I would like to add mint to a lime mead. I'm hoping to make a Mojito mead. Does anyone have suggestions on what types of mint work best. Or more importantly, what method works best for putting mint flavor into the mead without a lot of leaf matter as well?
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I have a Lime Vanilla Mint going right now. I just got done oaking it.
I have made a mint extract myself with some mint leaves fresh from my friend's garden. I added both home made mint extract and home made vanilla extract.
Vanilla extract:
1. Split and scrape vanilla beans into cheap rum (6 beans per cup of rum)
2. Slice up the pod into 1 inch sections, aprox, and put in.
3. Shake once a day for a week.
4. let sit for 2 months
5. Filter out seeds and pods with a coffee filter.
6. You now have vanilla extract. You can use what you filtered out for another batch.
Mint extract:
1. Pick leaves when fresh and green.
2. Cut away and discard any brown spots.
3. Bruise up the leaves, This means to squish them a bit to open up the leaves.
4. Put in rum with the same process as vanilla extract
5. Filter out leaves.
6. Simmer extract over low heat on stove for an hour.
7. Let cool and store.
For my batch I used 1 teaspoon in a 6 gal batch of Mint extract. If you use comercial grade mint extract don't use more than 1/4 teaspoon as it's potent with just the oil. Trust me, less is more.
Hope this helps.
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