Albert M. Todd

Who was Albert M. Todd?

Albert May Todd was a businessman and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He became known as the "Peppermint King" for founding a flourishing business in peppermint.

Todd was born near Nottawa, Michigan in St. Joseph County, the tenth and last child of Alfred and Mary Ann Hovey Todd, who had come to Michigan from upstate New York. He graduated from Sturgis High School and then studied chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

After graduating, he traveled in Europe, where he studied mint production and brought back several varieties from European gardens. Mint was already widely cultivated in southwestern Michigan, and in 1869, after returning from Europe, he founded the A.M. Todd Company to extract flavorings and essential oils from mint and other botanicals.

He developed scientific methods for testing various qualities of mint distillates which allowed a means of grading the oils. In 1875 he marketed the "Crystal White" brand of peppermint oil, with his own name featured prominently on the label as an assurance of quality. In 1891, he moved the company to Kalamazoo, where it still has offices over a century later.