Mint
Mint is a fragrant herb whose bright, cooling menthol aroma is released when its leaves are gently muddled or slapped before use. Spearmint is the most common cocktail variety. Fresh sprigs also serve as an aromatic garnish that perfumes a drink with every sip.
Common uses
- muddled for aroma in built cocktails
- used as a fragrant garnish
Buying & storage
A few days: Wilts fast and bruises faster. Stand it in water like cut flowers rather than sealing it in a bag.
Buying: choose bunches with bright, unbruised leaves and a strong aroma when lightly rubbed
Storage: keep stems in water like flowers, loosely covered, and refrigerate
In depth
Understanding mint
How it is made, where it comes from, what it pairs with, and how it behaves in an alcohol-free drink.
How it's made
Spearmint is the variety used in drinks; peppermint is more aggressive and reads as confectionery. The aroma sits in oil glands on the leaf's surface, which is the single most important thing to know about handling it.
Origin
Spearmint has been cultivated around the Mediterranean since antiquity. Its cocktail career runs through the julep, documented in America from the late eighteenth century onward — one of the oldest continuously-made mixed drinks there is.
What it pairs with
Rum, lime and sugar are the classic trio. Also works with cucumber, berries, tea and bourbon. Avoid over-muddling with anything — bruise, never grind.
In alcohol-free drinks
- One of the best aroma sources available without alcohol, and aroma is the layer that collapses when alcohol is removed
- Slap a sprig between your palms before adding it — half a second, and the difference between a garnish you can smell and one you cannot
Before it goes
Use up mint
Ranked by how much of it each drink uses and how little else it needs — the ones at the top will not send you back to the shop.
- Queen's Park Swizzle
Uses 40ml. Also needs dark or aged rum, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, angostura bitters.
- Old Cuban
Uses 30ml. Also needs aged gold rum, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, angostura bitters, dry sparkling wine, to top.
- Mint Julep
Also needs simple syrup, bourbon.
- Virgin Mojito
Also needs fresh lime juice, simple syrup, soda water.
Recipes
Cocktails containing this ingredient
Garden Highball
Alcohol-free botanical spirit, tonic, cucumber and mint — a crisp, herbal highball for the garden.
Ginger Lime Fizz
Ginger beer, lime and soda over ice with mint — a spicy, fizzy CocktailHQ original.
Garnish
Cocktails garnished with mint
These recipes don't mix it in — they finish with it, which is usually where its aroma does the most work.
…and 4 more.
Stand-in
Where mint is a recommended substitute
Recipes that name it as a swap for something else, with what it replaces.
- Gin Basil Smashin place of fresh basil leaves
Explore