the outcome of that case but based on the similar packaging of Merrimints, I suspect the government failed to make its case (as it had in the previous three attempts to enforce the Act with three other manufacturers).

Anyway . . .

Delson Candy Company, based in New York, New York, was owned by Charles R. Adelson who was honored as the “Candy Industry Man of the Year” in 1952. Candy Industry Magazine created this award (a.k.a. the Kettle Award) in 1946 as a token recognition of the contribution for the “great or good” of the industry … The first recipient of this award was Russell Stover so this was not an insignificant honor.

Charles Adelson, Delson’s owner, had a daughter Ethel. In 1948 Ethel married Armin Schaper. Armin was a WWII decorated US Navy submarine bomber pilot. At some point Armin Schaper joined his brother-in-law, Richard Adelson, an engineer, and Charles Adelson's son, in the Delson candy business. Mr. Shaper was a sales/marketing and advertising talent. He was the recipient of the above mentioned Kettle Award in 1967. Mr. Schaper, deceased only since August 1, 2006, became Senior VP of the Sara Lee Corporation, after Sara Lee bought Delson Candy in 1968.

So, the original recipe was in the hands of the Sara Lee Corporation at that time. Reportedly, they subsequently sold the Delson interest to an unknown party.


For those who are experimenting with making their own . . . The following is not fact but rather just an opinion from someone who has been cooking for over 40 years.

I don’t think the commercially marketed MerriMints had any butter in them, or much fat at all for that matter.

I suspect these candies all got their flavor from flavoring oils which are several times stronger than extracts. Extracts are diluted, usually with alcohol. I find it interesting that while not all flavoring oils are natural, the five flavors of Merrimints are all available in a natural flavoring oil.

Do you remember that the orange and yellow ones were a bit creamier (or less grainy) than the rest? I suspect this is because citrus oil flavors are slightly less intense than mint oil flavors. It may require just a bit more citrus flavoring oil, than mint oil, to create the desired strength in taste. The additional amount of flavoring oil in the lemon and orange, and/or the citrus property of the oil, may slightly alter the texture of the candy. Just a thought . . .

Carol

wow Carol, what a great bit of research! Thanks for posting it. It's always nice to know we're not alone in our smal obsessions.

Have you tried any of the currently manufactured merrimint-like products. I'd be curious how you thought any of them compared.

Vlad

Hi Vlad,

Thanks for your comments. I guess not surprisingly, I have not had a response from Sara Lee. I thought they might at least acknowldege my inquiry.

I haven't ordered any of the mint candies suggested on this forum as yet. Do you have a personal recommendation? I thought I might order some to send to my equally obsessed brother as a gift.

While it was surprising to me that there were so many posts about MerriMints, I have been even more surprised by the results of a little experiment I have done locally.

Whenever I think of it, I ask whoever I am talking with if they remember MerriMints. I live in Indiana now and I wasn't sure if they were widely available here in the 60s. I'm sure now. Nearly everybody (age 50 and over)remembers MerriMints almost immediately at the mention of the name. Most react the same way. They smile and comment about the box or the ridges on the mints. Most people had forgotten all about them but seem to remember them fondly. I find it very interesting that many people have an individual they associate this candy with. They make comments like, "Oh, my grandmother loved MerriMints."

Maybe there is a bigger market out there than we might imagine for some confectioner to cater to our palates . . . and our memories.

Carol

i could be wrong,but on the vermont store web-there ia a box of mints in a long box called sherbert mints.Sounds like precisely what you are looking for...

quote:

Originally posted by annpeeples

i could be wrong,but on the vermont store web-there ia a box of mints in a long box called sherbert mints.Sounds like precisely what you are looking for...

They're not even close. The VCS sherbet mints are a mint flavored waxy white substance, similar to those white meltable candy making drops, as are the ones they sometimes stock at Cracker Barrel gift shops. They did carry ones similar to MerriMints but only for a short time and they are no longer available from VCS.

