Quiggin's keeps Kendal Mint Cake tradition alive from its Kendal works

Ask anyone what Kendal is famous for and the answer is likely to be mint cake. The sugary, peppermint-flavoured bar has fuelled walkers, climbers and explorers for well over a century, and Quiggin's is one of the names that has kept it in production.

The company's story begins not in Cumbria but on the Isle of Man. In 1840 William Quiggin founded a confectionery business there, and the firm describes making more than sixty different types of sweets in those early years.

The move to Kendal came a generation later. Quiggin's own history places the company's arrival in the town in the early 1870s, when William's son Daniel brought the business across the water. It was around this time that Kendal Mint Cake itself was emerging, with the invention of the sweet usually credited to Joseph Wiper in 1869.

Country Life tells the story of that happy accident: a pan of sugar, peppermint and water was undercooked and over-stirred, producing the grainy, crumbly bar that would become the town's signature. Several local firms took up production, and Quiggin's was among them.

The company describes itself as the oldest surviving mint cake maker, and it has its own place in mountaineering history. In 1975 Chris Bonington took Quiggin's mint cake on his Everest expedition, continuing the sweet's long association with the world's highest peaks.

That same year Quiggin's introduced an innovation that many fans now consider essential, becoming the first company to cover its mint cake in chocolate. The chocolate-coated bar remains one of its best-known products today.

Mint cake has never needed reinventing. Its appeal lies in its simplicity: a pocket-sized burst of energy that survives a rucksack, a rainy fell top or a long day on a bike. For many families, a bar picked up in Kendal is as much a part of a Lakeland holiday as the walk itself.

Quiggin's Kendal Mint Cake can be found in shops across the Lake District, and the full range, including the chocolate-covered bars, is available to order from the company's website.