Product Description
PURPOSE
WHAT IS IT?
Spearmint is one of the world’s most versatile of mints. used in everything from candies to teas, to savory dishes. Used globally, it is always interesting to see how it is viewed, in the cuisines of different nations.
What is primarily seen as a refreshing counter taste to sweets, in most countries of the Northern Hemisphere, is considered a savory base flavor in Africa, and a staple accent to tea throughout North Africa and Central Asia.
EXPERIENCE
The taste of spearmint, like all mint is based on its higher concentrations of menthol. The coolness of it comes from a protein identified as “TRPM8.” When activated in your nerve cells, TRPM8 produces the sensation of cold. Spearmint is one of the mint family better known for its finish, in a subtle sweetness, with a touch of bitterness to close out.
Fresh, it can be paired up with fresh fruit, cocktails, dips, sauces, and lots of other applications.
Dried and crushed, the tartness increases, the menthol’s sharpness mutes, and the sweetness takes on more grassy notes. Dried is a more intensified form. When the oils from the mint leaf interact with moisture, those oils are conveyed into the food, and, rehydrated, the intensity of the menthol is greater than in the fresh crushed leaf. Until you become more familiar with the range of flavor interaction with other herbs and spices, or with foods, less is more.
CULINARY GEOGRAPHY
Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant has been disseminated around the world. It is found growing wild on most continents.
The biggest commercial growers of spearmint are the United States, India, and China. The United States produces 70% of the world’s supply of mint. Idaho, Indiana, Washington, Oregon, California and Wisconsin are the biggest producing states.
Mint is harvested fresh, dried, and also has its oils extracted for foods and many other purposes.
TRADITIONAL USES
- Spring peas with mint
- Mint teas
- Laban - A yogurt base with cucumber and mint.
- Ezogelin Soup - A spicy red lentil soup from Turkey
IMPROVISATIONAL 'RIFFS'
- An African-themed Kouign-Amann with dried mint, peanut flour, and garlic;
- A lead ingredient, along with long peppers, and juniper berries for my Campfire Whitefish Rub;
- Ice cool potato salad with ghee, chive and mint.
- Marrakesh Bacon - A decidedly un-Halal use of Moroccan flavor. Preserved lemon, garlic, black pepper and crushed mint.
THE BACKSTORY
Recorded history, from Roman scholar Pliny, texts from religions now classified as myths, and the Bible, dates domesticated spearmint to around the 1st century AD.
The mint was extremely popular in ancient Greece, used mostly as an aphrodisiac.
The Romans introduced the mint into England 5th century. British Botanist, William Turner, references mint as a digestive. It is probably there that it developed the anglicized name “spiremint,” for the vertical spiked flowerings that it puts out that look like spires. All cultures used it as a digestive, either in foods, or after meals, to reduce gas/bloating. It had many other uses, as well, in ceremony, religious practices, and to ward off a wide variety of ailments.
Discussions of a very early toothpaste, in the 14th century, would have us believe that spearmint was in widespread domestication in Europe, at least, during the 1500’s.
Spiremint was a relative latecomer to the Americas, arriving around 1769. It was a considered a significant cash crop in the statistical agricultural records of Connecticut during the years of the American Revolution. After May of 1773, mint teas became a popular drink because the British were not taxing it. At some point, as with many “adjusted” names for things in the Americas, the mint’s name migrated from “spire” to “spear.”
AKA
- aarmunt
- bạc hà
- çamçakëz me mente
- common mint
- fish mint
- fodormenta
- garden mint
- green mint
- grönmynta
- grüne Minze
- gwaywffon
- hortelã
- i-spearmint
- icgarðminta
- konjski bosiljak
- kopí mátový
- krūzmētra
- lamb mint
- La menthe vert
- La menthe vert
- mackerel mint
- mashinti
- mentă creață
- menta verde
- menta verte
- menthe verte
- metuljica
- mięta
- mkuki-mnanaa
- mündimünt
- Our Lady's mint
- spearmint
- spjótmyntu
- sibat
- spiremint
- spydmynte
- 綠薄荷
- สเปียร์มินท์
- δυόσμος
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