The perfume inside a mint leaf
A familiar kitchen herb holds something too small to see clearly. Discover peppermint's tiny stores of aromatic oil, and spend a few minutes enjoying the plant itself.
What you need
Steps
The scent has somewhere to live
Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) has microscopic glandular hairs on its leaves. In certain glands, essential oil accumulates beneath an outer covering. Microscopic studies show this storage space above the cells that produce the oil. A recognisable scent belongs to a structure too small to see clearly with the naked eye. The drawing opens up that hidden detail. With a fresh leaf, you can explore something different: its edge, its veins and your own impression of its scent. For a few minutes, mint becomes a plant worth getting to know, before it becomes an ingredient again. Turner, Gershenzon and Croteau, Plant Physiology (2000)
Make a small portrait of a scent
Choose fresh peppermint from a known source, such as a clearly labelled herb pot or a food shop. Notice its scent before changing the leaf. Then gently brush or crease one leaf and compare what you smell. There is no special mixture to prepare and no bottle of oil to buy. Which words would you choose for it? Fresh, green, sharp or slightly sweet might describe your impression. You need not find the correct answer. The interesting part is the difference you notice for yourself. Leave a little time between impressions, rather than rubbing the leaf more and more firmly. If you dislike the scent, set the sprig aside.
Give the leaf a closer look
Place the sprig on pale paper. Follow a vein from the base towards the tip, then a smaller vein out towards the edge. You may notice details that pass unseen when you are preparing food. There is no need to draw the leaf or become skilled at plant identification to enjoy looking at it. A magnifying glass can make the surface more interesting. The gland in the illustration, however, is greatly enlarged. You are unlikely to find an obvious oil container on a leaf. Part of the discovery is that such a distinct scent comes from structures that are so easy to overlook.
Enjoy the herb before deciding what to make
Cooking can keep your attention on quantities and the next step. This encounter gives curiosity some room of its own. You have chosen a leaf because you would like to know it better. Its scent need not become a drink, and the sprig need not lead to a recipe. Looking and smelling are the pleasure you came for. Use a known, fresh culinary plant. This comparison needs no concentrated essential oil and no rubbing of leaves on skin. A wild plant should only enter the kitchen after reliable identification. A labelled sprig lets you begin with the part that interests you.
Another scent on another day
You might later come across labelled lemon balm or another culinary mint. Give it the same curiosity, without assuming peppermint's gland structure describes every herb. Begin with its own scent. A herb pot can then offer something for your next spare moment, as well as ingredients for the next meal.
Use fresh peppermint from a reliably identified culinary plant or a food shop. Skip the scent experiment if you know it does not agree with you. Concentrated essential oil is not part of this suggestion.