Fresh Vs Dried Mint: When To Use Each In Cocktails And Mocktails
One of the most popular ingredients used in mixology, mint leaves have a peppery taste and sharp flavour. Adding mint to beverages introduces these notes into cocktails giving them a light profile while imbuing them with a chewy textural element. Mint leaves can either be used fresh or they can be dehydrated and stored away in tins so that dried mint can be added to different cocktails and mocktails.
Freshly plucked mint leaves are interesting garnishes for cocktails like the mojito or mocktails like a lemon and mint cooler. However, dried mint is many times preferred in mocktails like jaljeera or shikanji where the flavour of the herb needs to be deeper and tart.
Fresh Mint Vs Dried Mint: Flavour Differences
What makes mixologists choose between fresh and dried mint while blending drinks is primarily their flavour. While fresh mint leaves have a sharp and more pronounced taste of menthol, dried mint leaves contain a bit of a tart note and subdued peppery flavours.
As well, fresh mint leaves when muddled in a cocktail shaker tend to quickly release their oils into a blend. On the other hand, dried mint leaves have a crisp texture and are devoid of water, so they can be used as a coarse infusion ingredient or as an addition to drinks with earthy flavour notes.
Fresh Mint Vs Dried Mint: Textural Shifts
When mint leaves are plucked from a herb garden to be added to cocktails, they have a light green colour and only a slight crunch. When used to make drinks, they acquire a softer texture so mint leaves in a cocktail or mocktail can be chewed when added as garnishes.
Dried mint leaves for their part have a brittle and crunchy texture. They are generally added to drinks as mint powder or as toasted mint, more for their aroma than for their textural composition. Dried mint adds more tart and deep flavours into a drink making it an interesting addition to smoked, tropical beverages.
Here are some of the ways in which it is possible to discern when to use fresh and dried mint in cocktails and mocktails:
Warm And Cool Drinks:
Cool Drinks: Fresh Mint
Warm Drinks: Dried Mint
An interesting factor that contributes to choosing between fresh and dried mint is a drink’s temperature. For cool drinks like the margarita cocktail made using 30 ml quality Don Julio Blanco tequila, it is better to use fresh mint so its peppery and crisp flavours go well with the sweet and sour agave, tequila and lime mix.
However, while blending hot toddies or a 30 ml Johnny Walker Red Label-infused mint tea, dried leaves would better bring the flavours of the herb into the mix. Warm drinks are so crafted that they would highlight the tastes of varied ingredients used in the blend, making dried herbs that contain more concentrated flavours a suitable addition to these recipes.
Bright And Subdued Colours
Bright Colours: Fresh Mint
Subdued Colours: Dried Mint
Another way to decide which kind of mint to use in a drink is to decipher which colour tone suits a beverage. For tropical, fruity drinks containing fresh juices of oranges and pineapple, fresh mint would be the more suitable garnish. This will match the bright hues of the freshly squeezed fruit juices.
On the other hand, for drinks which contain deeper colours like the jaljeera with its mildly brownish hue, dried mint would perhaps be the appropriate choice as its deep green colour blends well with the overall shade of the drink.
Garnish And Infusion
For Garnishing: Fresh Mint
For Infusion: Dried Mint
Undoubtedly, deciding which mint to use depends upon how it is incorporated into a cocktail. Fresh mint leaves offer better colours and textures for garnishing a drink and are good embellishments on simple blends.
Dried mint is better for infusions in teas and simple syrup because its flavour has the primary role to play in such a blend. A dried mint infused simple syrup will contain pronounced minty notes, making it an interesting addition to multiple sherbets and cocktail blends.
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