Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Mentos

Claire, cover this up.

It looks like you're selling drugs.

[laughing]

Jesus Christ lady.

Taste it.

It's always the quiet ones you gotta watch.

[light upbeat music]

[screaming]

They kind of look like the alien spaceships

from War of the Worlds.

Hey everyone I'm Claire, we are in the BA test kitchen

and today I'm making gourmet Mentos.

I always looked at Mentos as a candy

and not as a breath mint, although I know people

actually do use them as breath mints

because mint is the original,

but I always really liked the fruit ones.

I did not know that there were so many different flavors.

Fruit seems classic, mint seems classic,

but there's so many different ones, green apple,

palm vert is what it says, cinnamon,

there's an all strawberry one, lemonade,

one Emoticon on each dragee.

I kind of want to open these.

Oh wow.

I don't understand this one.

Is the little drip above the eye sweat?

I don't understand what any of these emotions are.

Am I like on the, is that a thing?

You're like emotion blind or something?

What is this?

Let's take a poll.

What is this emotion?

This is like a drop of lemon juice

is about to get in your eye,

and you're like [groans].

I'm sure that's what it is.

Wanna taste one.

I mean-- Ooh.

They're not great.

I like Mentos.

I do like the texture.

I just like how they start off really hard,

kinda soften, they become very chewy.

Like look, the shell is actually pretty thick

and then the inside is--

[Claire] Almost a little fluffy.

[Alex] Yeah.

Weird.

It actually looks like the inside of a Skittle.

Yeah, I was just gonna say.

This is basically the Skittles episode

with a thicker shell.

With a thicker shell.

One check in the plus column for mint

is that they're all white.

I don't have to deal with the food coloring aspect of it.

It's not an overly aggressive mint flavor.

Chris.

[Chris] Yeah?

Can I offer you a breath mint?

It's so hard. Yeah.

I know, Chris.

You can't do the thing,

your normal thing, where you like take the teeniest

tiniest bite. No, I did.

[Claire laughing]

It just took a lot of work.

It's quite a shell on it.

Yeah, Delaney pointed that out.

It's a very hard, firm candy shell.

Which is always, presents a challenge.

I enjoy that taffy-like texture.

And all candies like that, like Mentos,

Hi-Chews, like anything that has that kind of pully quality.

Yeah.

But then on top of that--

I hate making those.

[laughs]

So now I want to take a closer look,

because it seems like maybe there's something going on there

in the middle, underneath the candy shell.

They're all very uniform.

Diameter is 1.9 centimeters.

.9 centimeters thick.

It is really quite firm.

There is sort of a fluffiness,

meaning kind of an aerated quality

to the interior.

Maybe there's some gelatin in it.

All right, I've concluded that Mentos

are a bigger version of Skittles.

There is a candy center that's chewy

and then there is a sugarcoating on the outside that's hard.

So I can use a lot of the learning

from the Skittles episode and apply it here.

Okay.

Time for my favorite part.

Reading the ingredients.

Sugar, wheat syrup, coconut oil, corn starch, cocoa butter,

natural flavors, maltodextrin, sucrose fatty acid esters,

gellan gum, carnauba wax,

sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, gum arabic.

That's a lot of weird stuff

in these Mentos.

I mean, it's interesting.

I don't know what wheat syrup is,

and that's the second ingredient,

so there's a high proportion of it.

The coconut oil is interesting.

All right, I think we gotta go do some research

so I can look into some of these ingredients

and also hopefully find some good stuff on YouTube.

The first thing that comes up is Mentos and Coke.

Should we watch videos of that?

[Man] Sure.

I think we should.

Steve Spangler Science. I love it.

What we want, is we want, yup.

And we're just gonna put them in to test,

in three, two, one, pull.

[yelping]

It's the Mentos page.

Why do I have to be 16 years or older?

[gasps] This is, why does dropping a Mentos into a bottle

of soda create a reaction?

The reaction occurs because of a simple rule of physics.

It's not a chemical reaction.

Soda/fizzy drinks contain a certain amount of CO2

dissolved in water, in the form of blah, blah, blah.

This combination,

basically the answer to this, I'll just condense

what this paragraph is saying, that it makes it fizzy,

is what this is saying.