CORRECTION: Boy, am I glad to be able to edit my post. Thanks to SugarSyrup for pointing out that they're back and called Pastel Mints. Maybe they are just going to carry them during the holiday season.

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=31398&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=mint

I just got the Christmas 2006 Vermont Country Store catalogue and it offers their version of Merrimints for $19.95. Has anyone tried this recently?

Also .. X-Mas flavors of the French Creams are for sale again at Olivers

How about this?

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Covered-Peppermint-Patties/Detail.aspx

I may try these after making my traditional after Thanksgiving shepherd's pie.

Great thread!

At my house, Delson MerriMints were a Christmas stocking staple every year from as early as I can remember until they stopped being manufactured. My parents even put them in our Easter eggs! (often a bit crunchy by then... they must have bought them all at Christmas) A few years ago my brother found some mints made at a candy store in Southern Maine that were similar enough to bring back a flood of memories, although something was wrong with the spearmint, and there was the odd addition of cinnamon flavored mints. The last batch we got didn't have separators between the flavors, which led to some strange hybrid mints, particularly those that were adjacent to the cinnamon.

The people that remember this candy from Pittsburgh may have gotten them from a candy store called Bolan's which closed their last store in the last year. They made these wafers and also made a version similiar to a sandwich cookie with chocolate in between the wafers. Even though they closed their stores (I originally got them at their location in Station Square on a visit to Pittsburgh about 12 years ago), the owner still makes the wafers and the sandwich wafers for a candy store called The Chocolate Moose in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Just got some this past weekend while on a visit there!

I also found them once from a store in Wisconson called Niemann's. Here is a web link with a picture of the candy:

http://www.niemannscandies.com/specialoccasions/fondant.htm

Thre was one other place my wife found them online. She trying to remember the name of it.

I remember this candy from my childhood, but I could never remember from where. Most likely either from a store in Louisville, KY where I grew up (we had Shillitos there which someone else mentioned) or from Chicago where we went every summer to visit relatives.

To all of those interested in Delson MerriMints, I will try to shed some light. I am the grandson of Charles R. Adelson and the son of Richard Adelson, the last President of the Delson Candy Company. I grew up touring the factory with my Dad several times a year. My last tour was in about 1972 when I was 16. Sara Lee had bought out my Dad and Armin Schaper. The assembly line ladies (whom my sisters had helped many times over the years) were in tears as my Dad made his last tour.

Zimmerwman has done a good job. Armin Schaper just passed away this past September; his memorial service was on November 11th. My Dad is in his 80's now and frail, but competely with it when it comes to candy.

The company was the brainchild of Charles, who founded it in about 1936. Armin, husband of Ethel, was the Marketing and Sales guru in the 50's and 60's. My Dad was "the man behind the curtain," who - as a mechanical engineer - developed all of the machinery and processes that populated the candy making floor. The factory was at 342 West 14th Street, NYC, until the purchase by Consolidated Foods (Sara Lee) in about 1968, at which time the plant was moved to Englewood NJ. The 14th Street plant was in the heart of the meat packing district; I remember having to dodge the flying sides of beef as we made our way to the factory, which was one or two floors over the street. Vermin in the factory were kept under control by "rat cats;" 20 lb or so felines that had the run of the plant.

Sara Lee tried to continue making MerriMints through the early 70's and stopped, I believe, in about 1975. The company was offered back to my Dad and Armin Schaper in the late 70's but they had both moved on in their lives by then. Why did they stop making the mints? The move to New Jersey was probably a mistake. Union control of the factory floor in NJ was far more stringent than on the lower west side of NYC. The wage contracts and trucking fees, dictated by the unions, made the product marginally unprofitable.

The mints - as you remember - are fairly soft when fresh, so packing had to be done by hand and with a lot care and love - a very tough process to automate, so as wages rose, especially through the late 70's, it did not make a lot of sense as a nationally distibuted product.

The recipes for the mints are a trade secret, but you should realize that the formulas were written for industrial sized batches: "heat the kettle to xxx degrees, pour in 200 lbs of cane sugar, etc." I am not sure if recipes for small batches exist. but I will do some homework.

