I wish our band did things like this in high school. Vestavia Hills High School attempted to break the Coke and Mentos fountain world record yesterday at their high school football stadium. The existing record was set on June 19, 2008, by 1,911 students in Latvia. Unfortunately they weren’t able to break the record. The event looked to be a fund raiser ($5 to participate) for the band’s trip to London later this year. They only had about 500 participants with two soda bottles apiece. You have to give it to them, it is definitely a unique way to raise money for their band trip. I would have totally participate in this when I was in high school band. Heck, if it weren’t 1500 miles away, I would have paid my $5 and participated in this attempt. You can see more photos of the attempt on the Band’s Facebook Page, and from The Birmingham News. Maybe I need to put together my own Mentos fountain world record attempt.

It looks like Mentos are doing pretty well in Great Britain. According to a recent press release, a new type called “Mentos Rainbow” will start to show up on shelves.

Mentos is now the largest brand within Perfetti Van Melle with an impressive brand awareness of 68% after being launched just 3 years ago.  In 2008 Mentos Mint was the fastest growing mint product in the UK confectionery market.

Building on the success of Mentos Fruit and Mint in the UK, Perfetti Van Melle are launching a limited edition Mentos Rainbow. Each roll will contain an exciting mix of 7 fruit flavours (grape, strawberry, orange, watermelon, pineapple, raspberry and apple) all made with real fruit juice.

What’s more, consumers are guaranteed to get two chews of each flavour in every pack.

Is there anyone going to the UK any time soon who can pick me up a roll or two?

Sometime over the past few weeks, Mentos has updated their website. They’ve got a much more interactive site now. It’s much improved over the one they’ve been limping away with for the past serveral years. The new site ads a full-screen video background of their commercials, and brings everything into a much more consistent package. The content hasn’t changed that much from previous designs, with the exception of updated media from their new TV campaigns. They did remove the Mentos store though. This had probably been planned for a while, since I’d noticed the store has been selling less and less merchandise. I’ll still miss it, since it was one constant place you could order some of the rare flavors not normally available in the US. Doubly sad is that I never got around to buying that Mentos wristwatch that they sold… oh well. Minus the loss of the store, I think the new site is a definite improvement.

Some new Mentos arrived in my mailbox the other day from my aunt and uncle (they’re now Mentos Ambassadors BTW). They send a couple 4-packs from France. One was a flavor I’ve had before, Soft Fruit (fruits rouges). The other was a new flavor I’ve not seen before, Fresh Cola. I’m always excited to get rare Mentos, but am especially excited when they are flavors I’ve never seen before. After a few photos, I opened up the fresh cola package and gave it a  try. The color of these candies is definitely brown (even though the photos make it look a bit orange). It’s a color of Mentos I’ve not ever seen. They are an interesting flavor to say the least. I don’t think I’d say it tastes like Coke or Pepsi, or even RC Cola. It tastes like… artificial cola flavor, like they tried really hard to make it taste like cola, but keep it sweet. I think cola is one of those awkward flavors that is hard to duplicate outside of the actual (liquid) thing. It is a sweet flavor, but also a bit tangy. I’m not sure if the tanginess is to try and mimic fizz, but it definitely isn’t a smooth flavor like the mint variations. There is virtually no aftertaste. These remind me a lot of the gummi cola bottles I had as a kid. There must be only one flavor our there for cola candy. Fresh Cola Mentos fits into the same category as the licorice flavored variety. They are definitely an acquired taste (which is probably why they aren’t sold in the US). So they at the bottom of the Mentos scale, but even the very last player on the Mentos scale is still head and tails above all other candy… c’mon they’re Mentos, the candy of the gods!

Ever wonder what would happen if you tried the infamous Diet Coke and Mentos experiment in Zero G? Robert Woodhead decided to take that experiment to the skies… literally. He packed up an experiment kit (Mentos, Diet Coke, containment bag) and took off in a special ZeroG plane to get weightless.

the hypothesis that we wanted to test was that convection of the soda was an important part of the whole reaction; under normal gravity, bubbles formed around the mentos rise up through the soda, allowing more soda to come in contact with the candy, and thus more bubbles form. However, in microgravity, there’s no “up”, so any bubbles that form will just stay near the mento, and will in fact keep new cola from reaching it.

What is a little bit like Mortal Kombat but involves mentos and kissing instead of fighting? If you said Mentos Kissfight, you guessed correctly! Mentos seems to be really pushing the kissability after eating their candies lately. Given their Kiss Cam web game, and the latest TV commercial for Mentos gum. The Kissfight game involves running around and trying to kiss your opponent (is that the best term here?) faster than they can kiss you. Picking up falling Mentos gives you super kiss powers. Give it a try, and see if you can become a Kissfight champion!

