How to Store Mint?

The herb mint is routinely used to enhance the freshness and flavor of dishes as well as beverages. Its refreshing and cool taste boosts not only the taste but also the aroma and color of food. But as with most herbs, fresh mint has a rather short shelf-life, so cooks often ask: how to store mint?

Fear not; if you’ve got your hands on a few mint recipes you want to try all year round, here’s a guide on how you can extend the life of mint with these different storing methods.

A Complete Guide on How to Store Fresh Mint

Here are four ways to store fresh mint instead of letting it go to waste.

● Jar of Clean Water

This is probably the easiest method and requires the least effort. Simply follow these steps:

1. Trim the ends of the mint stems.
2. Fill a clean glass jar or small glass with water.
3. Put the mint in the jar (like flowers in a vase) and store on your counter top.
4. Change the water regularly when it gets cloudy to keep the mint fresh for at least a week.

● Plastic Bag and Refrigerator

This method is similar to the previous one but involves a few additional steps:

1. Trim the ends of the mint stems.
2. Fill a clean glass jar or small glass with water.
3. Put the mint in the jar (like flowers in a vase) and cover the leaves loosely with a plastic bag like a tent.
4. Store in the refrigerator.

The plus side to this method is that you don’t have to replace the water now and then. And even though the leaves might begin to wilt a bit after a week, they’ll remain fresh and green to be used for at least three weeks.

● Plastic Bag and Paper Towel

This method doesn’t require a jar of water and follows these steps instead:

1. First, rinse the mint leaves and pat dry.
2. Then, lightly wrap the leaves in a moistened (not soaking wet) paper towel.
3. Place the towel with the leaves in a zip-top plastic bag. Don’t seal the bag since this could trap in too much moisture.
4. Store in the refrigerator.

With this method, the mint leaves won’t retain their original snap and vitality but will remain fresh and green to be used for about three weeks.

● Paper Towel and Airtight Container

This method is quite similar to the previous one and involves these steps:

1. Rinse the mint leaves and pat dry.
2. Lightly wrap the leaves in a moistened (not soaking wet) paper towel.
3. Place the towel with the leaves in an airtight container.
4. Store in the refrigerator.

Using an airtight container keeps the mint protected from bruising and injury from other items in the refrigerator. However, since the container is sealed, moisture might build-up, which takes about a week of storage time compared to the previous method.

Freezing Fresh Mint

Here are two ways to cleverly freeze mint.

● Ice Cubes

Simply follow these steps:

1. Rinse the mint leaves and pat dry.
2. Next, chop the leaves and spread them among the sections of an ice-cube tray.
3. Fill the sections with water and refrigerate overnight.
4. Remove the frozen mint cubes from the tray and place them in airtight zip-top bags.
5. Store the bag in the refrigerator. 

These frozen mint cubes can last for as long as six months, making this method more practical. But, it has its limitations; thawing the mint cubes by placing them in a strainer over a bowl to drain water will yield a soggy stack of chopped mint.

So it’s best to use these mint ice cubes to season sauces or chill smoothies and drinks like lemonade on a hot summer’s day.

● Baking Sheet

With this method, you can conveniently freeze whole fresh mint leaves and preserve their shape to garnish drinks and dips. Also, they’re easily snipped with scissors when you want to use them, and there’s no thawing required.

1. Rinse the mint leaves and pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Spread the leaves on a baking sheet/plate and freeze for about 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Remove the sheet from the freezer and place the frozen leaves in an airtight bag or container.
4. Store the bag in the refrigerator. 

How to Know When Mint Is Going Bad?

You can easily tell when it’s time to throw away your mint by simply viewing, touching, and smelling it.

Mint leaves will exhibit these features when going bad and should be thrown away:

• leaves become brown
• leaves begin to wilt or become slimy and mushy
• mold begins to form on the leaves or stems
• mint turns smelly

Mint Recipes

Now that you know how to preserve fresh mint, here are a few delicious recipes you can use it! Let us know about your experience in the comments – we always love to hear from you!

• Green Jasmine-Mint Iced Tea with Lemon
• Grape-Pineapple Mint Fizz
• Lamb with Mint, Pistachios, and Orange
• Strawberry Chicken Salad with Mint and Goat Cheese
• Domino’s Spinach and Feta Pizza Recipe
• Emeril Salmon Recipe