Is this the word’s first energy bar?
Created by accident in 1869, the Kendal mint cake has
played an outsized role in mountaineering history – including fuelling the
first ascent of Mt Everest.
By Christine
Ro ,7 March 2018
The origins
of the Kendal mint cake date to prehistoric times, when unique geological
conditions created sweet, marble-like deposits in the caverns of England’s Lake
District. Local miners armed with pickaxes risk their lives to carve out this
valuable foodstuff.
Of course,
that’s the fictional, tongue-in-cheek version related by Colin Bowden. Along
with his wife Margot, he runs a shop called The Mintcake Mine in
Bowness-on-Windermere, a picturesque Lake District town. As well as selling the
delicacy, the shop houses a tiny exhibition on the mint-cake myth – complete
with pickaxes and a helmet belonging to the so-called mint-cake miners.
The real
story of Kendal mint cake is no less interesting.
The treat
was created by accident in 1869 in the nearby market town of Kendal.
Confectioner Joseph Wiper was in the process of making mints. During a bout of
inattention, the sugary mixture started to solidify and turn cloudy. The Kendal
mint cake – more of a bar than a floury cake, eaten more frequently by hikers
looking for a glucose boost than diners in the mood for dessert – was born.
Today, the
product remains simple, made of sugar, glucose syrup, water and peppermint oil.
The oldest existing manufacturer of Kendal mint cake, Quiggins, adds salt.
Simple or
not, the mint cake has played an outsized role in mountaineering history. In
1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay ate it on their attempt to be the first
team to ascend Mt Everest.
The
expedition manager responsible for their provisions had read about Kendal mint
cake in a climbing magazine. In 1952 he wrote to Romney’s, one of the bar’s
main manufacturers to this day, to request 38lb (17kg) of brown mint cake, a
version made with brown sugar. He had never tried the product himself, but as
his letter says, "Experience thas [sic] shown this to be an excellent High
Altitude food".
This was
seven years after the end of World War II, when the UK was still subject to
food rationing. As a result, Romney’s had to make a special request for
additional sugar, which was granted.
Hillary and
Norgay became the first confirmed people to summit Mt Everest. As for the mint
cake, one member of the expedition wrote, "It was easily the most popular
item on our high altitude ration – our only criticism was that we did not have
enough of it."
Kendal mint
cake continues to be popular with climbers, cyclists and runners as a portable,
durable source of energy. Emma Stevenson, a professor of sport and exercise
science at Newcastle University, explained, “It is high in glucose and
therefore is rapidly digested when consumed, and so is a quick source of
energy. This is why it is popular on walks etc.”
Kendal mint
cake has been called the world’s first energy bar. The sugar content is
particularly useful at high altitudes, where the body craves sugar and finds
other types of food hard to digest. The strong mint flavour is also
appropriate, as high altitudes dull taste buds.
At high
altitudes, the body craves high sugar content (Credit: Alamy)
More than 60
years after the summiting of Everest, the making of Kendal mint cake remains
largely unchanged.
For one
thing, it’s still a family affair in at least one mint cake-producing company.
John Barron, the current managing director of Romney’s, is the fourth
generation of the family to run the business. As a child, he worked in the
factory on school holidays. He operates Romney’s with his wife, Paula, and her
brother. The Barrons hope that their two sons will take over the business
someday. Regardless, they won’t entertain ideas about selling it. “It’s
security for our family and future generations,” Paula said.
Founded in
1914, Romney’s has also retained much of the original production process. The
factory happens to be located on Mintsfeet Road North, near the foot of the
River Mint. (Amazingly, there’s no connection between these names and the
treat.)
Arriving at
Romney’s, a minty smell wafts over the unassuming industrial estate that
surrounds it. Once inside, the scent is powerful. The factory is smaller than
you might expect: just three small rooms. The Barrons are nervous about
expanding: getting too big “wouldn’t give us that quality of life and that
enjoyment,” said Paula.
The actual
production is confined to one room. First, a large vat heats up and mixes the
sugar with glucose and water. The next steps are done by hand. The sugar
mixture is poured into copper pans nearly a century old. Factory workers add
essence of peppermint and mix this in a process known as ‘graining’, which
helps the compound achieve its distinctive cloudy appearance. Employees then
ladle the concoction into silicone moulds in a variety of sizes and shapes.
These moulds have perforations for easy splitting of the sheets.
It takes up
to 30 minutes for the cake to turn solid; the staff can tell at a glance, by
the texture and colour, whether it’s ready. They break the cake into bars and
weigh them. The bars then go to the other rooms of the factory, where they’re
wrapped, packed and stacked for distribution.
Kendal mint
cake isn’t for everyone. It’s intensely minty – to the point that you’ll
continue to taste the herb well after you’ve swallowed the cake. (The
chocolate-covered version helps to temper the mintiness.) For intrepid souls
only, there’s even an extra-strong version. This is one cake that’s less
dessert than fuel, functional rather than gourmet.
Outdoorsy
pursuits like climbing are a good fit for the Lake District, a scenic part of
north-west England, in the county of Cumbria, known for its 16 main lakes,
mountainous terrain and literary heritage (it inspired the likes of William
Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter). In July 2017, Unesco named the Lake District a
World Heritage Site, a status bound to increase tourism to the already
much-visited region.
The Lake
District remains proud of its home-grown product, and Kendal mint cake can be
found just about everywhere in Kendal. It retains an old-fashioned reputation,
but that’s key to its appeal to tourists and locals alike. “It’s not changed,”
said Paula. “It’s still made by hand.”
Whatever the
future of tourism for the Lake District, and for Kendal in particular, it’s
clear that a mint-flavoured bar beloved of mountaineers will long continue to
be associated with it.