Polo (confectionery) - Varieties

Varieties

Over the years Rowntree and Nestlé have come up with variations of the Original Polo mint. Some of these have been successes, whereas others have flopped. None has been as successful as the Original Polo mint.

• Spearmint: "Cool look, cool taste." These Polos have a strong spearmint flavour and aroma. The original design of the sweets had turquoise flecks on them and were mildly triboluminescent, but now they are clear white to reduce E numbers.
• Fruit: These are boiled sweets in several fruit flavours, all in one tube. Flavours include strawberry, blackcurrant, orange, lemon, and lime.
• Polo Gummies: Fruit-flavoured soft gummy sweets in the polo shape.
• Sugar free: Sugar free version of the Original Polo containing sorbitol.
• Polo Holes: Nestlé experimented with this variation for a while. It was the original Polo flavour in the shape and size of the hole in the middle of the Original Polo.
• Mini Strong Polos: Tiny Polos (about 0.5 cm in diameter) with a strong minty flavour. They were packaged in a box shaped like a Polo Mint. They were also available in a not so successful orange flavour (known as Super OJs) which is no longer available.
• Smoothies: These creamy sweets came in flavours such as blackcurrant, sunshine fruits and strawberry.
• Citrus Sharp: Lemon and lime flavoured. Discontinued in the UK.
• Butter Mint Polos: mint-flavour butterscotch.
• Strong/Extra Strong: "We like them strong, but silent." A rival for Trebor, these were very hot. Discontinued in the UK.
• Ice: These came in a shiny blue wrapper, and had a cooler mint taste.
• Cinnamon flavoured.
• Paan flavoured (previously available in India).
• Mint O Fruit: (available in Indonesia). These come in the following flavours: Raspberry Mint, Blackcurrant Mint, Peppermint, Lime Mint and Cherry Mint. These polos come with the following slogan "Think Plong! Masih Ada Bolong!" These are also sold in the UK in some Poundland stores.

Before this Rowntree had already experimented with different Polos in the 1980s. Polo Fruits were always available but they briefly made:

• Lemon: Similar to the citrus flavour that Nestlé put out around ten years later, but not identical.
• Orange: similar to the lemon, but in an orange packet.
• Tropical Fruit: included Banana, Melon, Coconut and others
• Globes : small capsules filled with mint-flavoured liquid in a small box with a flip lid