Chocolate Mint: What It Is, What It Really Smells Like, and How to Use It

Does chocolate mint really taste of chocolate? Some growers find a clear cocoa note in the leaf, others taste only mint, and the Royal Horticultural Society describes its dark green leaves as minty-chocolate scented. It isn’t a separate species: the RHS lists it as a named form of peppermint, though Kew files that form under water mint instead. Use it anywhere you’d use peppermint, and start with desserts, where peppermint’s freshness meets real chocolate.

At a glance

What chocolate mint is

The RHS describes chocolate mint as a vigorous, spreading perennial up to 50 cm tall. Its dark green leaves turn reddish-purple in sun or copper-red in shade, and in late summer it puts up dense spikes of tiny pinkish-purple flowers. The RHS files it under culinary herbs.¹

Where it sits in the mint family tree

The name tells you where the RHS puts it. Mentha × piperita is peppermint, which Kew records as a hybrid of water mint (M. aquatica) and spearmint (M. spicata), and which NCCIH calls a natural cross of the two.²³ The RHS then places ‘Chocolate’ within f. citrata, the same form it uses for eau de Cologne mint, the plant often sold as orange mint or bergamot mint.¹⁴

Not everyone classifies it that way. Kew doesn’t treat citrata as part of peppermint at all. It lists Mentha × piperita var. citrata among the synonyms of water mint, Mentha aquatica.⁵ So the popular claim that chocolate mint is related to orange mint holds under the RHS’s naming, and its link to watermint holds under Kew’s. We found no published genetic study of the ‘Chocolate’ cultivar itself, and no record of who selected it or when.

Flavor and aroma

People disagree about chocolate mint. Some growers find a clear cocoa note in the leaf; others taste only mint. The RHS describes the leaves as minty-chocolate scented,¹ which backs up the scent, at least.

Why it smells that way is another matter. You’ll often read that no compound in the plant could explain a chocolate note. We found no analysis of the cultivar’s oil either way, so that claim is untraceable, not wrong. In cooking, “mint” usually means peppermint or spearmint. Chocolate mint tastes like a softer, rounder peppermint.

The most useful point for a cook may be Katzer’s: the freshness of peppermint goes extremely well with chocolate.⁶ Whatever the leaf contains, its natural home is next to real chocolate.

Origin and history

As a cultivar, chocolate mint has no wild origin to trace. We couldn’t find a source for claims that it arose in Europe, Africa or Asia, or that it came to North America with early colonists.

The genus, on the other hand, has a long paper trail. Mentha has about 25 species of perennial mint herbs. The Greek geographer Strabo records the myth that Minthe, the concubine of Hades, was trampled by Core (Persephone) and turned into garden mint.⁷ NCCIH notes that people have used mint for digestive problems since ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. We couldn’t trace the claims that Theophrastus named the genus or that Roman soldiers carried mint to Britain. For more on the genus, see mint and types of mint.

How to use chocolate mint

Use it as you would peppermint. Desserts and drinks are the natural fit: chocolate ice cream, puddings, custards and cookies, hot chocolate, mint tea, and minty cocktails like mojitos. Katzer’s point about peppermint and chocolate is the best reason to start with dessert.

A few handling notes that apply to mint generally:

• Add it late. LSU AgCenter lists mint among the delicate herbs that lose flavor and aroma with long cooking. For hot chocolate or custard, steep the leaves in the warm liquid and strain instead of boiling them.
• Fresh versus dried. LSU’s general rule of thumb is that 1 tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs equals 1 teaspoon of crumbled dried herbs.⁸ That’s a general herb guide, not a figure measured for this cultivar.
• See cooking with mint, mint uses, how to store mint, how to dry mint and can you freeze mint. Overdid it? See too much mint.

Growing and buying

You’ll buy chocolate mint as a potted plant, not as cut herbs. The RHS gives a spread of 0.5 to 1 meter and rates it hardy in the severest European continental climates.¹ The RHS also calls it vigorous and spreading, so most gardeners keep it in a pot.

Health and safety

We didn’t find anyone who’s studied chocolate mint specifically. What’s known applies to peppermint in general, and mostly to peppermint oil, not the leaves:

• NCCIH says very little research has been done on peppermint leaf.
• Peppermint oil in enteric-coated capsules may improve irritable bowel syndrome symptoms in adults, according to NCCIH’s summary.³ That’s a concentrated oil product, not leaves in a dessert.
• NCCIH says peppermint tea appears to be safe, and that the long-term safety of eating large amounts of peppermint leaf is unknown.³

We couldn’t trace claims that chocolate mint is a meaningful source of vitamins A and C, folate, potassium or manganese, or that it relieves allergies, so we don’t repeat them. We make no claim that chocolate mint treats or prevents any condition.

Substitutes and comparisons

Peppermint is the closest substitute, since chocolate mint is a form of it. For a softer note, spearmint works. See mint substitutes, peppermint substitutes, spearmint vs. peppermint and spearmint. No source gives a swap ratio between mint varieties, so start with equal amounts and adjust to taste.