Peppermint

Peppermint is a hybrid mint — a natural cross between watermint and spearmint — with a more intense, sharply cool flavour than common garden mint. Its high menthol content gives it a distinctive bite that’s immediately recognisable.

In the kitchen, fresh peppermint is used more sparingly than spearmint due to its potency. It’s excellent in drinks, desserts, and chocolate-based recipes, and pairs beautifully with lamb in the Australian tradition. It also makes a refreshing tea simply steeped in hot water. Peppermint grows vigorously in Australian gardens and is available year-round at most greengrocers.

Farmed
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Peppermint is grown as a perennial herb, spreading readily via underground runners. The leafy stems are harvested by cutting, typically before the plant flowers when the essential oil content is highest. For fresh sale, the cut sprigs are bunched, chilled, and packed promptly to preserve their volatile aromatic oils.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 70kcal
Protein 3.8g
Carbs 6.9g
Fat 0.9g
Fibre 8g Sugar 0g
Mass Distribution

2 leaves is about 0.1 g.

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon ≈0.5kg
Freshwater ≈130L
Land ≈0.4m²

≈ Estimated — worked out from a category-typical value further up its supply chain. Where this comes from →

Where it comes from

In the kitchen

Used as

fresh herb and garnish

Goes well with
lamb chocolate cucumber yogurt lemon
Classic dishes
  • Mint Julep
  • Mojito
  • Tabbouleh
  • Mint Sauce

Keeping one at home? Track yours in your cubud →

Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

USDA

How it was calculated

SR Legacy

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

Where to next

made fromPeppermint, leaves goes well withlamb goes well withcucumber goes well withyogurt goes well withlemon shares a sourceCreme de Menthe shares a sourcePeppermint Extract
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