# Wintergreen flavor **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445 "2009-11-05T17:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/1 "2009-11-05T17:56:11Z")
I love Wintergreen Life Savers. They have the taste of wintergreen. I’ve tasted real wintergreen, but the main ingredient is methyl salicylate, also known as Oil of Wintergreen. I’ve used this stuff, which used to be easy to obtain at drug stores (It has a high index of refraction and large dispersion, making it optically interesting), but I’ve also made it. It’s easy to do – crush an aspirin, pour methyl alcohol over it, and heat over a bunsen burner or alcohol lamp. Pretty soon the air is filled with the characteristic scent of wintergreen. I haven’t tasted the methyl salicylate I’ve made or bought, but the smell coincides perfectly with the flavor of wintergreen, or of wintergreen life savers. So why is it that most other wintergreen candies _don’t_ taste or smell like this? Most of the lesser brands (which seem to be all most of the vending machines I encounter) say “wintergreen” on them, but aren’t even an approximation of true wintergreen. Even Altoids Wintergreen doesn’t taste anything like true wintergreen/methyl salicylate. It tastes like…I don’t know _what_ it tastes like. It’s not as if real wintergreen flavoring is hard to get or toxic or expensive. So why do they do it/ And what _is_ that taste they use? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/2 "2009-11-05T18:07:06Z")
Nitpick: Lifesavers’ trademark name for the flavor being asked about is Wint-O-Green. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/3 "2009-11-05T18:52:33Z")
I don’t even try the other brands any more. I do like the pink ones, and sometimes buy them, but usually it is LifeSavers or nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/4 "2009-11-05T18:57:47Z")
Maybe I just don’t have a very discerning palate, but I adore both Lifesaver and Altoids wintergreens equally, and I don’t notice a great deal of difference. It’s possible Altoids modified the flavor to be a little smoother, because I can suck on Altoids all day long but can only have so many Lifesavers in a row before my tongue gets overloaded. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/5 "2009-11-05T19:11:08Z")
To me Altoids (and the off-brands) taste _nothing_ like LifeSavers, or like methyl salicylate. It’s not a matter of _smoother_. I’m not even sure there’s any methyl salicylate in them ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/6 "2009-11-05T19:27:06Z")
Maybe its because you can get salicylate poisoning from oil of wintergreen: > [@](#): > > One teaspoon of 98% methyl salicylate contains 7000 mg of salicylate, the equivalent of nearly 90 baby aspirin and more than 4 times the potentially toxic dose for a child who weighs 10 kg. [cite.](http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1009987-overview) I’m sure the amount in a Lifesaver is going to be small (if indeed it contains oil of wintergreen) but the company’s lawyers must be worried about the yahoo who lurrrrrrrrves lifesavers so much he eats 300 a day and then sues them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/7 "2009-11-05T21:57:08Z")
I doubt it – Lifesavers use methyl salicylate, I have no doubt. The oil is also used to flavor root beer and birch beer. Small amounts don’t cause harm – heck, you can get poisoning from just about any flavoring agent, in sufficient quantity… I can’t believe that Life Savers and the soda companies use real methyl salicylate, but nobody else does because they’re worried about lawsuits. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/8 "2009-11-06T01:20:36Z")
I’m still too fascinated by you making your own, um, wintergreen aroma to even think about any of your questions. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wintergreen-flavor/516445/9 "2009-11-06T01:51:14Z")
> [@Nunavut\_Boy](#): > > I’m sure the amount in a Lifesaver is going to be small (if indeed it contains oil of wintergreen) but the company’s lawyers must be worried about the yahoo who lurrrrrrrrves lifesavers so much he eats 300 a day and then sues them. This makes me curious just how small the dose is. My little brother is the yahoo you’re talking about - he often buys a bag of the individually wrapped Wint-o-greens and eats them in one sitting. I think that’s 50 or 60 of them at once.