Uncle Joe's Mint Balls, Dorning Street-Wigan - geograph

Uncle Joe's Mint Balls are

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

s produced by William Santus & Co. Ltd. in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England since 1898. Despite their name, the mints are not truly spherical but oblate spheroids. The ingredients of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls are pure

cane sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refine ...

, oil of

peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world.Euro+Med Plantba ...

and

cream of tartar Potassium bitartrate, also known as potassium hydrogen tartrate, with formula K C4 H5 O6, is a byproduct of winemaking. In cooking, it is known as cream of tartar. It is processed from the potassium acid salt of tartaric acid (a carboxylic ac ...

and are described on the tin as "suitable for vegans". As of 2011, 160,000 mint balls are made per day, which is around 35 million per year. The early mint balls were made by William Santus' wife, Ellen, before production moved to a factory near Wigan Wallgate railway station in 1919. The packaging, usually a sealed can, carries a picture of the mascot, a smiling man in a top hat.

In popular culture

*Singer/songwriter and humorist

Mike Harding Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist. Harding has also been a photographer, traveller, filmmaker and playwright. Early life and education Harding's ...

has a song called "Uncle Joe's Mint Balls" on his 1975 album ''Mrs. 'Ardin's Kid''. It also appeared as the B-side to his 1975 single "My Brother Sylveste". *The local rugby team,

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union followin ...

have a version of the song celebrating some of its legendary rugby players of the 1950s and 60s such as Billy Boston, Brian McTigue and

Eric Ashton Eric Ashton MBE (24 January 1935 – 20 March 2008) was an English World Cup winning professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s, and coached in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He played his whole top flight football c ...

that plays before some of its home games at the

DW Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...

. *The comic magazine '' Viz'' made a strip called 'Uncle Joe's Mint Balls' which was about

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, who was sometimes called 'Uncle Joe' by Western media, and his quest to show off his untarnished testicles to the world's press (such testicles would be known as 'mint balls' in the vernacular of Northern England, where the comic is printed.) *Oscar winning blockbuster 'As Good as it Gets' starring Helen Hunt and Jack Nicolson includes a scene with Uncle Joe's mint balls on the table.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
Brand name confectionery British confectionery Companies based in Wigan

In popular culture

See also

References

External links