I found out very little about how Mentos are made.

I'm mostly taking Skittles as a jumping off point.

So I wanna go look up that recipe

and then start to kind of gather my ingredients.

Can we talk about the game we were playing at lunch?

Okay, so we played this game, which I haven't played

since I was probably in day camp

as an elementary school student,

where instead of a coin we were using a Mentos

and putting it on the edge of the table

and trying to get it to hang over the opposite edge

with three tries of pushing it,

but we learned something, because they kept falling

on the floor.

They shatter, and they break off kind of like glass

or hard cracked sugar.

When I rub it like this, I do start to get

a little bit of an oiliness, so I know that

that's sort of the coconut oil, mixed in with that sugar.

I do think it's a hard cracked sugar

that's basically mounted with oil, corn starch,

and maybe some gelatin.

And I think that that's it.

And then that was really useful,

so us playing that game really helped me

on this Gourmet Makes episode.

This coating is going to be royal icing

because I've done many versions thus far

of a candy shell, and I've really not

had a lot of success.

We all know what happened with M&Ms.

I don't want to think about it.

[emotional piano music]

So I think the best way to get a candy coating this thin

and this opaque white is just to do royal icing.

There's really only two main things to tackle.

The interior that I'll flavor with some mint oil

or peppermint extract, and the candy shell

on the outside.

[upbeat jazzy music]

So here's the process for the filling.

I'm cooking sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water

in the saucepan to hard crack sugar stage.

Then I'm mixing in coconut oil, corn starch,

some softened gelatin, and peppermint oil.

Stir it together, let it sit.

That's really it.

It's a complete guess.

Who knows?

But it could be perfect.

I wanna see if by pulling it I get

just a softer texture overall.

Because I'm working air into it, something that's just

more malleable and fluffy.

Here are my two tests.

The same mixture.

This side I pulled the sugar until it became opaque,

then this side I just let cool.

I think if I adjust the amount of coconut oil

and the amount of gelatin, I'll get something

a lot firmer.

But I do think that pulling it is a good idea

because I want something opaque with a little bit

of aeration in it, just like this.

I think it could use more peppermint.

There is kind of a starchiness

that's not very pleasant, so I think I need to dial down

the corn starch as well.

But it's a good starting point,

and I know what I'm gonna change in round two.

[upbeat jazzy music]

We're gonna pretend like an hour didn't just pass

when I was in a meeting,

and I'm going to make the second batch.

I can't really do it with my right hand,

because my right hand is, doesn't work.

Only my left hand works.

[laughing] I can't really--

[Man] Your right hand doesn't work?

I mean just, I'm left handed,

and it's 99% left hand, one percent left hand.

I can't really make,

like I can't really like hold up numbers.

You know, like three, or two--

What?

[Claire laughing]

Can you do it evenly on both hands?

My right hand is just like very tight,

and my left hand is like, I can do anything.

It's like Gumby.

Your left hand's like a superhero?

Yeah, my right hand is useless.

Yeah. Leave him at home. Yeah.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Ooh, okay.

You know what's really funny?

We get paid to do this.

I know.

They're gonna yell at me though.

[laughing]

[Alex] Last one, last one!

I get three chances!

[Alex] What?

You get three tries.

You get three pushes.

[Alex] Okay.

Do you know what it kind of reminds me of?

[laughing] It's like curling!

[upbeat jazzy music]

[laughing]

Sorry.

Wow.

[sighs] Dan, that was your fault

because you asked Delaney to come over

and talk to me about my weird claw hand.

[laughing]

Okay, sorry.

I have to focus.

I really did waste a lot of time.

[upbeat jazzy music]

For round two I'm going to decrease the coconut oil

decrease the corn starch, decrease the gelatin,

and increase the peppermint.

It's really not coming together

the same way it did.

Maybe it's the lack of cornstarch?

Hard to say.

It's really hot, still.

And it kind of hurts.

Ow.

And now it's starting to harden,

which is a bad sign.

I have an itch on my nose.

Oh, it's bad.

[laughs]

That didn't help.

It's becoming a lot more difficult to pull.

All right, I think we're done.

I think it's not gonna work.

This is still warm but I'm calling it.

It's going to harden into a rock.

