# All fresh herbs taste like mint



## inchrisin

Whenever I try to grow an herb garden I notice that all of my herbs taste like mint.  I usually grow cilantro, basil, and thyme.  I never actually grow any mint.  This holds especially true as the herbs become very mature and go to seed.  I usually discard them by this point. 

Anyone else having a similar problem?


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## CharlieD

I never grew anything but dill. Never had such problems. Interesting.


Sent from my iPad using Discuss Cooking


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## GotGarlic

I've never had that problem, either, and I grow over a dozen herbs. 

Thyme is a perennial and shouldn't need to be discarded each year.


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## medtran49

I've never had that problem either as far as a mint taste and I have grown mint in the past with my other herbs, just not recently since we don't really use it that much and it will explode and take-over in S. Florida.  I do, however, end up having to discard and start over again, several times a year for basil and usually once or twice a year for other things, except rosemary.  It just gets too hot here and it doesn't seem to matter how much I water them, they just get woody or die or get really ratty looking.


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## GotGarlic

Success in growing herbs, or just about anything, does depend somewhat on the local climate. Mine is temperate, so most herbs do very well here. Btw, I keep my mint in a strawberry pot on the patio to keep it contained. It's invasive here, too. 

inchrisin, where are you located?


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## medtran49

GotGarlic said:


> Success in growing herbs, or just about anything, does depend somewhat on the local climate. Mine is temperate, so most herbs do very well here. Btw, I keep my mint in a strawberry pot on the patio to keep it contained. It's invasive here, too.
> 
> inchrisin, where are you located?


 
Yeh, I tried it in a pot, it just grew roots out the bottom and roots into the ground from the trailers over the pot edges.  I never will forget trying to pick the mint pot up to take it in when a hurricane was coming years ago, yanked and yanked and it wasn't budging.  Ended up just leaving it there because it wasn't going anywhere unless you took a machete to hack off all the roots that had grown out of it and attached it to the ground.  On a patio would be about the only place I could grow it and I'd have to trim it constantly.


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## Dawgluver

None of my herbs taste like mint, except my mint.  My oregano has eaten my thyme, it's almost as invasive as mint.  I grow my peppermint and spearmint in pots buried in the ground too.  The lemon balm, a mint relative, has taken over a big corner of my shade garden, and the hyssop, another mint cousin, has done a good job of colonizing the front garden.


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## Andy M.

I'd check with your doctor.


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## GotGarlic

I don't have enough space to let mint-family herbs take over  I cut them back ruthlessly in the fall. I'm out of dried oregano, in fact, so if the rain stops today, I'll go and clip some and put it in a dry vase.


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## taxlady

My herbs always smell and taste of what they are, not mint.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North

With many fresh herbs, including  sweet  basil, oregano, thyme, savory, cilantro, and sage, I have noticed a distinct, if mild mint flavor, reminiscent of spearmint.  This is not a surprise to me as they are all members of the mint family.  I found this site - Herbs of the Mint Family that gives a large list of common, and uncommon plants from this very large family.  Many are commonly uses as culinary and medicinal herbs, though they are not actually  herbaceous plants.

Just as my wife is overly sensitive to capsicum, I am very sensitive to the classic mint flavor.  The dried versions of these plants that I listed don't have that minty flavor to me.

Inchrisin, you may be hyper-sensitive to the menthol and other aromatic oils common to the mint family, and so taste the mint that others don't taste.  I know that I taste them, fortunately for me, very mildly as I detest the mint flavor in spearmint, mint candies (I vomited once when my grandmother fed me a York Peppermint Patty).  Peppermint is the worst for me, and I'm not fond of horehound either (another mint that used to be made into candies).

Please, not mint ice cream for me, or mint sauce on my lamb.

Interestingly, wintergreen has the same cooking effect in the mouth that mint does.  But it's from camphor, not menthol.  I love the flavor of wintergreen.  Mix some wintergreen flavor with brown sugar, swirl in carbonated water and you have something that tastes just like root beer.  Birch buds also have that same flavor.

Take a look at that site.  The  number of mints included is by no means complete, and it's large.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Dawgluver

What a neat site!  Thanks Chief!


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## GotGarlic

Very interesting information. Thanks for sharing that, Chief. I found this site which adds to it: http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Lamiaceae.htm


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## Dawgluver

Now I want mint chocolate chip ice cream.  But I always find myself wanting mint chocolate chip ice cream...

Another cool site, thanks GG!


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## Chief Longwind Of The North

Dawgluver said:


> Now I want mint chocolate chip ice cream.  But I always find myself wanting mint chocolate chip ice cream...
> 
> Another cool site, thanks GG!



You can have mine.  I'll take some strawberry cheesecake or maplenut, or butter-pecan thank you.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Dawgluver

It's a deal, Chief!  Though I may have a hard time giving up the butter pecan.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North

GotGarlic said:


> Very interesting information. Thanks for sharing that, Chief. I found this site which adds to it: Lamiaceae: Mint Family (Labiatae). Identify plants and flowers.



