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?

 

[CharlieD]

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


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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.

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[medtran49]

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.

 

[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.

 

[Andy M.]

I'd check with your doctor.

 

[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.

 

[taxlady]

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

 

[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

 

[Dawgluver]

What a neat site! Thanks Chief!

 

[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

 

[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!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

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

 

[Dawgluver]

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

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

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

 

[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.

 

[inchrisin]

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.

 

[inchrisin]

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.