[tapping]

I think I know what went wrong here.

And I overcooked the sugar.

I think that because it kind of peaked at 290

to get at 300, I turned the heat up too high

and then it went over as it was sitting here.

Maybe I backed off too far on that coconut oil

and corn starch and gelatin, maybe.

It is unchewable.

The flavor's good.

I think, I like this amount of peppermint.

I do need something in between here and here.

So I think I'll add back in maybe a little bit

of gelatin, and a little bit of coconut oil.

And I'm also going to be more careful

about not spiking the sugar at the end

of the cooking process.

I have a feeling that's mostly what happened here.

So I'm just gonna keep going.

I'm having so many Starburst flashbacks,

and it's terrible.

All right.

I feel good about these first two tests

that I did today for that interior.

I guess tomorrow my goal will be to get to a good place

with the filling, and also maybe tackle forming.

And then all that will be left is candy coating

and then possibly iterating on further flavors.

That's it.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Today is day two.

I think I got off to a good start

at the end of the day yesterday.

But Chris and Gaby are here

because we're gonna have a little fun

before I have to get back to work.

We're going to put some Mentos in some Diet Coke.

Fun isn't work?

Work isn't fun?

No, this isn't fun.

Is that what you're saying?

Come on.

I didn't know that that was a thing.

Really? Yeah.

They wanted us to go outside,

but I don't really want to go outside

because it's humid--

I don't really want to go outside either.

I think we should do this in the dish pit.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Don't suffocate yourself.

All right, is it lined up?

All right ready?

[Gaby] Yes.

Oh god.

Wait, Chris you do it.

What do you need, to hold that thing?

Do you want me to pull it out?

Here, I'll hold it steady--

[Claire] Is it lined up?

It looks lined up.

[Gaby] Yeah, pull it!

You pull it.

[Gaby] You can do it.

[Claire] Oh god.

Whoo!

[laughing]

Oh, gosh.

[All] Boo!

[Man] Was it six?

[Together] That was six.

[Chris] We need like 30.

[Claire] We have to do it again.

Okay, we're adding a lot more.

That's lined up.

Okay, ready?

Yes.

[Claire] Gaby, want to count it?

One, two, three.

[laughing]

That's not how it's supposed to work.

Okay ready? One more time?

One, two, three.

Oh god! Oh no!

Oh god!

[laughing]

It got stuck.

I think we should try that again.

We need a test tube.

Okay, the new plan is use a straighter, more slippery tube

so that they all drop in simultaneously.

Oh yeah.

Should we do a double tube?

[gasping]

I think that's gonna--

[Chris] I think that's such a great idea.

Okay.

Okay.

[Gaby] So we take one side.

Chris, what is that supposed to do?

Just like protect the face.

Okay, ready?

Yes.

[Claire] Gaby, count it.

One, two, three.

[gasping]

[laughing]

[dramatic music]

[laughing]

I love it!

Oh my god!

I [beeping] love it!

It does work.

It's not a myth.

I did pull a muscle, you guys.

In my neck.

I'd recommend not doing this at home.

Claire's down.

Oh, ooh we got a video.

Guys, guys, guys.

[laughing]

That was definitely the most fun I've ever had

in Gourmet Makes, even though it made a huge mess.

And I pulled a muscle.

[emotional piano music]

That experience is going to get me through

the rest of this episode.

The best part of Mentos is that they do that

with Diet Coke, so my new goal is not so much

about nailing the flavor or texture,

it's getting something that does that same thing

with Diet Coke.

All right.

Let's just take a look at what I did yesterday.

These are the two tests I got through.

This guy hardened.

Ooh.

I scared myself.

I am so overly caffeinated,

and I haven't eaten anything today.

So that really scared me.

For the third try I want to do something in between.

So those are pretty easy changes,

this time adding back a little bit

of the coconut oil and gelatin.

So that's what I'm going to try.

[upbeat jazzy music]

This time I'm gonna cook it to the same temperature

but be more careful about the level of heat that I have.

[dramatic music]

[Man] What are you thinking about?

[sighs]

I was thinking about

[laughs] I was thinking about Starburst,

and how this is,

how bad that was.

So now I'm just pulling this just like I did before

in previous episodes, and yesterday.

All right, this looks nice.

