Summerdown Mint Chocolates from England
Single-estate mint makes for some very special chocolates
If you like the combination of mint and chocolate as much as I do, you may want to drive over to the Candy Manufactory on the south side of Ann Arbor, drop by the Deli, or log onto zingermans.com, to try out these terrific English imports ASAP. I have long had a thing for mint and chocolate, but Summerdown’s good work has taken that affection to a whole new level. Over the last few years, these mints have become a staple item on my kitchen shelves, and I have ended many a long day by enjoying one or two of them before heading to bed.
They’re made with, as best I can tell, the only single-estate mint oil in Europe, but then again, most everything about these great mints is pretty special. The man who’s been driving them to such heights is Sir Michael Colman, heir to the Colman’s mustard firm. Sir Michael ran the family business for decades before selling it in 1995, but his passion, business acumen, and commitment to high quality and doing meaningful work continued on. Retirement, he reflected, was ridiculous. Instead, he started this incredible mint project. “Everyone thought I was crazy,” he said. “But occasionally in life you have to take a step and say to people, maybe there is more to this than you thought.” I would agree. His dedication to mint and to making world-class products with it has paid off. The results are outstanding—much more, I will say, than I ever would’ve imagined the pairing of mint and chocolate could be.
While chocolate is what normally earns the attention in this combination, the Summerdown project makes mint the star of the culinary show. England, it turns out, was once one of the largest mint producers on the planet, but with World War II and the stress of wartime economics, commercial mint farming came to a quick end. Sir Michael’s mission became to restore the glory not of the British Empire, but rather of British mint. He returned to the old variety, Black Mitcham, which dates to the middle of the 18th century. Particularly aromatic, it was once the pride of English peppermint growers. Colman and his crew planted about 70 acres of Black Mitcham on the family’s farm in Hampshire, about an hour southwest of London. “Peppermint is our passion,” he declared. “We want to make people aware of what real peppermint is like!” And as the folks at Summerdown like to say, “This is not peppermint grown for speed. It is grown for character.” As The Telegraph writes,
It took more than a decade for Sir Michael Colman to re-establish Black Mitcham peppermint at their home in Hampshire, but the results have been worth the wait.
The farm’s beautifully quiet fields are filled with purple flowers, lovely green peppermint leaves, and enticing aromas. When the oil content is at its highest, the leaves are picked and pressed. In his push for excellence, Sir Michael put together all the equipment needed to make the oil from the fresh leaves right on-site. Because they use only their own mint, Summerdown’s products are the mint equivalent of a good estate olive oil. Unlike olive oil, though, mint oil needs to mellow and mature—Summerdown sets it aside for a full year to “soften” after it’s pressed.
There are now four marvelous mint offerings that we have on hand from the folks at Summerdown; they keep adding a new one each year! One is chocolate mint creams—a thick layer of minty white peppermint “cream” with a thin layer of dark chocolate. Another is “crisps”—flat sheets of chocolate spiked with slivers of sugar and crystallized mint. Basically, it’s a bark; probably more importantly, it’s terrifically tasty! Then there are awesome thin mint “discs,” or wafers. And last but not least, there are some really cool and compellingly delicious “dominoes”—which really do look like little dominoes! All four are fantastic.
The high quality of the mint oil is the key feature throughout—it won’t hit you over the head the way lesser alternatives will. The result is a mellow but highly memorable chocolate mint that, for all I know, is being enjoyed this week at Buckingham Palace.
Not surprisingly, then, Summerdown has won a whole series of Great Taste Awards in Britain. As I said, they’re pretty steadily stocked in our kitchen cabinet at home (while the box lasts—we’ve been eating them rather rapidly). When the Summerdown mints first came to the ZCoB, they were a small asterisk in a wide, wide array of wonderful artisan foods. Today, they have a solid presence, a loyal and ever-expanding following, and a very bright future. All of that is built, as I believe it should be, not on flashy ad campaigns, but on the quality of the product, the history of the Black Mitcham mint, and the commitment of Sir Michael, his son Jo, and the whole crew on the farm.
The bottom line is that the Summerdown chocolate mints are all extraordinary!
You’ll find them at the Candy Manufactory (which itself is a destination spot for anyone who cares about high-quality confectionery), at the Deli, and online at Mail Order. Don’t miss ’em!
