Chocolate Mint Uses
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: No Name Given
Posted on: June 15, 2002

I am a culinary student who is very interested in the use of different herbs and spices. One of the herbs that I would like to know how to use in the culinary field is chocolate mint.

Chocolate mint is controversal in that some believe that it is merely a form of the "black peppermint" (Mentha x piperita piperita). Dr. Art Tucker, a widely respected authority on herbs and the mints, has dismissed chocolate mint as a figment (figmint?) of the imaginative marketing minds of the herb industry. Indeed, it is hard to tell regular pepermint and chocolate peppermint apart. The differences are very subtle, causing us for many years not to list it in our catalogue. But many herb enthusiasts told us over the years that they can tell the difference and that they do get a hint of chocolate from the mint. Finally relenting, Richters has been offering chocolate mint since the 1990s.

The mint can be used much like regular peppermint, for tea, drinks, jellies, confectionary, etc. The hint of "chocolate" does not interfere with the mint’s use in all the traditional ways that regular peppermint is used.

Back to Culinary Herbs and Their Uses | Q & A Index

Copyright © 1997-2024 Otto Richter and Sons Limited. All rights reserved.