Herbal · Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne, France
Menthe poivrée de Milly
Caffeine-free
The peppermint that gave a village south of Paris its name: a clear green infusion, sharply minty.
Recipe
- Temperature
- 95 °C · 203 °F
- Plants
- 2.5 g
- Water
- 250 ml
- First steep
- 6:00
- Each next steep
- +1:00
- Steeps
- 2
Suggested starting point.
Time this brew with Pekoe
Aroma notes
menthol · cut stem · pepper
Tasting notes
cool · sharp · clean finish
Harvest
July–August
Making
Planting 
Harvesting 
Drying 
Sorting
Origin
Milly-la-Forêt · France
Milly rests on the cool sandy soils of the Gâtinais, and peppermint finds there what it asks for: damp at the root, sun on the leaf. The trade settled in for good in the nineteenth century.
Lore
Peppermint came from a cross between two mints, water mint and spearmint. It makes no seed, so it is grown by replanting pieces of stem, and every plant descends from the same few. Milly-la-Forêt grew it so long that the name stayed with the village. The big fields are gone, but a conservatory still farms four hectares of medicinal plants there, and the herbalist on the square still sells the leaf.
