Junior Mints have been dropping a firm mint-fondant centre into a thin dark chocolate shell since 1949, and despite the name, size was never the point.
A food chemist's fondant trick
James Welch asked his in-house food chemist, Charles Vaughan, to invent a small, chocolate-covered fondant peppermint for his Cambridge, Massachusetts candy company. Vaughan — a pioneer of pan-chocolate coating — delivered the recipe in 1949, and it became one of two products he's still remembered for; the other is Sugar Babies, launched the same era.
Named after a Broadway play, not a small mint
The "Junior" in Junior Mints has nothing to do with the size of the candy. James Welch named it after Junior Miss, a Broadway adaptation of Sally Benson's New Yorker stories, which happened to be his favourite show when the candy went on sale in 1949.
Passed between three candy giants
- 1963 — Nabisco acquires the James O. Welch Company.
- 1988 — Nabisco sells the brand to Warner-Lambert.
- 1993 — Warner-Lambert sells Junior Mints to Tootsie Roll Industries, which still makes them today.
The episode that made it a pop-culture fixture
Junior Mints got an unexpected boost in 1993, when Seinfeld's episode "The Junior Mint" turned a dropped mint into an operating-theatre disaster. The gag stuck, and the candy has been associated with the show ever since — a rare case of a decades-old sweet getting a second wind from television.
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Frequently asked questions
Who invented Junior Mints?
Junior Mints were created in 1949 by food chemist Charles Vaughan for the James O. Welch Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts — the same chemist who also invented Sugar Babies.
Where does the name Junior Mints come from?
It's a pun on Junior Miss, a Broadway play adapted from Sally Benson's short stories, which was James Welch's favourite show at the time the candy launched.
Which US sitcom made Junior Mints famous beyond the candy aisle?
Seinfeld's 1993 episode "The Junior Mint" built an entire storyline around a mint falling into a patient during surgery, cementing the candy's pop-culture status.