438 - Why-Mint-Flavoured-Toothpaste-

I had a strange desire when brushing my teeth last night to know why toothpaste seems to always be mint flavoured. As far as I could think, there are a couple of reasons it could be:

1. Mint makes things taste funny so you don’t want to eat things afterwards (thus making your teeth dirty again).
   
2. Mint makes your mouth feel fresh, and is good at masking other flavours and smells — I’m thinking this could be a reason for after-dinner mints too!
   

A quick look over the internet revealed more speculation, but no concrete facts. Interesting thoughts were that mint is strong enough to cover up the weird taste toothpaste would have otherwise and that, back in the early days of toothpaste, mint was a cheap and easy flavouring to get hold of.

Some of the strangest things make me curious sometimes…