16 September: Creme de Menthe

Today is National Creme De Menthe Day. Here are 10 0things you might not know about Creme de Menthe:

1. The name Creme De Menthe is French and translates as “mint cream”.

2. The flavour comes from Corsican Mint leaves, which have been steeped in alcohol for several weeks.

3. Creme De Menthe is usually Green, but a colourless “White” version is also available.

4. The best known cocktails using it are the Grasshopper, created by Philibert Guichet Jr. in New Orleans and the Stinger, which was popular during the American Prohibition because the mint flavour masked the bad taste of the poor quality brandies available at the time.

5. It’s also a key ingredient in the popular South African shot the Springbokkie.

6. The origin of Creme de menthe is attributed to French pharmacist Emile Giffard, who discovered it while researching the digestive effects of mint back in 1885. However, it was actually invented by brothers Jean and Pierre Get in 1796. They were heirs to a large French distillery.

7. It’s said that the traditional last drink taken by mobsters before they go to prison is Creme De Menthe.

8. Agatha Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot drank it.

9. Sergei Rachmaninoff, although he didn’t usually drink, found that a glass of crème de menthe calmed his nerves when playing the technically demanding piano score in the twenty-fourth variation of his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He nicknamed the that piece the "Crème de Menthe Variation".

10. It has appeared in an episode of Friends. In the episode The One with the Two Parties, in an attempt to stop Leonard Green from running into his wife, Phoebe offers him a crème de menthe.

Character birthday

Symius, a lab chimpanzee, called “Tetley” by the staff. He suffered any number of painful and degrading experiments in his early life, until the one which went badly wrong.

Tetley was exposed to massive amounts of radiation which changed him. He became as intelligent as an average human. Now blessed with the power of reasoning, he began to articulate his anger at the human race and began to plot revenge.

He escaped from the lab and lived rough, foraging for food, and eventually teaming up with Hog Man, a similar mutate, who had been a laboratory pig.

They learned they had both been experimented on by Dr Chaos, and together plotted revenge. Chaos, however, persuaded them he had actually done them a favour by enhancing their abilities and that he was no friend of the human race in general either. He could offer the pair a place on his team and a safe haven, which after due consideration, they accepted.