Factory Mistakes

Factory mistakes are something that I love, especially the “Red Bird Southern Refresh Mints” mistakes. They often come in a container and are individually wrapped. I find them often at restaurants as one goes out the door. The mints are round and tall, but look like a classic peppermint - red and white stripes - and they melt on your tongue. I have found a lot of factory mistakes. The most common ones are either when the logo on the wrapper is not printed correctly or when the wrapper is too long. Sometimes, though, the actual candy isn’t the right shape and as far as I have found, can only be too small and not too big. Oftentimes,  I keep the wrapper of the mistake mints. I started collecting these wrappers about two years ago when we went to a local restaurant. As you go out the restaurant door on the hostess desk, there is a basket where you can grab the mints, and I was so happy when I got my first factory mistake. There were two wrappers attached to each. One wrapper had a normal-sized mint in it, while the other wrapper had a half-sized mint in it.  The next time I went, I got another factory mistake. After dining there multiple times, I realized there were a lot of mistakes in the mint basket. Collecting factory mistakes is fun because they are different, and the difference makes them special. Most people I know would probably throw away something that’s a factory mistake––even though that mistake can be worth lots of money. For example, pennies. There was a penny that had one of its letters slightly off where it should have been, and when it was discovered there had been a mistake, it became worth thousands of dollars for its rarity. While the mint factory mistakes won’t ever been worth money, I still like to collect them for their uniqueness.