It’s the taste of chewing gum, toothpaste, mouthwash, and trips to the dentist. Mint’s sweet aroma and cool aftertaste epitomises freshness and cleanliness. However, the use of mint pre-dates chewing gum by thousands of years, dating back to at least the Greeks and Romans.
Most early references to mint discuss it in medical terms. Mint is credited with curing everything from sore eyes to sleeplessness. Nicholas CulpeperJohn Gerard noted in his of 1597 that “it is applied with salt to the biting of mad dogs” (i.e. rabies – good luck with that), and that “the smell rejoiceth the heart of man”, a sentiment most of us can get on board with. Although the Lord High Executioner in Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1885 comic opera hilariously added “people who eat peppermint and puff it in your face” to his list of candidates for beheading.
