Polo is a brand of breath mint whose defining feature is the hole in the middle. The peppermint flavoured Polo was developed by George Harris and first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948 at the Rowntree's Factory, York, and a range of flavours followed. Polo mints are sold by Nestlé, usually in a pack containing 23 mints.
Polo mints were developed by Rowntree's, after their war-time licence to manufacture Life Savers expired. Polo fruits followed soon afterwards. Company legend is that the name is derived from 'polar' and its implied cool freshness.
Rowntree's and Nestlé have come up with variations of the original Polo mint. Some of these have been successes, whereas others have failed. None has been as successful as the original Polo mint.
Before this, Rowntree had already experimented with different Polos in the 1980s. Polo Fruits were always available, but they briefly made:
A Polo is approximately in diameter and thick, with a -wide hole. The original Polo is white in colour with a hole in the middle, and the word 'POLO' embossed twice on one flat side of the ring, hence the popular slogan The Mint with the Hole. Ingredients of the main variety include sugar, glucose syrup, modified starch, stearic acid (of vegetable origin) and mint oils.
Polos are usually sold in individual packs of 23 mints, which measure about tall. The tube of Polos is tightly wrapped with aluminium foil backed paper. A green and blue paper wrapper, with the word 'POLO', binds the foil wrapper, with the Os in 'Polo' represented by images of the sweet. For the spearmint flavour, the paper wrapper is turquoise in colour, and the Extra Strong flavour is in a black paper wrapper.
When the Trade Marks Act 1994 was introduced in the United Kingdom, Nestlé applied to register the shape of the Polo mint. The application featured a white, annular mint without any lettering. This application was opposed by Kraft Foods, owner of Life Savers, and Mars UK, because of the lack of distinctive character of the mint.
Nestlé's application was allowed to proceed if it agreed to narrow the description of the mint i.e. the dimensions of the mint were limited to the standard dimensions of the Polo mint and that it was limited to "mint flavoured compressed confectionery".
Kraft Foods made a similar applications for annular sweets e.g. bearing the mark LIFESAVERS. Nestlé has tried to oppose this trademark application but failed as the court ruled that customers would be able to distinguish between a Polo and a Lifesaver as both have their marks boldly and prominently embossed on the mint.
During the 1980s, Peter Sallis provided the voiceover for television advertisements. With the launch of the spearmint variety, a new television campaign featured a voiceover by Danny John-Jules, using a voice similar to the one he employed as the Cat on Red Dwarf.
In 1995, the company launched an advertising campaign produced by Aardman Animations, which showed animated Polos on a factory production line. In one, a scared Polo without a hole attempts to escape, but is restrained by the hole punching machinery. Polo experimented with other forms of advertising in the end of the 1990s. In 1998, they collaborated with PolyGram for a compilation album, Cool Grooves, which reached No. 12 in the UK Compilation Chart on 5 September that year.
Horses enjoy the taste of peppermint. As such peppermint sweets, including polo mints are given to horses as treats. At the launch event of author Jilly Cooper's 2016 novel Mount! guests were provided with polo mints to give to a white stallion who was present as treats.