Behind the Scenes: Uncle Joe's Mint Balls

National World - Broadcast Video

We take a behind-the-scenes tour of a 126 year old sweet factory in Wigan, to see how the famous Uncle Joe's Mint Balls are made.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 At the end of an unassuming terrace street in Wigan stands a local legend.

00:09 [Music]

00:13 Since Ellen Santus made her first batch of Uncle Joe's mint balls in 1898,

00:18 the brand has become renowned for their strong mint flavour and distinctive packaging.

00:22 [Music]

00:25 Still very much a family business, it's now run by brothers John and Anthony Winnard

00:29 and the methods and long-standing traditions remain the same.

00:32 [Music]

00:35 Come with us for a look behind the scenes as we discover how they're made.

00:39 We'll try and find out who Uncle Joe is, what King Charles thinks about mint balls

00:43 and how this simple little sweet has stood the test of time.

00:47 [Music]

00:53 Myself and Anthony are the fourth generation of the company.

00:57 So William Santus was our great-great-uncle. He started the company, we say, in 1898

01:03 and then it went down to his nephew who was our grandfather and then to our dad.

01:10 Dad made us both work our way through the company so we both know how to sugar boil.

01:15 One of our proudest achievements is sitting gills in sugar boiling,

01:19 which not many people can say they've got that, so yeah.

01:22 So we work on about 16,000 square feet and we always used to have two floors.

01:33 One was the production area and one was the wrapping area.

01:37 We've changed a little bit where we're going to put all the production downstairs,

01:40 so let's go down and have a look.

01:45 Over there we've got all the sugar that we use, which is, it's sugar cane,

01:51 so it's not beet, it's cane sugar, which is the more healthy sugar for you.

01:58 This is the boiling area.

02:01 So we're cooking on open gas stoves as original.

02:07 Obviously the machine is not original, but the way we cook is,

02:14 we're taking it up to around about 160 degrees,

02:18 which is quite a high temperature for the confectionery.

02:23 So we take it to 160, then we pour it onto these tables.

02:29 Now the tables are water cooled, you can see here.

02:34 So when we pour it on, we can cool the toffee down as quickly as possible.

02:40 We're just putting a release on there now so they don't stick.

02:45 So when she comes up to temperature, we'll pour it on here and then we'll add the peppermint.

03:03 We're actually burning, or what the post chefs say, we're caramelising,

03:10 what we do is we burn it a little bit so you get that, a bit of a caramel taste on it.

03:16 So now we're introducing the peppermint.

03:36 Like gorillas in the mist.

03:42 We get a capillary action where the peppermint makes its way through the product.

04:03 So it's now developing a skin underneath, and Danny will just turn it over

04:09 and we'll get it to a point where we can put it in the forming machine then.

04:28 So can you see how it's formed a film underneath there where it's gone colder?

04:42 It's basic physics really.

04:48 I've been here for eight years, nine years, so I've been here quite a while.

04:53 So basically when it gets poured, I add the flavouring, keep mixing it in,

04:59 it's like you're eating dogs, so you're getting all the ingredients in.

05:02 And then when it gets to a nice plasticine state, I can then put it in the roller

05:07 and it takes it from there, then you make your sweet out of that.

05:12 I don't think there's many of a coldness around these days,

05:18 but I can't think of any off the top of my head anyway.

05:21 So it's still used in old equipment in a traditional way,

05:25 so it's all high-tech and modern in most places now.

05:30 Do all your friends ask you to bring bags of peppermint home?

05:33 Yeah, all the time.

05:35 And it's like, I'll go round the house after work and be like,

05:41 "All right, I know, but I can't smell it now."

05:44 It's like immune.

05:47 All this is done by hand, so when it's ready to go into the forming machine,

05:54 which again, it's all done by sight and feel.

05:59 So all this is heated to keep the toffee warm.

06:16 Then it needs to take it down to the right diameter to go through into the forming head.

06:22 All this is air-cooled, so we're trying to cool it down as quickly as possible now.

06:39 [MACHINE WHIRRING]

06:42 I thought you were looking.