It's pretty soft and satiny.

I feel pretty good about this texture.

I have high hopes.

It's very firm.

It starts out really, really hard

and then it softens.

Tastes really good.

Tell me if you think this is the texture of Mentos.

It's too hard.

Yeah, I knew it was too hard.

[laughs]

But it's close, right?

I think to get it softer I add more corn starch

and maybe a little bit more gelatin,

and I think it'll be good.

That makes sense.

I think it'll be good.

I do want to try another test

with those changes I just said,

but first I think it would be useful

to use the third batch as a test

for seeing how I'm gonna form them.

Chris, what's that thing called?

The metal grinder thing?

The angle grinder?

No, what's the thing that we got for Ruffles?

Oh, the Dremel tool.

The Dremel tool.

I think I need to use to Dremel tool.

[gasps] Yeah!

[Claire] Because here's my thing.

What's up?

I have to make a mold for these, right?

And it's like, it's close but they're too deep.

So I think I have to drill

I think I have to shave off some of the metal.

Is that a bad idea?

No.

You don't think so?

It's a great idea.

But it sounds like maybe it's a job for the angle grinder.

[upbeat jazzy music]

[Claire] I'm gonna stand, no.

Yeah, this thing throws metal.

It's a [beeps] angle grinder.

It's not some like, it's not a scalpel,

it's a hammer, you know?

So we're trying to just shave down the metal

so that the depth only really goes

to like maybe there.

That's a lot of metal, though.

We need to make this mold flush

so that the two sides like actually meet,

because we don't want there to be a gap.

[Claire] No gap.

No gap.

[upbeat jazzy music]

It's very close.

What would Brad say?

Tighter than a frog's ass?

Watertight.

Is a crab's ass watertight?

[Chris] Exactly.

Thank you Chris, so much.

[Chris] Oh yeah, absolutely.

The first thing I have to do

is clean up all the metal shards from this table.

Here are my angle ground teaspoon measures.

I'll demo with the failed batches,

but basically here's the idea.

This is a really bad example because I'm not

gonna be able to get it out of the mold.

You get what I'm, you get it.

I could probably make something like this with my hand.

Freeform.

Okay, so the weight of the Mentos with the coating

is 2.8, the weight of this one is 1.7, 1.8.

So there's a full gram difference,

and I don't think that the coating itself

is gonna weigh that much,

so basically the mold that Chris just spend 15 minutes

angle grinding is too small.

I'm going to think about this and clean up.

Maybe at, well I don't really want to make them by hand.

I need to figure out,

I need to think about the mold.

And find something better.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Too big, yeah.

[sighs] This is the fourth batch.

And I'm still tweaking those levels of coconut oil

and corn starch and gelatin to get the softness I want.

So this time, I'm increasing coconut oil.

Ten grams more coconut oil this time.

25 grams corn starch.

For the gelatin I'm also increasing.

It feels too soft.

It also is weirdly kind of marshmallowy,

and I think that's because of the amount of gelatin.

For this version, I'm doing everything the same

but taking the gelatin down.

Oh, I hate the smell of gelatin like that.

[laughs]

Something happened.

It crystallized.

See how crumbly it is?

I don't really know why it happened.

I just, let's just go home.

It's so much more fun to put Mentos in Diet Coke

than it is to make Mentos.

[sighs]

[upbeat jazzy music]

I was gonna go home and think about what I was

gonna do today, but then I thought

about other stuff, and forgot.

I still think that I need to think about molds.

And what am I gonna do?

What is this shape, you guys?

Let's brainstorm.

As a team, yeah.

No Skittles I used the eighth teaspoon measures

to form them.

M&Ms I used to molds, the silicon putty molds.

This has come up before in Gourmet Makes.

I don't remember when. We never did it.

But the idea of using a potato as a mold.

You know when you were a kid and you made

like the potato stamps with paint?

It's basically that idea.

So the idea is to drill,

use the Dremel tool

to drill two halves of an oblate spheroid

into the cut side of a potato.

It's a great idea.

This diameter looks very similar.

[upbeat jazzy music]

I just had a moment of perspective about what I'm doing

and it's so stupid.

It's never gonna work.

I've made zero progress and it's day three.

What is happening right now?