Thanks for the site.  I knew about the square stocks,  but not the opposite leaves or the 5 petal flowers.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Cheryl J

Wow....very interesting.  I skimmed through the links y'all posted and saved them to read at length tomorrow....I never would have thought that the strongly scented sage and rosemary, for example, were part of the mint family.  Shows how much I know about herbs.  

Dawg, mint choc chip ice cream is one of my faves, too - I almost always have it because the grands like it so much, too.  Now that butter pecan has been mentioned though, I may have to get that next time - I love it and it's been ages since I've had it.  The grands can take it or leave it.


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## inchrisin

Chief Longwind Of The North said:


> With many fresh herbs, including  sweet  basil, oregano, thyme, savory, cilantro, and sage, I have noticed a distinct, if mild mint flavor, reminiscent of spearmint.  This is not a surprise to me as they are all members of the mint family.  I found this site - Herbs of the Mint Family that gives a large list of common, and uncommon plants from this very large family.  Many are commonly uses as culinary and medicinal herbs, though they are not actually  herbaceous plants.
> 
> Just as my wife is overly sensitive to capsicum, I am very sensitive to the classic mint flavor.  The dried versions of these plants that I listed don't have that minty flavor to me.
> 
> Inchrisin, you may be hyper-sensitive to the menthol and other aromatic oils common to the mint family, and so taste the mint that others don't taste.  I know that I taste them, fortunately for me, very mildly as I detest the mint flavor in spearmint, mint candies (I vomited once when my grandmother fed me a York Peppermint Patty).  Peppermint is the worst for me, and I'm not fond of horehound either (another mint that used to be made into candies).
> 
> Please, not mint ice cream for me, or mint sauce on my lamb.
> 
> Interestingly, wintergreen has the same cooking effect in the mouth that mint does.  But it's from camphor, not menthol.  I love the flavor of wintergreen.  Mix some wintergreen flavor with brown sugar, swirl in carbonated water and you have something that tastes just like root beer.  Birch buds also have that same flavor.
> 
> Take a look at that site.  The  number of mints included is by no means complete, and it's large.
> 
> Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North



Oh, you rock so hard!  I thought I was losing it--Especially when everyone else says their basil tastes like basil.


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## inchrisin

Dawgluver said:


> Now I want mint chocolate chip ice cream.  But I always find myself wanting mint chocolate chip ice cream...
> 
> Another cool site, thanks GG!




I can just put some of my basil in some vanilla ice cream. :P  I'll be good and just look at the Nestle chocolate chips in my cupboard.


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## Dawgluver

inchrisin said:


> I can just put some of my basil in some vanilla ice cream. :P  I'll be good and just look at the Nestle chocolate chips in my cupboard.


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## RPCookin

Chief Longwind Of The North said:


> With many fresh herbs, including  sweet  basil, oregano, thyme, savory, cilantro, and sage, I have noticed a distinct, if mild mint flavor, reminiscent of spearmint.  This is not a surprise to me as they are all members of the mint family.  I found this site - Herbs of the Mint Family that gives a large list of common, and uncommon plants from this very large family.  Many are commonly uses as culinary and medicinal herbs, though they are not actually  herbaceous plants.
> 
> Just as my wife is overly sensitive to capsicum, I am very sensitive to the classic mint flavor.  The dried versions of these plants that I listed don't have that minty flavor to me.
> 
> Inchrisin, you may be hyper-sensitive to the menthol and other aromatic oils common to the mint family, and so taste the mint that others don't taste.  I know that I taste them, fortunately for me, very mildly as I detest the mint flavor in spearmint, mint candies (I vomited once when my grandmother fed me a York Peppermint Patty).  Peppermint is the worst for me, and I'm not fond of horehound either (another mint that used to be made into candies).
> 
> Please, not mint ice cream for me, or mint sauce on my lamb.
> 
> Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North



While I don't have the sensitivity that you have for mint (I love peppermint patties, be they York, Pearson's, or Junior Mints), I do not like it with any kind of meat dish.  The Greek preference for mint with lamb just ruins a great cut of meat, in my opinion.  My mother always served mint jelly with roast lamb, but it was optional, and I opted out.  I do think that peppermint and chocolate go well together.

I don't really taste the mint in herbs like thyme, rosemary, marjoram, but I can understand that they would be of the same family because they are all so wonderfully aromatic.  

We have thyme and rosemary in pots on the front porch, and mint growing around the side of the porch that was here when we moved in and which we are assiduously trying to eradicate.  We fought a mint infestation in our home in southwest Denver too.  It's invasive and a real pain to get rid of.


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## msmofet

Dawgluver said:


> Now I want mint chocolate chip ice cream. But I always find myself wanting mint chocolate chip ice cream...
> 
> Another cool site, thanks GG!


 Have you tried Edy's Sugar Free - Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream? It's pretty good.


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## Dawgluver

msmofet said:


> Have you tried Edy's Sugar Free - Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream? It's pretty good.




I have not. Will have to look for it!


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