Scottish growing tool

Mint Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Mint varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: Classic cooking: mint sauce base, new potatoes, mojitos or Dessert or a drink garnish → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

Spearmint

Spearmint is the best all-round pick for a Scottish kitchen garden: classic flavour, fully hardy (H7) and widely available, the reference flavour most recipes assume. It's also one of the most vigorous types on this list, 1-1.5m maximum spread, so container growing matters most with this one.

If: Mint sauce and jelly specifically

Apple mint

Apple mint's milder, apple-scented flavour is the traditional choice for mint sauce and jelly rather than fresh use, where spearmint's stronger flavour can dominate. It's rated H5, still comfortably hardy through a Scottish winter, with a 1-1.5m spread.

If: Mint tea

Moroccan mint

Moroccan mint is the type most commonly recommended for mint tea, and its tighter 0.5-1m spread, against spearmint's 1-1.5m, makes it a slightly smaller pot commitment for the same H7 hardiness.

If: Dessert or a drink garnish → Minty-chocolate flavour

Chocolate mint

Chocolate mint's minty-chocolate flavour suits puddings and drinks rather than savoury cooking, and leaves tinge reddish-purple in sun. It's one of the calmer spreaders, one of three types generally considered non-invasive, though mint's usual nuisance caution still applies.

If: Dessert or a drink garnish → Citrus, lime flavour

Lime mint

Lime mint's citrus note, leaves flushed bronze, suits puddings and drinks rather than savoury cooking. It's also the one type that's generally pest-free, while spearmint, apple mint and pineapple mint are each vulnerable to sage and Ligurian leafhoppers, mint beetles and caterpillars.

If: Ornamental edge or fruit bowl garnish

Pineapple mint

Pineapple mint's cream-variegated leaves do decorative duty as well as flavouring a fruit salad, and it's the shortest of the six at 0.1-0.5m tall, though its spread still reaches 1-1.5m like spearmint's. Watch for reverted all-green shoots, which grow more vigorously and should be pruned out.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →

Mint growing guide →Full Mint varieties comparison →