Christina, this episode is--

You're melon balling. So far off the rails.

A potato.

Would it dome?

Would you fill it and then--

No, no.

I have to like put two sides.

Or do you want to fuse them.

There has to be another way.

I think this, we need to stop this.

I don't know what's going on

I have melon ballers but they're too,

I can't find the right size using any--

What do you mean?

That's not the right size.

Why not?

It's just not.

That's exactly a Mentos.

No, itt's not, because I weighed them out, and it's--

I think--

Look at the actual difference in depth

between the, if it's two halves.

Do you have the lozenge molds?

Wait, I just had an idea.

[laughs]

We could try making our own corn starch mold.

That was a thing that I took away from,

what was the last episode we did?

Not, oh from Sour Patch Kids, yeah.

They make a compressed corn starch mold, basically,

but I was like, what if we take corn starch

and we mix it with egg white, and we can basically

press Mentos into them.

I think that's worth a shot.

Okay, well why don't we just--

[Claire laughs]

do this no more.

Sweep it all into the trash.

And yeah, corn starch mold.

That's a better idea.

Go for it.

My new idea is to make sort of clay

from corn starch and egg white, and then to use Mentos

as the form, make an impression, and then take them out

and use that as the mold.

[upbeat jazzy music]

I've never felt anything like this.

It's so weird, this texture.

It's sort of like dry but loose at the same time.

Kevin feel it.

It's so weird.

[Kevin] Ugh.

[Claire laughs]

My plan is to, wow look at them sink.

It's like quicksand.

[slow piano music]

I think we should start this whole day over.

I just wish that I were further along

in this process than I am.

Just sucks.

[sighs]

I've done nothing but spin my wheels

in this whole episode.

[sighs] The molds thing is not happening.

This is the mold.

We're going back to this place.

As far as molds go.

So now I'm going back to the filling,

which I was putting off to figure out the mold.

What's happening there, John?

Look at that one.

Look, they've been swallowed.

[Man] Kevin tried to dig them out a little bit.

[Claire] They've been swallowed up by the monster.

[Man] Oh my god.

Okay.

I have to make the filling.

I'm going to do what I did last night,

but then it went wrong and took a turn.

So I'm gonna try to repeat that,

the same quantities, and hopefully it turns out.

But I'm worried.

I don't feel good about it.

[slow emotional piano music]

What happened?

I really don't wanna do this anymore.

Oh, you can do it Claire.

I know you're gonna finish this one today.

You think so, today?

Yes.

And if not, I will lie for you.

I'll be like, you nailed it Claire!

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. This is the same!

Keep going.

Thanks, Gaby.

Have faith. That helped me.

[Gaby] Yay!

Thank you.

[Gaby] Go Claire!

Thanks, Gaby. I'll put a sign here!

[Claire] Thanks Gaby!

[Gaby] Go Claire!

Bye!

That was good.

I feel better.

All right.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Let's just have it be the one

even if it's not the one, you know what I mean?

It's too hard.

And I don't wanna make it again.

[gasps] Rhoda, hi.

Hi love!

[Claire] I'm having some issues

and Dan wanted me to call you

because I'm refusing to make anymore.

Do you wanna stop by?

If you could just save the day.

Claire, what's happening?

Okay, I need to start by trying one.

What's that?

[Claire laughs]

[Claire] Don't worry about it.

They're so much chewier than I remember.

And I'm not able to really get that texture.

What did you do for Skittles?

Let me look back at Skittles

and see about the temperature that I was using.

In a way this is a lot like a Skittle

because it has that interior.

Were you gonna do a shell or something on the inside?

Yeah, and so I'm basically gonna dow hat I did

for Skittles, which is just use two measuring spoons.

Yeah.

And put them together.

You should go back to Skittles.

So Rhoda gave me good advice, as I knew she would.

Rhoda said to go back to Skittles,

and take a look at Skittles and what I did there,

because it is a sort of similar texture,

and I was referencing Skittles earlier in the video.

I don't know why I didn't

actually pay attention to it.

So I'm watching the very end of the video.

I'll feel like we did it.

With a pastry brush until mixture registers 250 Fahrenheit.

Remove from heat and whisk in eight tablespoons

butter in pieces.

