Hey, Dessert Lovers!
What kind of a Dessert Lover are you? Do you love combining flavor favorites? Do you have one go-to ice cream flavor that never fails? Are you hopelessly addicted to Andes Chocolates? Yes?! Then get ready to celebrate ‘cause it’s Chocolate Mint Day! Break out the candies, cake, and ice cream!
Surprisingly, there are some weirdos out there whose taste buds actually dislike the way Chocolate Mint tastes, but for the most part, people generally love Chocolate Mint. They’ve been mixing the two since the late 18th Century.
After 1776, when the United States declared its independence and became its own country, British merchants had to find other things to tax and they made a lot of money off chocolate. While the rest of the world loved chocolate, the people of Britain didn’t enjoy straight chocolate very much. They wanted something less bitter. So they mixed it with spices like vanilla, cinnamon, honey, and…eventually…mint!
There’s just something amazing about that almost stinging coool taste of a Chocolate Mint treat. Mint is so cool, it even spawned its own slang to mean cool, as in: “Is that a Chocolate Mint Cake for dessert? MINT!”
Tragically, my recollections are too vivid and too many of my family’s Christmas tradition in which we would enjoy cookies and pie along with a side of ice cream at my grandfather’s house. We always got two flavors of ice cream—obligatory Vanilla and, of course, Mint Chocolate Chip.
To my repeated misfortune (being the slow-eater that I am), I was always the last to get my cookies and ice cream. And I was always stuck with boring ol’ Vanilla. My family had already devoured the Mint Chocolate Chip.
Don’t let what used to happen to me happen to you on a day like today. Get yourself some Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, get some Andes Mints, and get some York Peppermint Patties and have yourself a happy Chocolate Mint Day!
- John