by Andrew H Brown

Created on: December 30, 2010

Ground beef at nine.

I don't care what time it is, I like a good plate of mince and tatties. Especially when the mince has some whole onions and chunks of carrots in it. I ... what?
- Oh, M-I-N-T-S.
Right, I'll start again.

Is there anybody out there who hasn't ever tasted an AFTER EIGHT MINT? Perhaps some of you have never even heard of them before, if so, this review is for you ..... oh, and welcome to planet Earth.

A8's come in a quite stylish, dark green box with a picture of a gold clock which seems to have stopped at 8.05 - very clever. A 300g box should cost under £2, but prices can vary enormously. It's also possible to buy a smaller, 80g box for 99p which is what we would normally buy. This doesn't exactly represent good value compared to the larger box, but I think we can just about afford to indulge in this level of extravagance.
BTW, when you were a kid, did you scoff your Mum's A8's and leave the sleeves in the packet? Do you recall the look horror on her face as she went to indulge in an after-dinner minty treat thinking the box was almost full, only to discover a box that was indeed full .... of paper and air?
- You do?
What a nasty piece of work you are then. Imagine devouring your dear old mother's one and only pleasure ... for shame.

AFTER EIGHT MINTS are made by NESTLÉ and I know many of you are inclined to boycott this company due to their failure to comply with WHO guidelines, but this review isn't a political rant and I'm not here to dictate, or debate, what you stick in your gob. Personally, I have no trust, or respect for any multi-national conglomerate - they're all a bunch of sharks. But I digress.

The cute little 80g box is a strange affair. The lid slips off and you're left with a concertina-type container in the bottom containing 10 wafer-thin mints all individually sheathed in a paper sleeve.
Wait a minute, 99p for 10 mints? Why that's almost 10p a go - these are NOT cheap!

Taking a good, long, hard sniff, I'm almost overwhelmed by the dark chocolate aroma - you can really smell the cocoa from these. I can't sense much in the way of mint though, perhaps because it's still sealed within the chocolate. Breaking one open, the mint aroma shines through, although it's still dominated by cocoa.
Is there any better aromatic combination than dark chocolate and ice-cool mint?
- Probably.

Anyway, who cares about the aroma, what we want to know is what do they taste like?

The mints are about 50mm square and a couple of mm

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