Category: Spices

A Whole Lot Of Mint Going On

It’s Simple, Mint is Delicious

Mint is an herb, not a spice, and it’s nearly everywhere.

Fans of the Kentucky Derby and dessert eaters everywhere know a sprig of mint when they see it. In addition to being foliage on a plate, mint flavors all manner of consumable items from gum to toothpaste to smoking cessation gum, ice creams, pet shampoos (not edible, by the way), tea, tabouli, fried rice and even, ugh, mint jelly.

Some Basic Bio Stuff

Mightly Leaf Cup logoMint, from Mentha, has in its genus 25 species.[1] Moving up the scale to family, there are scores of cousins, reaching to nearly 7,000 family members.[2] That’s a big family and includes the likes of lavender, rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, catnip (catmint), bergamont, also knows as bee balm (horsemint).

Many types of mint in potsThe leaves on mints can vary from smooth to fuzzy, pointed to round, rough edges or really rough edges or, as with some lavender, smooth edges. With all those differences, there are some common traits. The stems are square, not round, and the leaves are staggered, with two leaves opposite each other on the stem, then the next set also opposite, but on the other sides of the stem.

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The Many Uses Of Caraway

If You Don’t Use Enough, You Didn’t Caraway

For the most part, sources have concurred that the spices and herbs in this series do come mostly from where they think they do. That’s a good thing. There have been a few quibbles, but generally it can be considered a consistently agreed upon lineage.

Caraway defies such precision, with origins being suggested Western Asia, Europe, North Africa, and ancient traces found in Switzerland as well as Ancient Rome.

Caraway flowersAdding to the vastness of its reputation are various cultures differing identifications, “with names deriving from the Latin cuminum (cumin), the Greek karon (again, cumin), which was adapted into Latin as carum (now meaning caraway), and the Sanskrit karavi, sometimes translated as ‘caraway’” and sometimes called fennel. As if that wasn’t more than enough of an identity crisis, some think the name came from Arabic.[1]

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