This is an “object autopsy” of Altoids, the “curiously strong mint.”

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Altoids consist of four primary ingredients:

The first step was looking at each of these incredients individually: where do they come from and what do they look like as commodoties on the global market? In other words, what people/groups/countries are involved in the production of an Altoid?

Sugar

I started by looking at USDA world sugar data:

##   X    region country time Beginning.Stocks Ending.Stocks Total.Exports
## 1 1 Caribbean    Cuba 2000              438           350          2932
## 2 2 Caribbean    Cuba 2001              350           360          3070
## 3 3 Caribbean    Cuba 2002              360           267          1798
## 4 4 Caribbean    Cuba 2003              267           275          1942
## 5 5 Caribbean    Cuba 2004              275           215           770
## 6 6 Caribbean    Cuba 2005              215           225           730
##   Total.Imports Total.Sugar.Production Total.Supply Total.Use
## 1            44                   3500         3982       700
## 2            80                   3700         4130       700
## 3           155                   2250         2765       700
## 4           100                   2550         2917       700
## 5            75                   1350         1700       715
## 6           200                   1240         1655       700

Looking at imports and exports regionally, it’s clear that South America is exporting a lot of sugar.

And it looks like most of that sugar is coming from Brazil:

But if we look at production, we see that some of the Asian regions are also heavy sugar producers, especially South Asia. Instead of exporting, though, they’re using the sugar they’re producing. In general, usage is pretty high in Asia compared to the rest of the world.

## Warning: Stacking not well defined when ymin != 0

Altoids are produced in the US; so where is this sugar coming from? Despite Brazil’s incredily high production of sugar, it’s not the primary source of sugar for the US. When we look at US imports of sugar* in UN Comtrade data, we see that most of its sugar is coming from Central America (Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic). Although a good portion is still coming from Brazil. These high levels from Central American countries is likely part of trade agreements between these nations.

*Includes: Sugars and sugar confectionery // Cane or beet sugar and chemically pure sucrose, in solid form. // - Raw sugar not containing added flavouring or colouring matter : // – Other cane sugar

Gum arabic

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Gum arabic is derived from the acacia tree (shown above). Essentially, it’s tree sap.

Looking at imports and exports within UN Comtrade data, we see that most of our arabic gum supply is coming from central Africa — but mostly from Sudan.

France has a lot of exports, but also a lot of imports, which might suggest that they’re playing the middle-man between Sudan and the rest of the world.

And in fact, when we look at the top countries Sudan is exporting to, it’s clear France is number one, accounting for almost half of the gum arabic coming out of Sudan. (Bar chart chart on left for comparison, pie grid on right for relative proportion to whole.)

Gelatin

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Gelatin is an animal by-product made from the extraction of collegen from bones, hooves, etc. It’s primarily used as a gelling agent. Below are the top exporters and importers of gelatin worldwide (Trend Economy data). Six of these countries appear on both lists, which makes it difficult to separate the top producers from the top users. But if we create an index for these countries (where positive = more imports), we get a quick snapshot of which countries are producing more and which countries are likely using more.

The USA is the top importer of gelatin and it looks like they’re also the top user, while Brazil is the top exporter and likely a top producer.

Peppermint oil

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Similar to gum arabic, peppermint oil only comes from a few select regions, including the US (Comtrade data). In the case of Altoids, this probably means that peppermint oil is the most likely incredient to be domestically sourced.