A Japanese Beer Company Makes the Strongest Breath Mints I’ve Ever Tried
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As a casual — but opinionated — connoisseur of breath mints, I’ve tried many of the usual grocery-store kind, and found them all lacking. From Life Savers to Tic Tacs, Icebreakers to Listerine Cool Mint Strips, and various Altoids flavors, none has ever felt like it was actually doing its job. Eventually, I settled on Altoids Smalls, and even though these were the strongest mints among those, I always needed more than one for them to have any lasting effect on freshening my breath.
Then, one day, my brother handed me a tiny packet of mints he found at the New Jersey branch of Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket. He had picked them up based on the “Cold Smash” name and the slim package design — smaller than a credit card and about the same thickness as the iPhone Air — which he thought I’d also appreciate. It was then that I learned that Asahi, a Japanese company most known for its beer, also makes the best breath mints.
The first time I tried them, I thought they were extremely strong — maybe eventoostrong — but over time, I’ve gotten used to them, and now nothing else comes even close to the refreshing, icy coolness these deliver. It’s the closest you can get to that feeling of having just brushed your teeth. The mints don’t leave any weird artificial aftertaste, either. They come in different flavors — like “shiny pink,” lemon, and “refresh blue” — but I have yet to try any since the Cold Smash is justsogood. My wife swears by them now, too, and we’re constantly reordering more.
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Asahi Mintia Cold Smash (10-Pack)
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