06:45 These are still used to put a coating on the sweets.

06:58 And I would say circa 1950s.

07:07 And it's copper.

07:11 The reason it's warm in here is because we've got to keep the sweets nice and dry.

07:21 So consequently, we have to keep it heated all the time.

07:25 What we're doing is self-feeding it into here, which then drops into pockets.

07:32 And the pockets then are picked up by this rail here.

07:37 The rail then feeds into a six-part jaw system,

07:44 which will cut and seal at the same time.

07:49 So we can run this machine up to about 1,500 a minute if we want to.

07:55 I've been here about five years.

07:57 I started on the cleaning and then come into the factory.

08:00 So I do a bit of everything.

08:03 I love it. I've lost about two stones just running around.

08:06 And every day is different. You're just doing different things.

08:09 Sometimes you don't do a look at the clock and think, "Oh, it's gone. The day's gone."

08:13 So it's good. It's just different things you're doing.

08:15 We're doing these, the bulk bags.

08:17 Then you can do the packing thing. You're setting up that machine.

08:20 I've learned lots of things about the machine and setting it all up and things.

08:24 It gives you confidence as well.

08:26 It's like they're set up in the cleaning bit and then come in.

08:29 Is it better than cleaning?

08:31 Yes.

08:32 Uncle Joe, there's two schools of thought.

08:40 Our grandpa always said that Joe was a friendly term.

08:43 If you didn't know someone's name, you're like Joe,

08:46 and then your favorite uncle bringing you sweets.

08:49 So that's one school of thought.

08:51 The other school of thought was that the Santas were friendly with a family called the Atty family in Bryn.

08:57 And we think that they had a son called Joe.

09:00 I think Mrs. Santas learned how to make sweets off the Atty family.

09:05 And maybe in recognition of changing the recipe and using their ways of making sweets,

09:11 she called them Uncle Joe. So we don't know to this day.

09:16 We treat people who are our workforce as a family.

09:22 And it's not all about getting the full production out of them, you know, the people.

09:29 And we do run it like that. So, yeah, we care.

09:33 We're selling a store as well as a product.

09:36 And you can see from the video that we still make things by hand.

09:40 And it's just the packing side that we've actually speeded up.

09:43 Anything we could do with machines to speed up the process, we have done.

09:48 But we wouldn't like to change the recipe.

09:50 And the sugar we use fluffs up a bit like milk.

09:53 So you can only boil it on open gas fires.

09:57 Most companies vacuum cook nowadays, but then that gives a different flavor to the sweets.

10:02 And there's no hand on. It's all machines that do it.

10:05 So, you know, we've kept it like this for a reason.

10:10 Well, at the moment, we're producing around 33 to 36 different sweets.

10:17 And although the Uncle Joe's is ostensibly our biggest seller,

10:24 and the Winter Nips, all the sort of the usual and tried and tested sweets,

10:31 we try and keep up with the current fads.

10:34 So now we're producing rum-flavored sweets, gin-flavored sweets, cider-flavored sweets.

10:44 Obviously non-alcoholic, just the flavors.

10:48 And people just want to change now and again, which we're quite good.

10:53 And we're small enough to turn it around in quite a short amount of time.

10:57 So we'll try it. If it doesn't work, then move on to the next.

11:02 In 2012, I got my MBE, and Prince Charles presented me with it.

11:09 He said that he really loved old buildings and that.

11:12 So the next day, when I got back to Wigan, I sent a letter to Clarence House saying,

11:18 "Your Highness, if you're ever up in the Wigan area, we'd love you to come in and have a cup of tea,

11:23 and I'll show you around the factory."

11:25 And sure enough, in 2019, we came and looked at the factory,

11:31 and we were celebrating our 100 years.

11:33 So whether that was just coincidence, I'm not sure,

11:36 but he did say that if he ever came to Wigan, he would try and look us up.

11:40 So we gave him a hamper, but also it had a bottle of Uncle Joe's gin as well, for Camilla, for Her Majesty.

11:51 She's known now.

11:52 She's known now, yes.

11:54 [Music]

11:59 you

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