Most of the herbs we grow are either enjoyed fresh or dried. However, I have since discovered another use for them. We have already looked at how to make your own vanilla extract at home in a previous post. One of the herbs we like to grow every year is peppermint. Today let us look at how to make your own homemade peppermint extract.

This is a simple way to preserve those minty flavors for use at a later date. With just five readily available ingredients your are ready to go. I love that just by excluding the alcohol, you can whip up the non alcoholic version. If you end up making way too much, like I often do, just bottle it up and gift it to someone special.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• fresh mint leaves
• vodka
• mason jar
• strainer
• wooden spoon or muddling tool
• lemon wedges (optional)
• cane sugar (optional)
• soda water (optional)

Try get your leaves fresh off the plant, and then give them a good wash. Then add them batch by batch into the mason jar. With each batch that you add you have to squish the leaves a little and leave them bruised so they can release that fresh mint aroma.

Ideally your jar should be about 3/4 full before you can add the alcohol. There should not be any leaves left floating, so remove any of those before screwing on the lid tight. Find a cool dry place and let it sit for at least 30 days (up to 60 days). When ready strain the leaves, and bottle just the extract.

You can follow step by step instructions on the Rising Spoon blog, here…

How To Make Mint Extract

You can watch the video below on homemade mint extract…

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