il Mercato Italiano

A wonderful selection of items.

I had to enter il Mercato Italiano on Unilocal after a fabulous, totally non-​painless online ordering experience.
So… I’m in love with the hard mint candies that are usually found in Italian restaurants. Unlike the candy stripe, red and white American mints, Sperlari Italian mints are translucent, in clearish green wrapping, and utterly delicious. They freshen your breath like nothing else and are vastly superior to mints in the American market.
However, the only place I’d ever seen Sperlari mints was in big bowls at the front of Italian restaurants. My challenge was clear: Either I had to wear a mask and go loot the mint bowl at my favorite Sperlari mint-​giving Italian eatery, or I had to find them online.
Finding the right Italian mint online was far more difficult than I expected. The specific brand I like most– Sperlari Caramelle Menta– appears to be imported and sold ONLY in bulk. And by bulk, I mean 1600 mints, which is ambitious even for someone like me. I finally found a place that sold the right mints, but they were over $ 40 (for a zillion) and the snail-​mail shipping was astronomical! So I kept looking…
Enter, il Mercato Italiano. They sell the same delicious mints for $ 36.95. AND, FedEx shipping was only $ 9.38 (compared to the $ 40 the other place wanted to charge). So I bought them. Yes… I spent over $ 40 for 3kg of mints… I have a feeling I’ll grow to hate them. :)
But the entire ordering process at il Mercato Italiano was flawless. They accept paypal, they don’t gouge on shipping, they carry a lot of rare imported Italian products, and their slowest, cheapest shipping arrived in less than 3 days. For 2 day shipping at the other website, I would have paid almost $ 80.
I love buying rare, hard-​to-​find, unique food online, so although I haven’t been to Green Bay, WI, I thought it was imperative that I inform my fellow specialty-​foods-​loving friends of the great finds at il Mercato. Now… anybody want a mint?