Wigan has one export that's outlasted two world wars, dozens of confectionery mergers and the entire 20th century: a hard, black-and-white peppermint sweet first boiled in a kitchen on a terraced street in 1898.
Made in a Wigan kitchen since 1898
Uncle Joe's Mint Balls started life when Ellen Santus made her first batch by hand in the kitchen of a small terraced house in Wigan. Her husband William sold them from market stalls in Wigan, Bolton and St Helens, and by 1908 the family had gone into partnership with William's brother-in-law, J.J. Fortune, building a small factory at 62 Kenyon Road in the shadow of the Rylands Cotton Mill. When Fortune retired to become a Justice of the Peace, the business was renamed William Santus & Co - the name it still trades under. Production moved to a new factory near Wigan Wallgate railway station in 1919, where the mints are still made.
Where the "Uncle Joe" name actually comes from
Despite decades of local folklore, Uncle Joe was never a real person. The name plays on a more universal idea: the favourite uncle who always seemed to arrive with a bag of sweets in his pocket. The company has leaned into the mystery rather than solving it - at one point running a search for a "21st-century Uncle Joe" as a marketing campaign, without ever naming an original.
The recipe hasn't changed
The ingredients list is famously short: pure cane sugar, oil of peppermint and cream of tartar, which stops the boiled sugar crystallising as it cools into the sweet's signature black-and-white swirl. That short ingredients list also means the mints are naturally suitable for vegans. As of the early 2010s, the Wigan factory was producing around 160,000 mint balls a day - roughly 35 million a year.
Wigan's sweet ambassador
The factory's illuminated rooftop sign has become a genuine local landmark, visible to anyone passing through Wigan on the West Coast Main Line. The mints are still owned and run by the Santus family's descendants, John and Antony Winnard - making it one of the few sweets on this list still made by the family that invented it. You'll find other classic British boiled sweets from the same era in our retro sweets collection.
Frequently asked questions
What are Uncle Joe's Mint Balls?
Uncle Joe's Mint Balls are hard black-and-white peppermint sweets made in Wigan, Greater Manchester, since 1898, using just pure cane sugar, oil of peppermint and cream of tartar - naturally suitable for vegans.
Why are they called "Uncle Joe's"?
The name isn't based on a real person. It's built around the idea of a favourite uncle who always brought sweets, and the company has kept the origin deliberately open rather than naming one.
Who makes Uncle Joe's Mint Balls today?
They're still made by William Santus & Co, the firm founded by Ellen and William Santus in 1898, now run by William's great-nephews John and Antony Winnard.