Pacers

Pacers were chewy mint sweets made by Mars in Britain. They were discontinued in 1985, but people who grew up with them still talk about them.

Opal Mints

Pacers began life as Opal Mints: plain white, chewy, spearmint flavoured sweets, launched as a sister product to Opal Fruits, the fruit chews that later became Starburst. See Opal Fruits.

Becoming Pacers

Around 1976 the sweets were relaunched as Pacers. Later, three green peppermint stripes were added to each sweet, possibly to bring it in line with a similar American product of the same name. The stripes gave Pacers their look: white chews with green bands, like a little sports shirt.

Sporty adverts

The television adverts leaned into sport and fitness, with people wearing green and white striped kit to match the sweets, and the slogan peppermint striped for two mint freshness.

Celtic's nickname

The resemblance worked both ways. At one point Glasgow Celtic, whose kit has green and white hoops, were nicknamed the Pacers because their kit looked like the sweets.

Gone in 1985

Mars discontinued Pacers in 1985, less than ten years after the relaunch, and they have never come back as a permanent line. Their big sister, Opal Fruits, lasted much longer, until the name was changed to Starburst in the UK in 1998. They join other Mars sweets that are no longer made, including Spangles. For more lost sweets, see sweets you can no longer buy.

The chewy mint tradition

Chewy mints were a different idea from the hard British mint. Instead of a boiled sweet like a humbug or a glacier mint, a chewy mint uses a softer sweet base, closer to a fruit chew, carrying the mint flavour. For the hard kind, see Polo mints and mint imperials.

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