Striking gold in your garden, nothing is cooler than mint

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Wait, a mint!

When I was a kid, finding a mint plant in someone’s yard was equivalent to striking gold. We all went crazy crushing the leaves in our fingers and sniffing the heady aroma of the pleasantly pungent odor. However, we were kids and had to consider the BIG question. Is it really a mint plant, or is it a crafty little charlatan pretending to be mint, one of Mother Nature’s cruel little jokes? What if, instead, it’s a deadly poisonous plant that, upon consumption, would have us rolling around in paroxysms of pernicious pain in about 20 minutes? (Granted, I may not have known what some of those words meant then, but it adds to the ambiance of the story.)

Anyway, since I’m writing this piece, we were obviously never poisoned by either peppermint or spearmint. These plants are in the genus Mentha, and, as usual, this opens up a wide variety of plants with more than 3,000 published names, list not included. Here are some names of the most common: spearmint, peppermint, apple mint, banana mint, doublemint, watermint, American wild mint, Australian mint, Canadian mint, Japanese peppermint, and pennyroyal mint. That doesn’t include the hybrids, but I must include one: Mojito mint.

Summertime evokes mint in many forms as it is a “cooling” plant. We’ve all heard of the renown Mint Julep made famous by the Kentucky Derby, and in the past ten years or so the Mojito has become quite the popular drink. Creme de menthe is flavored liqueur used in the cocktail known as a Grasshopper. Also, mint is used in a slew of other beverages such as the basic mint tea, or Touareg tea that is popular in northern African and Arabic countries. Many people simply add the crushed leaves in ice water as a refreshing summer drink.

As far as food, mint is utilized in jellies, syrups, candies, and ice cream. It is popular with lamb in Middle Eastern cuisine, while British and American dishes use mint jelly and mint sauce. Southern Asia fare includes use in curries and other preparations. Of course, mint is popular in toothpaste, mouthwash, desserts, candies, and gum. Mint chocolate chip is a favorite with the kids in the form of ice cream. So, to what flavor do we attribute all these wonderful concoctions? Mint essential oil and menthol, the main aroma of peppermint, and L-carvone, the primary flavor of spearmint.

Mint is also a staple of traditional medicine and cosmetics. It was used as an herb to treat stomach aches and chest pains, and ancient Greeks rubbed mint on their arms, believing it would make them stronger. I don’t know about that, but it certainly made them smell better!