I’ve told this sad tale before on this board. My best friend and I had to ride the bus for a really long time after school every day, and she was a Girl Scout. One day, we decided to pass the time by eating a box of Thin Mints. The bus and the Thin Mints combined to create a rather dramatic homecoming when I finally got there. “Mom! I’m home and I don’t feel so good” blaeeaaaahhhhggg
I haven’t been able to eat mint since. That was… I think about 35 years ago. 
I miss the old vanilla-mint.
I also notice that kaopectate has shifted from a vanilla mint to straight vanilla, and to some chemical instead of kaolin and pectin. My poor digestive tract has issues with being chemically suppressed, instead of the effect lasting a few hours/24 hours, it can go to up to a week so I have to treat kaopectate like it was immodium now.
And Japan has some funky toothpaste flavors. I have been debating getting the full bunch of flavors, except it is expensive. All 4 sets of 7 flavors [nonfluoridated] would run me $200 plus shipping and handling.
Actually most of the small company toothpastes are made by contract by Sheffield Labs, one of our roomies used to work there. At one point in time we didn’t have to buy toothpaste for about 5 years because he would bring home ‘factory seconds’ - misprinted labels and the like. There were some of the more expensive small brands too [on specifically came in a morning and evening formulary.
] I know at that point in time Tom’s was made by Sheffield on contract.
An excerpt from the Power of Habit:
"Unlike other toothpastes of that period, Pepsodent contained citric acid, as well as doses of mint oil and other relatively exotic chemicals. Pepsodent’s inventor had used those ingredients to make his toothpaste taste minty and to make sure the paste wouldn’t become gluey as it sat on shelves.
But those chemicals had another, unanticipated effect as well: They’re irritants that create a tingling sensation on the tongue and gums.
When researchers at competing companies started interviewing customers, they found that people said that if they forgot to use Pepsodent, they realized their mistake because they missed that cool, tingling sensation in their mouths. They expected—they craved—that slight irritation. If it wasn’t there, their mouths didn’t feel clean."
That’s why the mint flavour. Also, shampoos have foaming action for basically the same reason. You expect the foam to “carry off” the dirt even though it really has no purpose. You expect it to be there, so mfrs put a foaming agent in.
I love the flavour of wintergreen, personally. I also like the spark you get from Wint-O-green Lifesavers.
I hate wintergreen, because that is the traditional flavor of Pepto-Bismol, and so I associate wintergreen with feeling nauseated. Fortunately, I’ve never had to use wintergreen toothpaste.
I like spearmint or cinnamon, though I’m really not too picky. A lot of toothpastes and mouthwashes are labeled with flavors such as “clean mint” or “icy mint” or “fresh mint” and they usually taste vaguely like spearmint or peppermint.
Well, your post caused me to Google, and apparently I’m not the only one who finds the irritation too much. Also, it’s not psychological – seems to be the SLS.
So some Tom’s of Maine will be added to my toothpaste stock, as it doesn’t have the irritants.
I used to love one company’s cinnamon flavor toothpaste…can’t find it now.
I’ve been avoiding Crest for decades because I hate wintergreen so much. Maybe I can be less cautious now. And I agree that the greenish grey color of Crest was also off putting.
Spitting this over to the Great Sink of General Questions.
???
Pepto Bismol is mainly Bismuth subsalicylate. That has some relation to methyl salicylate, but not much. Aspirin is about as closely related, and it doesn’t taste like wintergreen.
I grew up with Pepto-Bismol, and I don’t think it tastes like wintergreen at ALL>
You need to get hold of a pack of wintergreen life savers and refresh your memory.
“This original formula is a medium pink color with a strong wintergreen or cherry flavor.”
Also, from their official site:
http://www.pepto-bismol.com/products/liquid/original
“with just a hint of a fresh wintergreen taste.”
