Polo (confectionery)

Polo is a brand of breath mint whose defining feature is the hole in the middle. The peppermint flavoured Polo was developed by George Harris and first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948 at the Rowntree's Factory, York, and a range of flavours followed. Polo mints are sold by Nestlé, usually in a 34 g pack containing 23 mints.

History

Polo mints were developed by Rowntree's, after their war-time licence to manufacture Life Savers expired.[1][2] Polo fruits followed soon afterwards.[3][4]

Varieties

Rowntree's and Nestlé have come up with variations of the original Polo mint. Some of these have been successes, whereas others have failed. None has been as successful as the original Polo mint.

Before this, Rowntree had already experimented with different Polos in the 1980s. Polo Fruits were always available, but they briefly made:

Spearmint: "Cool look, cool taste." These Polos have a strong spearmint flavour and aroma. The original design of the sweets had turquoise flecks on them, and were mildly triboluminescent, but now are white.

Fruit: These are boiled sweets in several fruit flavours, all in one tube. Flavours include strawberry, blackcurrant, orange, lemon, and lime.

Polo Gummies: Fruit flavoured soft gummy sweets in the Polo shape.

Sugar free: Sugar free version of the original Polo containing sorbitol.

Mini Polos: Small Polos (about 0.5 cm in diameter) with a strong "Super Mint" minty flavour. They were packaged in a box shaped like a Polo Mint. They were also available in an Orange flavour.

Smoothies: These creamy sweets came in flavours such as blackcurrant, sunshine fruits and strawberry.

Citrus Sharp: Lemon and lime flavoured. Discontinued in the United Kingdom.

Butter Mint Polos: mint flavour butterscotch.

Strong/Extra Strong: "We like them strong, but silent." A rival for Trebor, these were very hot. Discontinued in the United Kingdom.

Ice: These came in a shiny blue wrapper, and had a cooler mint taste.

Paan flavoured currently available in India since 2020

Mint O Fruit: (available in Indonesia). These come in the following flavours: Raspberry Mint, Blackcurrant Mint, Peppermint, Lime Mint and Cherry Mint. These Polos come with the following slogan "Think Plong! Masih Ada Bolong!" These are also sold in the United Kingdom in some Poundland stores.

Holes: These were a plastic tube of small mints approximately, but not exactly, the size of the hole in a standard Polo mint.

Lemon: Similar to the citrus flavour that Nestlé put out around ten years later, but not identical.

Orange: similar to Lemon, but in an orange packet.

Tropical Fruit: included Banana, Melon, Coconut and others

Globes: small capsules filled with mint flavoured liquid in a small box with a flip lid

producttype	Breath mint
currentowner	Nestlé
country	United Kingdom
introduced	1948
markets	EMEA Southeast Asia South Asia
previousowners	Rowntree's
tagline	"The mint with the hole"
website	nestle.co.uk/polo

Polo (confectionery)

History

Varieties

Description

Packaging

Trademarks

Advertising

Association with horses

See also

External links

References