5 Different Uses For Mint

Feather Charm

7 minutes ago

6 min read

Hello Everyone!

As you all know, I am starting to expand my gardening repertoire, and I’m looking to start growing herbs in my home and garden. One of those herbs is mint. I love my mint plants, because there are so many uses for them. Not only are they great in food, but they’re great at keeping a home free from pests and they are great for antibacterial cleaning products. Who knew, right? I didn’t…well…that’s not true, I learned about it in school, and I know for a fact that mint isn’t as great as garlic, but it still has antibacterial properties, so that’s why it’s used in toothpaste, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about the 5 different uses for mint.

1. Mint Tea

Let’s start with the obvious use for mint. It’s a great flavour for tea. I’ve known this for a long time, and I’m sure you guys do too, but mint is an amazing tea, and not only that, but it is also so easy to make. Unlike other teas that need processing or drying, you can drink mint tea from fresh leaves. All you need to do is pluck around 10 leaves from your living plant, cut them or crush them, to release their natural oils, and let them brew in hot water for about 3-5 minutes. That’s it! It’s ready to drink.

I’ve had some mint tea from my own leaves, and as a first-time mint harvester, I was so proud when I did. I cut my leaves, to make it easier to brew, and brewed the leaves in a tea strainer (which I highly recommend you use), that way I didn’t need to navigate leaf bits, which I probably could have eaten, but the whole point of tea is to drink it, so by using my strainer, I bypassed that part.

I’ve also tried dried leaves in my tea as well, meaning, I cut some stems of mint, hung it to dry a few days (since it’s been hot here in the UK, I didn’t need to wait too long), and then crushed the leaves, straight into my strainer, and the fresh flavour was still there. Honestly, I understand why people dry their leaves. If you’ve harvested too many leaves, you might not want to drink your tea all at once. You can dry them and save them for later. I think that’s what I’m going to do, when the seasons start turning (like now). That way I still have some leaves for my afternoon tea, once the plant starts to die for winter.

2. Cooking With Mint

This is another obvious use for mint, you can cook with it or garnish your dishes with mint. It’s not that difficult to incorporate it into your food, especially if you want to give it that extra fresh kick, like in salads, or create sauces with it, like mint pesto for roast meals. You can even just use it to garnish your dishes, if you want to make them look pretty for family or guests or even at parties and important dinners. There are a lot of recipes that has mint as an ingredient. So, if you have a surplus of leaves that you don’t want to use, in a tea, you can always use them in cooking.

I’ve cooked with mint before, and I do love the way it freshens up or adds a kick to my dishes, after all, there is a spice quality to mint, especially if you have the right variety of it. The mint I have is peppermint, so it’s sweeter than the other spicy variety, so, you can bet I’ll be baking with it, when I have the chance. I have a few recipes I would like to try, and hopefully, once I have the time and resources, I’ll be able to give those recipes a go, and who knows, I may even have some mint left over to bake with, for Christmas.

3. Odour Neutralisation

One of the less obvious ways to use mint is odour neutralisation. Of course, it doesn’t really neutralise odours, and mint doesn’t have a strong scent by itself, but when paired with the right products, it can help remove odours in a certain space, or even on your breath. Ok, so the breath odour is a given, since most breath fresheners come in mint, and in many different forms, but you can also use mint to neutralise odours in other spaces, like in microwaves, or even in your fridge. You’ll need to pair it with some other products, like baking soda, to fully neutralise the odour, but if you have some fresh mint leaves lying around, give it a try, and see how fresh your fridge or microwave smells, after a few hours, or even overnight.

I’ve done this once, because my fridge always smells like cooked food (our foods tend to have strong smells), and after a few hours of having a few mint leaves sitting in my fridge, along with a small container of baking soda, it smelled fresh, no cooked food smell, or strong fermentation smells, from all the leftovers that were sitting in there. I could barely smell any of it. Trust me, my fridge is full of leftovers, thanks to the amount of food my mom cooks (yes, she still cooks for me, although I do try to help, every now and then). So, I recommend giving this a try. Just remember, you might need to process the mint or use another neutraliser along with it, since raw leaves can’t really work on its own.

4. Cleaning Products

Another way you can use mint is by adding it to your homemade cleaning products. What I mean is if you’re making your own organic products, you can add mint to it, to give it that touch of freshness. I wouldn’t recommend mixing mint with store-bought chemicals, they’re processed for a reason, but if you’re making gentle cleaners with natural products, then add mint to it, to help remove bacteria, because yes, mint has antibacterial properties. This was one of the lessons I’d learned in school. Mint is antibacterial, and can help kill bacteria in a space, when used properly. However, it isn’t as strong as some other natural products, like garlic, but because garlic is pungent and not always nice to smell, mint is usually used instead. That’s why it’s in toothpastes and used as breath fresheners.

I’ve not started making my own cleaning products yet, because I’m not at that point in my homesteading journey. I’m still at the beginning, but we are slowly getting there. However, I am still going to give it a try one day, and I can’t wait. I’m still doing my research and studying all the different ways I can use organic and natural products in the things I use, so I’m not damaging the environment I live in, or at least as much as I normally do (since I still need to use electricity for a lot of the things I do). It’s just going to take time.

5. Pest Control

Did you know mint is a natural pest control? Its strong menthol content actually overwhelms small insects and even rodents. Who knew! I only discovered this recently, and I’m actually very glad I bought it, because my home is often overrun by tiny gnats and flies, thanks to the food my family cooks. Sometimes, it’s a nightmare. We’re having to swat at those tiny things every so often, in our own home, and it’s getting old. It’s only recently, did I realise that my room tends to be devoid of these buggers, and it’s all thanks to my mint plant.

As I mentioned, the menthol in mint can overwhelm small insects. They can even physically irritate them, especially if they’re soft-bodied insects. So, it’s no wonder they’re amazing pest deterrents. You can even use mint in sprays and other forms to concentrate their properties, so you can keep your spaces completely clear of annoying pests. Add them to scent sprays, keep live plants by windows and doors to the outside, and even soak cotton balls to keep those pests away from small areas like cabinets and crawl spaces (Think of them like moth balls).

Harvest Your Mint Plants Now!

Who knew mint was such a versatile herb. I always only thought it was a good food and drink addition. Now that I know there are other uses that could be beneficial to my home, I’m definitely going to try using it in other things now. Of course, I’ll need to wait for some of the leaves to mature, for now, because I’ve just recently pruned them. However, once they’re mature enough, I’ll definitely harvest a whole bunch, especially since the summer season is beginning to come to a close (October is just around the corner!). Soon, those leaves won’t be around to help me out.

Well, that’s it from me today, I’m going to see if I can harvest some of my mint leaves, to save them for a baking recipe. Anyway, while I go do that, please don’t forget to like, subscribe, comment, share and follow me, here on Feather’s Charm, on my YouTube channel, on my other social media channels (Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok), and on Patreon. Your support really does help me make more content like this, for you guys.