Here's what I'm going to do.

Is basically just to cook it less hot, the sugar,

and that's what I did in Skittles.

So hardball is like a 260 two or four.

And I was taking it to all the way to hard crack

which is just above 300, so I'm dropping it

a good 40 degrees or so.

[upbeat jazzy music]

It's much whiter, huh?

[Man] Totally.

So that's a good sign, actually.

I think this is really close.

It's just a little too elastic

and a little too soft.

So I think we should push it five more degrees,

cook it a little bit hotter

and a little less gelatin.

This is the very last one.

I think it feels really good.

It has that kind of hard cracky sound,

but it still is pliable,

and what I'm also really happy about is that this

is a really white, opaque interior,

and it does, I think, look a lot like

the interior of actual Mentos.

So I did not see this coming, but I actually do

feel really good about this.

So this is more, it just kind of breaks.

I'm not just saying this because I don't want

to ever do it again, but I really think

this is the best version.

So I'll be portioning them, trying to form them,

coating them in royal icing, which is my idea

for the candy coating, and letting them dry.

And that's it.

And then we get to play with more Diet Coke.

[upbeat jazzy music]

It feels pretty firm.

I think it's fine.

I think it's great.

It's actually quite crumbly.

Which might affect my ability to mold it

into the shape that I want.

I think it will be okay.

I'll just have to maybe microwave them

to soften a little bit.

You're back!

I haven't seen you in so long!

Oh, what are you, Chris?

Take a bigger bite.

You know what it reminds me of?

What?

The New York peppermint patty a little.

The inside.

Which I love, I always like--

It's very peppermint patty like.

This filling is perfect.

Not perfect, but damn close.

Yeah, but I'm making Mentos.

What is on that?

[laughing]

[Claire] Don't worry about it.

Claire, you, now it really looks

like you're making weird drugs.

[Claire laughing]

The designer club drugs and [beeps].

Did Andy give you those?

What?

What's going on over here?

Calm down.

Let's not talk about that.

That is, I don't think is quite it.

I'm not making it over.

I made it one million times.

Oh, you've done?

Oh, nailed it!

[laughing]

Perfect!

Now you just gotta do the coating!

Yeah, there you go.

Brad hates it.

As usual.

It's not right.

It's crumbly, it's a different texture,

but I'm gonna move forward with it

because I like the way it tastes.

I kind of want to try an experiment

where I warm it up first.

[upbeat jazzy music]

I'm hoping that I get, that when I open the door,

there's Mentos in there.

Well, it melted.

Basically what I've learned is Chris

is the only one that cares about any of this.

Having melted it, it is holding together much better.

So these are not the spoons that Chris

used the angle grinder on.

This is the larger size.

These are quarter teaspoon measures.

But I'm just kind of using them as like a half-mold.

It's actually kind of working.

In terms of the size, it's pretty close.

It's the closest I've come to a Mentos so far.

I wanted Brad to care more.

But Brad doesn't care.

[Man] Aw.

No one cares about my suffering, basically,

and that does not feel good.

You know who cares?

Gaby.

Where is Gaby?

Gaby just gives so much compassion.

And I need more Gaby.

So I'm gonna just keep forming the little individual pieces

and then I wanna see how they kind of set.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Does Brad know that he has fruit flies

flying around his fermentation station?

Also, what is that?

Also, that bag of egg yolks,

with sugar and salt, has been there since April.

Which I don't feel good about.

I think overall they have a very regular, even shape.

I'm actually more pleased with the shaping

than I thought I would be,

filling is maybe not the perfect texture,

but I'm happy overall.

These go back into the fridge, and while they're setting

I'll think about how I want to dip them.

So I'm pretty committed to royal icing as the coating.

Royal icing is a mixture of egg white and powdered sugar.

The main question is how am I going to dry them

so that they don't have a flat surface where they rest?

I have an idea.

I need a bunch of toothpicks,

and now I need to find a piece of foam board.

Do you have any foam board?

Like, maybe I could destroy part of it?

Thank you, I'll bring it back.

And the idea is that this will create a suspension system,

which is very tiny.

What?

What?

[upbeat jazzy music]

This looks like a medieval torture device

of some kind.

Something out of Game of Thrones, maybe.

