York Peppermint Patty or Junior Mints? CHOOSE.

Ah mint. Refreshing, cool, sharp karate kick to the sinuses. Chocolate covered minty flavored items deliver this sensation to your taste buds in a pleasing number of ways. Be it the toothpaste taste, Altoids angry or subtle hint, covering and smothering with chocolate is the way to do it.

Which brings us to today’s showdown: York Peppermint Patty or Junior Mints?
Which of these giants of the minty chocolate candy world brings you to your knees?

Following in the footsteps of our previous Battle of the Butter Bars, here comes the breakdown:

Round #1: Packaging

Supposedly you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I say you can. It’s really easy actually. That’s the whole point of this round.

York attracts me with it’s silvery flashiness and promise of 70% less fat. However the calligraphic like writing reminds me of the New York Yankees. (That is bad.)

Junior Mints’ use of the color green makes me think of mint and the little picture of the candy tells me what’s inside. The tabbed closure also makes for convenience if I don’t eat all the little mints.

Winner: Junior Mints. I like the box.

Round #2: Appearance

York’s round dark chocolate patty beckons me to destroy it’s perfect shape with a bite. The serving size seems smaller than most bars, yet I paid the full price of a regular candy bar, and it is indeed smaller. I demand my .10cents back. Once the consuming process has begun, you can’t stop and feel compelled to finish it off.

Junior Mints have that glassy look from confectioner’s glaze and that slightly melted mint center that encourages me to continue popping them like Xanax and Red Bull. It’s easy to pour a pile of these little mints out and unconsciously consume them all.

Winner: Tie. Everyone is beatutiful!

Round #3: Taste

York is that mint kick that is sharp, yet refreshing. The dark chocolate coating is more bitter than most chocolate-mint pairings, but it’s not much more than a hint. The stiffness of the mint filling gives it a great chewy texture like Starburst but without the fruit.

Junior Mints are better than eating mints, due to their sugary sweet mint filling plus thin coating of dark chocolate. The chocolate is a more standard dark chocolate, not too bitter, not smooth. Biting one of the pieces in half is great fun, if anything to watch the gooey filling spill out.

Winner: Junior Mints. I could eat box after box in one sitting. I can only eat one York Patty in a sitting.

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Round #4: After Taste

York’s sharp mint and chocolate candy taste fades subtly and with elegance, allowing me move on to my next item of consumption.

Junior Mints stays with you much longer, lingering in your mouth, but after awhile, reminiscent of toothpaste, thus making consumption of popcorn or drinking any liquid a less pleasant experience.

Winner: York. No one likes an overstayed welcome.

After 4 rounds of competition, JUNIOR MINTS emerges as the champion in a 2-1 victory over York Peppermint Patties of the chocolate mint candy empire! Congratulations to Junior Mints. May your reign be long and minty and your movie theater patrons enjoy you immensely until the next Mike Myers movie.

Besides, Junior Mints has a Seinfeld episode named after it. How do you beat that?!