What the mint?

[Gary Traffanstedt]

I'm quite confused about what type of mint goes where. For ice cream there's the pink peppermint and that would be peppermint oil. Then you have mint chip which is green and often calls for fresh mint leaves. I've seen more recipes that instead call for peppermint oil. I don't recall ever eating mint chip ice cream that tasted of peppermint.

For chocolate bark I'm going to do a peppermint bark using the oil but I've had a request to also duplicate mint chip in bark form. My first thought was fresh mint leaves but I've no idea how that would work in making a bark. I see you can also get a spearmint essential oil and I wonder if that would be the correct mint flavor for mint chip?

Anyone well versed in the world of mint that could shed some light on this for me?

And on the subject of bark, I've seen recipes that call for adding vegetable oil to the chocolate. Is this the correct way to do it? If using properly tempered chocolate do I still need the oil? I'm not a fan of adding anything more than necessary to my chocolate but I'm curious if that will give it a better shine or something.

[minas6907]

I'd look into getting a spearmint or wintermint oil. I think either will do, they'll taste nice when combined with the chocolate. I dont think its going to be overwhelmingly difficult to pinpoint the mint chip flavor, its just chocolate and a mint oil, you'll probably be able to make a much nicer flavor then what found in most ice creams.

And definitly not on the veg oil. If your using tempered chocolate don't include the oil.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Classic green mint chip ice-cream is with Spearmint, not Peppermint, and there is a difference in the flavour profiles - spearmint is rounder somehow with more menthol-type overtones, while peppermint (as the name suggests) has an up-front peppery flavour and seems more "spicy" than other mints....

Wintermint isn't properly mint at all, either, if we're talking about the same essence. It's oil of wintergreen or methyl salicylate (if it's synthetic), which is vaguely mintish but not the real deal. It's a great flavour for candies, though (but even though it's probably my favourite flavour, I'm not fond of it with chocolate for some reason.)

[judiu]

If you're talking about single flavour oils, I don't think I'd do Wintergreen. The flavour that Wrigley's calls "Winterfresh" (the gum in the blue pack) is a proprietary mixed flavour, I think. I just don't care for wintergreen that much. It the flavour of the life savers they make that are supposed to make a spark when you bite them in the dark.

[janeer]

I use pure peppermint oil, or infused peppermint leaves, for everything. No spearmint for me.

[Gary Traffanstedt]

This is exactly what I needed to know. I'll order some spearmint oil today and give that a try. Interesting that I didn't come across any recipes that called for this. I did see a few that wanted mint extract and maybe that's spearmint.

[Gary Traffanstedt]

Looked at a bottle of mint extract and it's a combination of spearmint oil and peppermint oil. I ordered spearmint oil just now and I have peppermint oil on hand so I can try a combo later if need be. Thinking just the spearmint should be perfect though.

[Jim D.]

This is exactly what I needed to know. I'll order some spearmint oil today and give that a try. Interesting that I didn't come across any recipes that called for this. I did see a few that wanted mint extract and maybe that's spearmint.

Gary,

In his The Art of the Chocolatier Ewald Notter has a recipe for spearmint pralines. He calls for infusing spearmint leaves in the cream and also adding white crème de menthe. According to Wikipedia, the liqueur is made from "dried peppermint or Corsican mint leaves," so I guess this ends up being a combination of spearmint and peppermint flavor.