All right, now I'm going to make my royal icing.

So I'm gonna grab powdered sugar and egg white.

[upbeat jazzy music]

The royal icing, I'm using it to kind of get

that crackly texture as it dries

and then it kind of makes its own shell.

Oh god. Oh god.

[giggling]

Oh god.

Okay, I think I have to start again with this.

Let's try that again.

[upbeat jazzy music]

There are still some drips.

Chris, this is ridiculous.

Although I did one.

Is there another way that one is supposed

to do this though?

I'm sure that there is,

I just haven't thought of it.

The shape already looks just dynamite.

Yeah, like the coating, at least from the top,

because I think these are gonna have

the best angle, you know?

I like that they're like slightly irregular

but in a purposeful way.

Almost like a Mento itself, you know, just like we did

the physical reaction of the CO2 coming out of solution

and diet soda because of like,

there's like a little bit of surface variation, you know?

Wait, what?

I'm sorry.

I've learned that this takes intense concentration

and I shouldn't be spoken to.

It's a silent art.

[upbeat jazzy music]

I want to let this whole thing sit

so that the wetter Mentos can set

before I kind of move around the board,

and I'll come back in maybe ten minutes

and sort of transfer the drier ones to the rack,

and then at that point everything just needs to dry out.

Maybe overnight.

I might have to come back here tomorrow

and check on these.

This should maybe go into the Gourmet Makes museum.

I'll just put this off to the side.

[Man] What would you call it?

What if I need to use it again?

This is our drying rack.

What would it be called in Game of Thrones?

What's Arya's sword called?

[Man] Needle?

Oh yeah, Needle.

The Needle Rack.

These are my Mentos.

It's that?

Yeah.

They're close enough.

Good enough for government work.

Always.

Brad's so deeply unimpressed.

Ignoring all that, I'm just gonna set these aside.

Oh, Brad, can I use--

Can I use your fans?

Yeah, yeah.

This is good. This is good.

Put this bad boy on high.

Yeah, put it on high.

Put it on high.

[Brad] Now we're humming.

Yeah, no.

It's, okay good.

I think it's getting air all over.

Great.

Just come back tomorrow.

[upbeat jazzy music]

So here are the Mentos.

These have been drying overnight,

they had the fan on them.

I think they've dried sufficiently,

as you can see, like they're pretty hard.

They definitely have a right side and a wrong side,

so I'm trying to keep them basically right side up,

because on the bottom they have the little spikes,

tiny little marks from my torture rack.

That's okay.

I think they actually overall look really, really good.

Especially if you stand like two feet away

and don't look too close.

Christina, can you hear that?

The tapping?

It taps.

[Man] Can you bounce a regular Mentos next to it?

I don't think that's gonna happen.

Okay, let's just see if this bounces.

[laughing]

They don't bounce.

Whatever.

[Christina] Are they supposed to?

I was trying to get them hard enough

that they would do that.

Is that a regular Mentos?

Yeah.

Okay, should I dry the OG first?

Yeah, if you want.

I'll try one with you. Do you like them?

I like these.

They're just a very different texture.

Oh wow.

They're like soft mints.

Mm-hmm.

Which I love.

They're definitely improved.

Oh, thank you!

Yeah, I do not care to eat another one of these,

and I would keep eating these.

Yeah, thank you.

[Molly] Cool, well done!

Thanks.

Maybe the texture wasn't exactly what I wanted

but I like the flavor.

I think we really gour-made these.

Just taste it and love it.

Tastes,

if someone told me is was a Mentos or not

I wouldn't be able to tell.

It tastes perfect, Claire.

Tastes like coconut oil.

I know.

I put coconut oil in it.

Yeah, great job Claire!

[Claire] Thanks.

I think you did a great job.

Oh, Brad.

[claps] [whooping]

No, it's nice.

This is hard, Claire.

Let's face it.

Yeah, it's hard.

You know how much money Mr. Mentos spent

on developing that to be perfect every time?

A lot.

It's maybe a little mintier?

You're doing a day one thing.

We're on the last day.

So, just.

Great, you nailed it. Yeah, there you go.

It's perfect.

That's what I was looking for.

It needs--

Brad, don't go there. Just like a little more

of that ethanoly-- Nope.