I think this is a good point. I once tried simply dabbing my teeth with US wintergreen-flavored toothpaste without actually brushing and that largely satiated the “need to brush!” feeling of having an unclean mouth. So it makes sense that although a coffee-flavored toothpaste would likely be as effective in a dental sense as anything else on the shelf, it would not sell as well because it wouldn’t really “satisfy” people who have used Crest and Colgate all their life.
That might be the claim, buit it never tasted like wintergreen to me. I re-iterate, get some wintogreen life savers.
I have. They taste like Pepto-Bismol has always tasted to me. See my cites above.
I don’t need your cites. Pepto Bismol does not, and never has tasted like wintergreen to me.
I note the official site says “a hint of wintergreen”, which doesn’t support it tasting like wintergreen – just that the note of the flavor is in there.
I’d love to find a toothpaste that didn’t leave that “minty fresh” aftertaste. When I’m done brushing & rinsing a bit I shouldn’t taste anything. Certainly I should not still be having mint flavored soap sloshing around in there an hour later.
Perhaps we should note that not all flavors/chemicals taste the same to all people, and take Tangent at her word that it tastes the same to her, while we take you at your word that it does not taste the same to you.
This wiki on Toothpaste Brands unfortunately mixes live and defunct items like failing teeth in a jaw, making it difficult to decide who owns what under the Iron Law of Monopoly; however some of the brand names are amusing.
[ There’s one of those gears grinding backwards moments with Colgate:
Colgate – marketed by Colgate-Palmolive, it is the first toothpaste in a collapsible tube, introduced in 1896, when it had previously been sold in glass jars since 1873
When in the wiki on Toothpaste: * In 1880, Doctor Washington Sheffield of New London, CT manufactured toothpaste into a collapsible tube, Dr. Sheffield’s Creme Dentifrice.* ]
Apparently the ancient Greeks had toothpaste of a sort, although I have no doubt the Chinese and the Islamics will claim precedence. They usually do.
Ignoring non-European names — apart from the Japanese [ The Mighty ] *DENTOR !!! *
Chlorodont — possibly a name in Gregory of Tours
Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste — produced under the nazis, naturlich
Gleem — kind of insinuating
[ Viva ] Ipana — ‘The famous Disney-created mascot named Bucky Beaver joined the Ipana marketing efforts in the 1950s’. Famous ?
Kalodont [ **The Conqueror ** ] — a series of epics Robert E Howard shoved away in a drawer as too badly written to publish
Kolynos — the philosopher-detective
Signal White Now Men — ‘* the first whitening toothpaste designed especially for men, produced by The Unilever company*’ For MEN !. No-one can imagine why this name might be problematic outside the earlier Sarf Efrica, but it debuted this year in France, not Harlem.
Stomatol [ The Destroyer ]
Still, apart from the horror of mint, I am reminded that as a child dentists offices smelt of a distinctive scent I’ve never had replicated — except with some weird little circular candy rings, maybe 2mm wide, that strung like beads in many colours at the same period — maybe it was some disinfectant, maybe some chemical used back then by dentists, but really was strange. The tragedy of scent past is there is no way to describe it.
It’s the only flavor I like. Mint hurts my mouth. Fennel is such an unpopular flavor that I have to order it online (I prefer Tom’s of Maine, but Nature’s Gate makes an acceptable anise flavor).
But I like everything fennel and anise. I still graze on tender fennel stems growing along the road, as I did when I was a child. And love anise Christmas cookies.
Plus, the freakin’ maker of the product says it tastes like wintergreen!
And I’m a “he.” 
My cousin the dentist suggested I brush with Xylitol, as it helps prevent tartar. The flavor is sweet, of course, but not minty. There’s no fluoride in it, which may be more of an issue for kids; our tap water is fluoridated and I also do brush with Sensodyne sometimes (minty, but the flavor isn’t an issue for me).
Unless I missed it being mentioned upthread, there is or used to be cinnamon-flavored Toms, which might help your daughter, SciFiSam, don’t know if that would help.