Mints have become the next fashionable accessory. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Sometimes they're even slipped in trendy containers that look great in your messenger bag, beside your cellphone and palm pilot. We taste-tested eight kinds that are guaranteed to satisfy any oral fixation. Pop 'em in your mouth, and kiss your bad breath goodbye.

CERTS COOL MINT DROPS
1.05 oz (30 g)
packaging: The cardboard box is reminiscent of Tart N' Tiny and Nerds boxes, with the push-up-and-spit-out lid. Don't let it sink to the bottom of your purse, or it will get smushed.
taste and efficency: The momentary spark of pepperminty flavor in the center doesn't last very long.
length to dissolve: 6 minutes until it dissolves into the retsyn center -- essentially minty, crackly mush with a residue-like aftertaste.
bonus: For some reason, the box is in English and French. Carry it around and look trés chic. Ooh la la!

ALTOIDS
1.76 oz (50 g)
packaging: What seemed to be the first mint-in-a-tin, the Altoids packaging is classic and timeless. But that piece of tissue paper is just annoying; it's an extra layer to dig through. After makes a great container for paperclips, bobby pins and vitamins.
taste and efficency: We all know Altoids are "curiously strong," which translates to obnoxious for the peppermint flavor, toothpastey sweet for wintergreen (Do you remember candy cigarettes? They kinda taste like that.) and mm-mmm good for the sizzling cinammon altoids. It feels like eating a piece of chalk, a sensation some people actually enjoy.
length to dissolve: 2 minutes before it just disintegrates in your mouth.
bonus: You can also purchase the super duper monster size tin, so that you can just refill your little tin.

STARBUCKS AFTER-COFFEE MINTS
0.5 oz (14 g)
packaging: The attractive tin looks just like the walls of the coffeehouse chains: bright, swirly and too trendy for its own good.
taste and efficiency: Designed to do away with that coffee breath, the mint -- although tinier than one aspirin -- has kick. It's so potent that when you inhale your nostrils get tingly.
length to dissolve: 4 minutes, leaving a cool, soothing aftertaste.
bonus: The compact size is half the size of the other mint tins -- a perfect fit for your pocket or a make-up bag.

MENTOS
1.3 oz (37.5 g)
packaging: It makes great photo props when you and your friends are bored.
taste and efficency: More of an oral fixation than a freshmaker, Mentos give your mouth something to do. As is with cheap gum, the minty taste left in your mouth doesn't last very long.
length to dissolve: It's the "chewy mint." You don't suck on it.
bonus: You cannot have a bad day when you have Mentos. You can turn any disaster into a success. You can crawl through taxis, break off shoe heels and paint your suit, and everything will still be okay.

PENGUIN MINTS
packaging: The tin is graced by an image of a penguin standing in the middle of a burst of black, yellow and white -- very retro and hip, which explains why you can buy it at places like Urban Outfitters and Tower Records.
taste and efficency: Designed by guys who had to forgo coffee in the morning before work, these are packed with minty goodness andcaffeine. Brilliant! The look: smooth and sleek, shaped like pellets. The taste: subtle and sugar-free. They also come in decaf, but what's the point?
length to dissolve: 4 1/2 minutes.
bonus: Half of its power is in the belief that it will start off your day right; just to be safe, drink a cup of coffee beforehand.

SMINTS
.28 oz (8 g)
packaging: Perhaps the grooviest -- a royal blue plastic box with a fancy loading and dropping dispensor. Push down the white button and out drops a mint. Only one at a time.
taste and efficency: Leaves a clean, sparkling taste in your mouth. It touts itself as "powerful mints," and rightly so.
length to dissolve: 4 minutes. Not exactly "instant freshness" as it says on the box, but close enough.
bonus: The mints have "xylitol," whatever that is, and the they're triangular, which is cute.

LIFESAVERS BREATHSAVERS
0.75 oz (21 g)
packaging: The trademark Lifesavers foil wrapping seems so "old school," but it works. Beside the words, "sugar free," it says, "Not for weight loss."
taste and efficency: Wintergreen is light and fresh -- sugar free.
length to dissolve: It takes 3 minutes before the the white outer rim dissolves into the minty green flavor crystals.
bonus: The spark, you know, that one that helped you convince Bobby or Jane in fourth grade to go into the closet to make out with you.

VELAMINTS CHOCOLATE MINTS
1.4 oz (39 g)
packaging: It looks like Altoids -- except it's brown, with a satiny background image and raised white lettering.
taste and efficency: I can just imagine the meeting at Velamints:
Mr. Suit #1: "What flavor can we do that Altoids hasn't already done?"
Mr. Suit #2: "Oh I know! Let's make chocolate!"
The square-shaped mints are sugar free and fat free -- and boy is it obvious. They are too sweet and taste like something your diabetic grandmother might pull out of her purse when you tell her you're hungry.
length to dissolve: I couldn't keep it in my mouth long enough to time it.
bonus: These mints will satiate your craving for chocolate, if you can keep it in your mouth long enough.

TIC TACS
1/2 oz
packaging: It's a slender clear box with the classic plastic flip-up lid. It works.
taste and efficency: The spearmint flavor is sugary sweet at first but leaves a funny aftertaste in your mouth.
length to dissolve: 5 minutes for that tiny pill to melt away on your tongue.
bonus: Only 1/2 calorie! Because you know that gaining weight is a concern when picking up your pack of mints.