Can You Freeze Mint? Leaves, Ice Cubes and Storage

More mint than you can use this week? Freeze some. Mint is one of the herbs that freezes well, and you use frozen mint in the same amounts as fresh,¹ though it goes limp when it thaws, so it’s better in cooked dishes than as a garnish. Frozen in ice cubes, it can also go straight into iced tea or lemonade. And mint dries beautifully too: UMass Extension puts it first on its list of the best herbs for air drying.²

At a glance

Question	Short answer
Does mint freeze?	Yes; Penn State and SDSU Extension both list it.
Methods	Loose leaves on a tray, or chopped leaves in ice cubes.
How long?	SDSU: frozen herbs are good for up to six months.³
Thaw first?	No, for cooked dishes.
Garnish or salad?	Use fresh; frozen herbs are limp when thawed.
Freeze or dry?	Either. Mint is one of UMass Extension’s best herbs for air drying.²

Two ways to freeze mint

First, rinse the leaves in clear water and pat them dry.

1. Loose leaves. Penn State strips the leaves off the stems, spreads them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, freezes them and then bags them. Since each leaf froze on its own, you can pull out just what you need. SDSU says to leave them on the tray about one to two hours, until frozen solid.³

2. Ice cubes. Oklahoma State puts about a tablespoon of chopped herbs in each section of an ice cube tray and adds water. SDSU fills the tray half full of water and adds a tablespoon of herbs.⁴³ Once they’re frozen, move the cubes to a labeled, dated freezer bag.

You can make herb cubes with oil too. SDSU mixes two cups of herbs with 1/3 cup of oil.³ If you go that route, keep them frozen. Herbs in oil can support botulinum toxin production, and a 2011 review in Food Protection Trends calls freezing the safest way to store them, with refrigerated mixtures used within 4 days.⁵ SDSU says never to keep herbs in oil at room temperature.³

Mint smells strong. Penn State suggests wrapping strong-smelling frozen herbs in foil so the smell doesn’t drift into other foods.

How long frozen mint keeps

Source	Scope	Figure
SDSU Extension³	Frozen herbs in general, airtight	Up to six months
Penn State and Oklahoma State Extension¹⁴	Frozen herbs	No time given; label and date

We didn’t find a freezer figure for mint specifically. You’ll see claims online that frozen mint lasts three years, but we found no source. It would be safe to eat, though. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says food kept constantly at 0°F will always be safe and only quality suffers with long storage.⁶ How much flavor mint has left after that long is another question, and we found no measurement.

Using frozen mint

In cooked dishes, add it frozen. Penn State and Oklahoma State both say not to thaw herbs before they go into cooked dishes.
Same amount as fresh.¹
In drinks, mint cubes can replace plain ice in iced tea or lemonade. They’ll water the drink down as they melt, same as any ice.
For blending or muddling, thawed mint is fine, since texture doesn’t matter there.
Not for garnish. Frozen herbs are limp when thawed, and SDSU recommends using them in cooked dishes.
Refreezing. You’ll hear that you should never refreeze thawed mint. FSIS says food thawed in the fridge is safe to refreeze without cooking, though it may lose some quality from moisture lost in thawing.⁶ Freeze in small portions and it rarely comes up.

Drying mint instead

Mint dries beautifully. UMass Extension puts it first on its list of the best culinary herbs for air drying, and says air-dried herbs keep their fragrance, taste and color for about a year.² Penn State also says most dried herbs keep well for a year, and that storing them whole is best.⁷ UMass keeps dried leaves in glass jars away from light. For methods, see how to dry mint.

You may come across the tip to dry mint and then freeze the dried leaves so they last even longer. We found no source that recommends or tests this. UMass stores dried herbs in airtight containers somewhere cool, dry and dark, not in the freezer.²

Not yet measured

How long frozen mint keeps its aroma, measured on mint and not herbs in general.
Whether spearmint, peppermint and other mints freeze differently. No source we found compares them.
Whether freezing dried mint makes it last longer.

Freezing Herbs, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
Jodie Gilson, Herb Preservation, UMass Amherst Extension. umass.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Preserving Herbs, South Dakota State University Extension. extension.sdstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Freezing Herbs, Oklahoma State University Extension. extension.okstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Nummer, Schaffner, Fraser and Andress, Current Food Safety Issues of Home-prepared Vegetables and Herbs Stored in Oil, Food Protection Trends, 2011. foodprotection.org · Peer-reviewed ↩
Freezing and Food Safety, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. fsis.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Stacy Reed, Preserving Herbs by Drying, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩

Can You Freeze Mint? Leaves, Ice Cubes and When to Dry It Instead