The new pineapple on pizza debate is now chocolate on mint. 

Mint chocolate flavored foods have sparked an internet controversy and even led to the release of many new mint chocolate-inspired flavored snacks, including Kit Kat’s Duos Mint and Dark Chocolate that came out last year.  

The controversy was sparked from the differing views of mint chocolate being two great tastes meshed together to other opinions condemning its similarity to eating toothpaste or gum. 

“I think it’s controversial because not a lot of people eat mint with chocolate… I think it’s either chocolate or mint. It’s like when you eat pineapple [on pizza],” Isaiah Arabe, a sophomore in civil engineering, said. “It’s just like two different tastes in one and not everyone has the same taste buds to enjoy that.” 

Many students compare the taste of mint chocolate ice cream to toothpaste. 

“I personally don’t like it because it feels like I’m eating toothpaste […] Eating chocolate mint anything I’m like, I’m swallowing toothpaste. I can’t be doing that,” Audrey Eaton, a sophomore in apparel, merchandising and design, said. 

In contrast, Sandibel Sandoval, a sophomore in mathematics, described mint chocolate as the perfect pair. 

“It’s just a good flavor; it’s the perfect combination. It’s not too sweet like chocolate,” she said.  

Despite the controversy mint chocolate has pulled, mint chocolate ice cream continues to be popular and profitable. Mint chocolate was ranked the fourth most popular ice cream flavor in the U.S., according to a survey conducted in 2017 by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). 

Mint chocolate even has its own holiday. Feb. 19 sets National Chocolate Mint Day and is recognized by the U.S. National Confectioners Association, according to the National Day Calendar. 

“Overall, I don’t think the toothpaste flavor is unappealing […] I wouldn’t want a Sensodyne ice cream but the cooling sensation,” Griffin Meyer, a junior in culinary food science, said. 

Meyer also advertised a delicious seasonal mint cocoa sorbet from the Iowa State Creamery. 

“We went through many trials [making the mint cocoa sorbet]… that was really wonderful, we tried a whole bunch of different things,” Meyer said. 

He and many students also attach mint chocolate flavored foods to their childhood nostalgia. 

“Maybe it goes back to being a little kid and having those like tasty flavors of toothpaste… Maybe I’m a little childish for liking it,” Meyer said. 

“When I think of mint, it reminds me of how my parents told me don’t chew gum, don’t swallow it, it’s bad for you,” Arabe said. “Don’t swallow your toothpaste, it’s unhealthy for you… Parents tell you that stuff, it influences you.” 

Even as companies continue to release mint chocolate flavored foods and many on the internet are opposed to that, students feel like the debate is not as controversial as the internet makes it out to be.

“You get to enjoy what you like,” Arabe said. “[You] shouldn’t have other people tell you what to like and what to dislike… Everyone gets to like their own thing even if you don’t agree.”