Chilly Candy?

You pop a candy cane or peppermint patty into your mouth, and suddenly a chilly feeling spreads on your tongue. But your mouth didn’t actually freeze—it’s your brain playing a trick on you!

Peppermint—the plant that gives these candies their flavor—contains a chemical called menthol. As we eat the candy, our saliva breaks down the peppermint, releasing the menthol. This chemical then attaches itself to our tongue’s nerve cells, which send information we sensed to the brain. Menthol tells these cells to alert us that something is “cold” even if it’s not!

“It’s not clear why the peppermint plant has this unique chemical,” says biologist David McKemy. “But it’s amazing how our bodies react to it.”