Oral fixation and style fixation combine in these hip new personal mints. Here, Night Light, or Chai flavored mints, are stamped with the word ON—but there’s enough going on in these great-tasting mints to keep you alert without the reminder.
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| KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE™. |
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April 2005
Updated April 2007
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Oral Fixation Mints
A New Oral Fixation, Personally Minted
CAPSULE REPORT: Gifts, party favors, or the sheer enjoyment of a sophisticated gourmet mint: We love Oral Fixation Mints. While the biggest seller is Mojito, we have an affection for Night Light, a chai-flavored mint. But with 10 flavors, this line, certified kosher, has something for everyone. The biggest challenge is what to do with the pile-up of clever tins.
There’s never been a better time to have an oral fixation...because you’ll be the envy of everyone in the room when you pull out your tin of Oral Fixation Mints.
In a sea of freebie company logo tins of generic mints and the ubiquitous Altoids®, Oral Fixation’s mostly sugar-free line of personal mints has mints about which one could develop…an oral fixation.
The company was started by three friends who graduated from college just three years ago, and they’re doing what many far more seasoned professionals aren’t: producing a top quality, truly differentiated product. They’ve done it all right, and we’re glad they're in the business.
Mints As Art
The whole concept begs to win design awards (we can only bestow THE NIBBLE™ Editors’ Favorite Personal Mint Award). There are six flavors, each of which has a concept that is executed in a different witty way on the tin, the protective wax paper, the mint surface, and in some cases, the name itself. For example:
- 7 Deadly Cinnamon has a Garden of Eden/Original Sin theme. Two snakes flank the eaten apple core on the tin (at right). The inner wax paper sheet is printed with a bug-eyed Nostradamus predicting that in the year 2093, Oral Fixations will become the 8th deadly sin. The cinnamon mints are engraved with the numeral 7.
- The Sugar Free Tibet tin has a yak Mount Everest flanked by Tibetan prayer flags. The green wintergreen mints are bear the word Free—and 10% of all proceeds are contributed toward finding a non-violent solution to the Chinese-Tibetan conflict.
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7 Deadly Cinnamon: So much better than those other cinnamon mints. |
We applaud social responsibility and hope for a free Tibet. But, we’re now moving away from serious because this product is so fun, so tongue-in-cheek (or is that mint-in-cheek?).
Oral Fixation Flavors
The only serious decision should be which of the tempting flavors to start with. We liked them all, but here are our favorites, which earned their ranking based on flavor rarity and the fact that we think the chai in Night Light is a sublime marriage of spice and mint:
- Antioximints (Green Tea Mints)
- Classical Peppermint (Sugarless Strong Peppermint)
- Fabulous Fruit (Fruity Tropical Mints)
- Jasmints (Herbal Jasmine Mint)
- Mojito Mint (Sugarless Lime Mint Cocktail and the company’s best seller)
- Mimosa Mint (Orange Mint Cocktails)
- Night Light (Caffeinated Chai Mint—the only flavor with sugar [brown], needed to achieve the chai flavor)
- 7 Deadly Cinnamon (Sugarless Hot Cinnamon)
- Spare Mint (Sugarless Spearmint)
- Sugar Free Tibet (Sugarless Wintergreen)
A cascade of color: from left to right, Antioximints, Mimosa Mint, Fabulous Fruit and Jasmints. |
The mints are hand-pressed using a World War II-era tableting machine. For all the fun and games that surround them, they speak “quality” and “cachet” from the first glance.
The Tin Challenge
These arty brushed metal tins were purposely sized to hold credit cards and business cards or carry mad money. Although we are avid recyclers, we wonder if the hip and chic consumers of these glam mints cares that much...or perhaps we spend too much time in expensive gift and stationery stores and don’t understand how many college students, who might be so disposed, are customers.
We do think the company should have an ongoing contest on its website to collect the best ideas for recycling. We offer the prosaic: business cards, credit cards, and aspirin—but if prizes are to be had, we will step up our game. Thus, instead of the prize in the Cracker Jack® box, the mint box itself is the prize: you just have to figure out what to do with it.
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 Have a mojito? Enjoy all the Mojito Mints you want and drive home with impunity.
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In addition to making Oral Fixation your personal mints, think of them as party favors and stocking stuffers. The 6-pack makes a nice gift for almost anyone—it’s small and easy to keep on hand in the gift drawer for when you need to grab and go. It’s especially good for teenagers—it is much more cool than a gift certificate for a CD.
In the works, but not yet available, is the ability to engrave the mints with your own image or logo and have custom flavors. And then...will the wedding and bar mitzvah floodgates open.
Andy Warhol prophesied that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Had he only seen that everyone could be famous on an Oral Fixation mint.
ORAL FIXATION MINTS
Fashionable Flavored Mints
Certified kosher by KSA
- Oral Fixation 6-Pack
$15.00
- Custom Box, 12 Tins
Your choice of flavors
$30.00
Purchase online at OralFix.com
Or telephone 1. 609.466.3297.
Shipping additional. Prices and flavor availability are verified at publication but are subject to change.
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From left to right: 7 Deadly Cinnamon, Sugar Free Tibet,
Mojito Mint, Classic Peppermint, Night Light (Chai), and
Spare Mint (Spearmint).
The Oral Fixation 6-Pack is a great gift: one flavor of each in an open-face box.
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