All Natural Flavoring

Because consumers are highly demanding of the taste properties of mint in the products they use, the commercial mint crop is taste-driven. Mint oil is a natural flavoring. It remains an important commodity because of the complexity of the oil – hundreds of different compounds have been identified through laboratory analysis. Although some of these compounds have been synthesized in the lab, the complex nuances of flavor that are found in natural mint have so far defied attempts to develop a commercially viable, full bodied, artificial mint flavoring.

The mint plant is highly sensitive to soil and climate conditions. As a result, mint oil’s flavor and composition can vary by state, and even by region within a state. Consumers of the end products made with oil are very discriminating, and manufacturers of these products, therefore, often require mint from a specific region.

Mint is a highly-concentrated essence so that the percentage of oil used in mint-flavored products is extremely low. One drum of mint oil, weighing about 400 pounds, can flavor more than 5 million sticks of chewing gum or 400,000 tubes of toothpaste.