The Thicket Field Guide
Spearmint
Mentha spicata
- Plant family
- Mint family (Lamiaceae)
- Part used
- Leaves
- Where it grows
- Native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, from Ireland to southern China, and naturalized in temperate regions around the world.
- Flavor
- Fresh, sweet mint, low menthol.
- Aroma
- Sweet, green and cooling, from carvone rather than the menthol that gives peppermint its bite.
History
The name comes from the pointed, spear-like tips of its leaves, and mint turns up in writing at least as far back as Pliny in the first century.
Spearmint is the mint in Moroccan mint tea, the mojito and the mint julep, and iced spearmint sweet tea is a Southern summer standby. During the American Revolution it was a cash crop in Connecticut, where mint tea was popular partly because it wasn’t taxed.