Nickel-sized candies, commonly assumed by science to be the pupa of the elusive Peppermint Patty. Their skins are fragile and their insides gooey and not-yet matured.

Slaughtered en masse and packaged by the Tootsie Roll corporation (yes, that's their actual name), the mastication of the Junior Mint has become a common ritual in American movie theatres.

These button-sized chocolate covered mints were created in 1949 by James Welch, the brother of Robert Welch, who also created Sugar Daddy and Sugar Babies. The name came from Welch's favorite Broadway stage show, Junior Miss.

In 1993, Warner-Lambert sold Junior Mints to Tootsie Roll Industries. Tootsie Roll makes more than 15 million of these mints every day out of their plant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.