People gobsmacked after discovering 'life-saving' use for the hole in a Polo

09 April 2023 , 18:02

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Polos have holes for a very specific reason (Image: Daily Mirror)

We're all familiar with Polo mints and their rather unique shape, but most people don't know the reason why the popular minty treat was designed with a hole in the middle.

Many of us don't give the shape of the mints a second thought but it turns out there's a specific reason for the hole which can be traced back to a similar sweet sold in the US.

Polos were reportedly created in the UK by Rowntree's employees John Bargewell and George Harris back in 1948, and they took their inspiration from Life Savers mints, a ring-shaped sweet brand popular across the pond.

The Polo shape was inspired by a US sweet called Life Savers (Daily Mirror)

The hole was thought to prevent people from choking (Daily Mirror)

In a post from 2018 marking the 70th anniversary of the Polo mint, the Nestle website said of the sweet's history: "The idea for the mint was developed in the late 1930s, but due to the Second World War and sugar rationing it was shelved. However, in 1948 George Harris was determined to resurrect the idea.

"Before the war, George had been inspired by the US brand Life Savers (a mint with a hole designed to look like a life-saving rubber ring) and had decided to make something similar in the UK.

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"Company legend has it that he chose the name Polo because it derived from Polar and he thought that this implied the cool freshness of mint."

But if Polos were inspired by the US brand of sweets known as Life Savers, where did that confectionary get its shape from?

According to a forum on Quora, Life Savers sweets were developed after a number of child deaths were reported as a result of choking on hard candy that had become lodged in their throats.

The idea behind Life Savers was that if there was a hole in the centre of the sweet, a person could still breathe even if the sweet got stuck in their throat.

One person theorised on the forum: "In the early 20th century, a number of child deaths in the US were reported in the press due to choking on bar candies.

"An enterprising candy manufacturer came up with the idea that if there was a hole in the candy, even if it became lodged in the throat, a person could still breathe.

"The new candy was marketed as a 'life saver'. The fact that the candy now resembled the flotation devices on ships served to reinforce the image and attractiveness of the product to the public. And the rest is history."

Zahna Eklund