The Company also made Thin Mints, which were the subject of the packaging lawsuit; After Eight was the only real competiion for many years. They also imported Hacks Cough Drops from Britain, which died I believe along with the Sara Lee closure.

I continue to be flattered by the demand for MerriMints. Maybe some day............

Hi Delson,

Thanks so much for your post. I very much appreciate you sharing your first-hand information and memories of the production facility and the course of events.

It's nice to learn that a person associated with the original MerriMints is aware of how fondly they are remembered. Beyond the taste of the candy, the smooth tops, ridged bottoms, and specific thickness, of those consistently round little discs are certainly a big part of the appeal. I suspect the "man behind the curtain" had a lot to do with that aspect of the product.

Again, thanks.

Carol

Delson,

Thank you so much for adding your information to this thread. It's almost like Moses stopping in to talk about the Ten Commandments.

Please pass along our admiration to your father for a fine product that continues to live on in the memories of an entire generation.

RubyRose

I have been reading these post for over a year hoping someone will say they have found the magic mint but alas after tasting the ones from Olivers and VCS they just are not the same since they aren't the round ridged candies. My mother used to take us to Richs in downtown Atlanta and they were in a candy case and I got to pick which mints I wanted.Then I remember being able to buy them in the box with all the flavors. What a trip down memory lane to remember these.

I'm enjoying Oliver's Christmas French Creams .. they just arrived today ...

Delson,
Thanks so much for the wonderful post on the history of our beloved mints. I hope it is heartening to your father to know how he helped to make so many people happy.

Vlad

tlcatl -

The candies I got from Olivers were round, ridged, and remarkably like I remember merrimints being. The yellow came very very close to my memory and the others were pretty close although each off in its own way. Are you sure you got the right candies?

Vlad
p.s. I still intend to try Niemann's and Ben & Bill's once the holiday spending is over. This is an expensive hobby....

I was surprised to see so many people talking about those wonderful mints. I use to go to visit my Great Grandma and she always had a box of them. She would say she saved them just for our visit. I miss those times, those mints and her. I ya all ever do find the ones, let me know. I would like to purchase some. The ones that look most like the ones I remember look like the ones on this site: http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=31398&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=Pastel

~*Kentucky Wild Rice*~

The ones at Vermont Country Store are made by Olivers (http://www.oliverscandies.com/)and are very close to what I remember MerriMints being like.

Vlad

I bought the christmas ones from Olivers...I shud have waited and bought the creme mints which they apparently don't sell at Christmas. I don't know why I keep thinking of these at Christmas time! I'll try the others after the first of the year.

Those ones at [url]Olivers.com [/url]sure do look like the ones I remember. I want some!

tlcatl - the creme mints are good but they are not at all like MerriMints.

Well, I had the chance to try the version from the Chocolate Moose in Pittsburgh. When I called the shop, they were very surprised that a group existed that was seeking the elusive Merrimint. They don't produce the item but purchase it from a local guy.

The package arrived with all the mints ajumble. There was some tissue paper but not enough to keep several mints from cracking. They had both single and chocolate sandwiches. The size and texture are a match, they melted on the tongue. Peppermint and lemon were spot on as to taste and intensity. The orange was wrong. I think it wasn't strong enough. The same problem existed for the wintergreen. Cinnamon was a good match. All in all, worth trying, especially peppermint, lemon, and cinnamon with and without chocolate.

Thought you'd like to know.

I am so excited to know there are others out there searching for these elusive mints! I'm wondering if they are the same ones I am looking for. My mother used to buy them for baby and wedding showers because they looked so pretty on the table. She bought them somewhere in the Akron, Ohio area but she can't remember where. The mints I remember were smooth on one side and ridged on the other probably from where they were laid to harden once they left the mold. They were very minty and pastel colored but very sugary not smooth like chocolate. I have not ordered the ones from Lammes Candies but they look similar. Help! This childhood memory is making me nuts!