Fresh Mint Syrup

Store in a sealed glass bottle in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Mint flavor fades quickly — make in small batches. The color will still gradually fade to olive-green even with blanching; this does not affect flavor. Keep refrigerated.

Spearmint (the common garden variety) produces the classic, sweet mint character found in Mint Juleps and Mojitos; peppermint produces a more intense, menthol-forward syrup that can easily overwhelm a cocktail — use it at half the quantity of spearmint syrup. Blanching the mint leaves in boiling water for ten seconds and immediately shocking in ice water before adding to the syrup preserves the vibrant green color through the heat extraction; without blanching, the syrup will turn from bright green to an unappealing brown-green within hours. Strain through cheesecloth rather than just a mesh strainer to remove all fine herb particles that continue to cook the syrup and degrade the flavor.

Mint has been cultivated in the Mediterranean and Middle East for at least three thousand years, with peppermint (Mentha piperita) and spearmint (Mentha spicata) documented in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman records as both culinary and medicinal plants. Mint's place in cocktail culture is anchored by two canonical drinks: the Mint Julep, a bourbon and fresh mint preparation documented in American literature as early as 1803 and formalized as the Kentucky Derby's official drink in 1938, and the Mojito, the Cuban rum, lime, and fresh mint cocktail with roots in 16th-century Havana that became one of the most ordered cocktails globally in the early 2000s. Fresh mint syrup — capturing mint's bright, aromatic character in a shelf-stable form — entered craft cocktail bars as a way to preserve garden mint and produce consistent mint flavor in drinks where muddled fresh mint would result in grassy fragments.

A mint-lime syrup can be made by adding the zest of two limes to the mint syrup after straining and letting it steep for ten minutes — this produces a bright, Mojito-inspired syrup with both mint and citrus character. A chocolate-mint syrup suited to dessert cocktails can be made by whisking one tablespoon of Dutch-process cocoa into the warm finished syrup. For a Moroccan-style mint tea syrup, steep one tablespoon of Chinese gunpowder green tea alongside the mint for the last five minutes of infusion.

No common top-eight allergens. Naturally vegan and gluten-free. Mint sensitivities are rare but possible; those with aspirin sensitivities should be aware that mint contains natural salicylates.