Herbs and Spices Untitled Document

Mint

Mynta

Plant Description

Herb: Mentha (mint) is a genus of about 25 species (and many hundreds of varieties) of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae (Mint Family). Species within Mentha have a subcosmopolitan distribution across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North America.

Season:
You can begin to pick fresh young leaves as early as mid May.

Uses in Cooking:

Used in bean and fish soups, candies, chilled fruits, cold beverages, deserts, hot teas, jellies, lamb, peas. Mint leaves are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine mint is used in lamb dishes. In British cuisine, mint sauce is popular with lamb.
Mint is a necessary ingredient in Touareg tea, a popular tea in northern African and Arab countries.
Alcoholic drinks sometimes feature flavor of mint, namely the Mint julep and the Mojito. Crème de menthe is a mint-flavored liqueur used in drinks such as the Grasshopper.

Possible Substitutes:

Other Mint Varieties

How it comes:

Spice Mixes

Mint leaves can be used whole, chopped, dried and ground, frozen, preserved in salt, sugar, sugar syrup, alcohol, oil, or dried.

Other Uses:

Mint leaves are often used by many campers to repel mosquitoes. It is also said that extracts from mint leaves have a particular mosquito-killing capability.
Mint oil is also used as an environmentally-friendly insecticide for its ability to kill some common pests like wasps, hornets, ants and cockroaches.