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I opened a package of caffeinated mints this morning, and I noticed that they seemed to sparkle in the light. When I examined it closely, I saw that the "empty space" in the package was full of a nebulous, white "fluff," and when I examined the "fluff" under a 10x hand lens, I saw a tangle of colorless, needle-like crystals, up to 1cm long, and thinner than a hair from my head.

I was unable to take a photo at the time.

I extracted a few on the tip of a knife in order to look at them more closely, but I could not do anything else because of an appointment that I had to keep. I left the knife on my desk, and I closed the package of mints in a zip-loc bag before leaving.

When I returned, around one hour later, the crystals on the knife point and all of the crystals in the package had completely vanished.

The mints are made mostly of sorbitol and caffeine, with trace amounts of flavor ingredients and vitamins. The package had been sitting undisturbed on a shelf in my bedroom closet for several weeks before I opened it. I'm guessing that I saw caffeine crystals that had grown inside the package while it sat on the shelf, and I suppose they all sublimated* after I opened the package to air. Does that seem right?

* Aaaaaugh! My caffeine! My caffeine! I need it. Stop! Come back!

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    $\begingroup$ Caffeine needs pretty high temp. to sublimate. Menthol would be more likely suspect. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Nov 27 at 14:48
  • $\begingroup$ @Mithoron, OK, I can survive with less menthol. And, of course, there's a pretty strong odor of that whenever I open the package. I was only guessing caffeine because (a) there's 80mg of that in each mint, and (b) I saw pictures of caffeine crystals on the internets, and they looked kind of similar. $\endgroup$
    – Solomon Slow
    Commented Nov 27 at 15:19
  • $\begingroup$ Seems like a common occurrence. $\endgroup$
    – Karsten ♦
    Commented Nov 28 at 1:28

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