Turiba University Sets a new world record with 1911 simultaneous Diet Coke and Mentos fountains. This breaks the previous record set by 1360 Belgium students last April.

There seems to be a lot of Mentos news today! I just ran across a site called Mentos KissCam (I’m guessing from Europe) where you can (if you have a webcam) kiss a guy or gal after popping a Mentos Pure Fresh (a flavor not available in the US). Turn on your web cam and give it a try. (Maybe NSFW?)

“The freshest experience of your life”

“The film that is on everyone’s lips”

This is easily the most beautiful Mentos and Diet Coke explosion I’ve ever seen (thanks for the heads up Kevin!)

I just received a new shipment of Mentos from Japan. Mentos Ambassador Roth comes through again with a new flavor to add to the collection. The flavor is “Ume,” which they tell me means “Japanese Plum.” The Mentos themselves are a very light orange color (unfortunately not the purple/green mix color on the package). They do taste like plum. They have a subtle plum flavor which is good. I think that a strong flavor might be a bit overpowering. They have a bit of a tangy aftertaste.

Breaking Mentos News: A world record was broken recently by 1360 Belgium students all creating a Diet Coke and Mentos fountain at the same time. The previous record was set in Cape Girardeau, with 973 fountains last October.

Video from BBC News

My dad (now a newly ‘minted’ Mentos Ambassador) found a new Mentos product right here in the US (normally the new crazy flavors come from over seas). He found some packs of Mentos Gum in a gas station in Iowa. I’ve had Mentos gum before. They used to make a product called “Mentos New Charge Gum,” but I haven’t seen if for quite a while. I even remember an even older Mentos gum that I bought (a case of) back in college. This product is the first time I’ve seen fruit flavored gum from them in the US. The packs I was provided were, mint, spearmint, and red fruit-lime. The mint flavors just taste minty like normal strong-mint gums. The red fruit-lime is interesting though, not only as the first fruit gum from Mentos, but because it has a soft liquid center. The gum part is red fruit, consisting of strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry with the liquid center making up the lime portion of the gum. I have to admit, it is pretty good (but I’m probably biased)!

I received some new Mentos the other night from a few new Mentos Ambassadors (Ambassador Kilgore and Ambassador Brown). These Mentos came from China, so I’m going to have to guess on some of the flavors (because I don’t speak or read Chinese). One was a double-wrapped roll of lime mint which I have seen before. The other two were unique to my collection. One was a small box with a picture of a lime, an orange, and a grapefruit on the front with some some Chinese writing. I’m guessing these are just regular size Mentos in a smaller box. The last one was probably the most unique. It arrived in what looked like a vitamin jar. I think these one are gum with some sort of gooey center judging by the picture on the front. Again, it is hard to tell because there isn’t any english writing on these.

Another shipment of Japanese Mentos arrived a few weeks ago from Mentos Ambassador Roth (they’re really working their way up the Mentos Ambassador chain!). The package included four rolls both with “N’Cream” written in the area where you usually see the flavor printed. They don’t really say a fruit on them, but the red one has a picture of a strawberry, and the green one has what I think it a picture of a melon. I haven’t tried either of these yet, but plan on giving one a try soon. My guess is they taste similar to the yogurt and fruit flavors I’ve tried before. Anyway, kudos to Mentos Ambassador Roth for finding another untried flavor!

Another Mentos shipment has arrived safely from China. Mentos Ambassador Stoll has done it again. The Mentos flavors themselves aren’t that unique. Two of the three flavors can be found in the U.S. (mint and fruit). The third flavor (Lime-mint) is a little more special. The thing that makes this shipment different, is first, the wrappers. You only see the double-wrapper on Sour Mentos rolls here in the U.S. I’ve never really been sure why that was. Maybe the the sour flavor needs an air-tight package to stay fresh (the texture on those Mentos is a little different than your standard rolls). Anyway, all three of these rolls have the double-wrapper. Maybe the atmospheric conditions in China make the extra wrapper necessary… who knows! The other thing that makes these Mentos special is that they are holy. Yes, that’s right. Mentos Ambassador Stoll had these Mentos blessed by the Dalai Lama. They arrived air-mail from China wrapped in a lovely Tibetan prayer scarf (the white cloth underneath the rolls). I frankly can’t think of anything better to bless than rolls of Mentos, the sweet sweet candy of the gods.