Mentholy kind of burn.

Ethanol. Nope.

Too late.

Great job, Claire.

There it is.

Delaney.

Hi.

A head shake just as a greeting.

Wow.

[Claire] No, what are you doing?

Don't do that.

Don't squeeze it.

Just eat the whole thing,

and pretend like it's identical.

They're definitely softer.

[Claire] I know.

The flavor is definitely better.

Thanks. I like the flavor.

I think the flavor's great.

The real test will be

if they make the Diet Coke explode.

Oh, you haven't done that yet?

We did it with the original.

No, no, no, I know.

But ...

But we haven't tried it with these.

All right I kind of what to see that.

[upbeat jazzy music]

So, we're gonna try the Diet Coke experiment

with the homemade Mentos.

Are we ready?

I'm ready.

I'll help you position it.

I'm going on three.

Yes. One, two, three.

[laughing]

[squealing]

[laughing]

Yes!

[dreamy atmospheric music]

[clapping]

It works!

It worked, Claire!

Yay!

It worked!

[laughing]

I think that this was one of the more

unhinged, expansive episodes of Gourmet Makes.

Here's what we did.

Wait, I'm sorry.

We still don't know why it works?

But it's something about--

It's like the surface, you know?

Yeah, you know.

Just say stuff like that.

A little bit irregular that causes the CO2 bubbles

to kind of form around it.

Anyway, thanks guys.

So fun. Thanks, Claire.

This was a fun Gourmet Makes.

The middle section was less fun

than the beginning and end

where we just got to play with the Diet Coke

in the dish pit.

Yeah, so it was great.

And I'm actually really proud of the overall shape

and construction and coating, which is also something

that I thought was gonna be hard,

so I was pleasantly surprised.

It was a Gourmet explosion.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Here's how you make Gourmet Mentos.

Sprinkle 3/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin over one tablespoon

of cold water in a small bowl.

Set aside.

Combine 60 grams coconut oil, 25 grams corn starch,

and one teaspoon of peppermint extract.

Set aside.

Combine 200 grams sugar, a pinch of kosher salt,

and 100 grams corn syrup, and three tablespoons water

in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat,

stirring to dissolve sugar.

Bring to boil.

Cook until the thermometer

reaches 270 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove from the heat, stir in the gelatin to dissolve,

then whisk in the coconut oil mixture until smooth.

Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet

and let sit until cool enough to handle.

Pull the sugar constantly until the mixture

reaches room temperature.

Press the mixture back onto the baking sheet

and let sit until completely set and hardened.

Crumble the mixture into pieces

and microwave until softened.

Pinch off and weigh 2.7 gram portions.

Roll the portions to form spheres,

then compress between two quarter teaspoon

round measuring spoons.

Tap out onto the counter and repeat.

Flatten the spheres slightly to create oblate spheroids.

Make a royal icing with one large egg white

and confectioner's sugar.

Dip the Mentos one at a time into the royal icing

and transfer to a toothpick drying rack.

Let sit until dry to the touch

and transfer to a regular rack and let dry overnight.

There's something almost nostalgic in the flavor,

because it's like a--

It's like, you know what it tastes like?

I know exactly what you're gonna say.

The soft mints-- Grandma mint.

Oh, yeah yeah.

Grandma? I call them--

Like the diner, when you get those little pillow mints.

Yes, the pillow mints!

It's a grandma mint.

Oh you know what you should make, Claire?

Those Andy's mints.

I love Andy's mints so much.

Oh, Andy's mints.

They were, like, class.

Oh yeah.

Love the flavor.

Thanks.

Do you get a little coconutty?

Wanna try something savory?

[laughing]

What is it?

It's a guessing game.

Is it powdered kimchi?

Nope.

Powdered sauerkraut?

Nope.

And powdered miso?

It's just miso.

Chickpea miso.

Really?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Isn't that neat?

It's really tasty.

Right, almost cheesy.

Yeah, very.

You want a pinch bud?

I had all the pinches yesterday.

I already tried it all.

What episode is this?

What are we doing?

[Alex] What are we doing?

Okay.

All right.

It's like, you never get a little Brad.

You always get all of Brad

when you ask Brad.

We got one gear.

Boof! [laughing]