Dumb Question

Last night at work was veeeeeerrrrrry boring. I was thinking about the seedlings I have growing. I have both spearmint and peppermint growing. I know they can spread like wild fire. I also have heard they can cross pollinate. My dumb question: where does the flavor wintergreen come from? Is it a flavor you can find naturally in a plant or is it a manmade flavor?

Just curious, not that important, I was just so bored last night!

Sharon

Sharon, you really were bored!!! LOL I'm honestly not sure about the wintergreen flavor.

Terri

Hi Terri,

Saturday night usually is very boring! Your mind tends to wander just so you can keep moving. I guess I'll do a web search and see if I can find out anything. If I find something out about wintergreen, I'll let you know.

Thanks,
Sharon

Terri,

I found two pages and here are the links. Pretty interesting. It is a naturally occuring flavor and not man made.

Thanks,
Sharon


http://www.naturesflavors.com/Wintergreen_Oil.html

http://www.lemelange.com/essential_oil_descriptions.htm

http://features.learningkingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/12/15.html

http://gardenviews.com/library/art_98_2.html

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 18th 12:15 PM

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 18th 12:23 PM

I'm probabaly being repetitive here but - There's a plant we call "tea berry" that grows wild in the woods here. The leaves are evergreen and have a wintergreen flavor. It makes a nice tea and liniment for sore muscles - but if I remember correctly it's recommended not to consume too much (it can be toxic in large quantities). Wintergreen flavor also came from birch bark at one time but I think that also had some health hazards. Ever hear of birchbark beer? -It's yummy. I believe Most wintergreen flavor nowa days is artificial. I know I have some info in some of my books here - i'm just too lazy to dig them out. If you'd like me to find the Latin name of "tea berry" just holler and I'll be able to find it.

Thanks Poppysue for the information. No you don't have to dig your books out. I appreciate your offer though. I've never had birch bark beer. I had never even heard of it till I did a Google search for wintergreen flavor. You say it's pretty tasty? I'll have to be on the look out for that so I can try some. Of course, St. Louis is a BIG Anheiser Busch town with a brewery being right here. There are several small specialty brewers starting up. I'll have to look them up to see if they brew it. I bet the tea is pretty tasty too. Wintergreen happens to be one of my favorite flavors, next to flavor of choclate and coffee!

Thanks for all of the great info, I appreciate it. Wonder what weird things I'll think about next Saturday night when I'm reeeeeealllllly bored at work? LOL!

Sharon

It's not an alcoholic beer..... more like a root beer with a wintergreen flavor. Wasn't root beer made with sassafras roots? Maybe it was sarsaparilla roots. Anyway....I don't know if it can even be found anymore.

Wintergreen is Gaultheria procumbens aka teaberry,checkerberry.The oil was important in flavouring root beer.

I have been raised in the Pine barrens of NJ,,,these are all native plants to the pines
Tea berry, gaultheria procumbens is used in flavoring Tea berry gum
sasafrass is used to make root beer and sasafrass tea

WINTER GREEN is not a gaultheria procumbens it is in the mint family... it is in the mentha spicata family.
all these plants can be found at
NOthyme productions,,,,www. nothyme.com
or
Wild earth native plant nursery
po box 7248 Freehold NJ 07728
wildearthnpn@compuserve.com

Black Birch has a wintergreen flavor. The twigs are gathered and chewed.Twigs are gathered on the bluff to be used the next week. I suppose younger people do not do this as much as we older ones.

brassica
i must disagree
i have 5 herb & herbalism encyclopaedias,and they all say that wintergreen a.k.a teaberry,checkerberry is gaultheria procumbens
mentha spicata is spearmint,there is a variety 'Crispa' which is curly spearmint
sassafras albidum was indeed also used to flavour root beer;the volatile oil it contains comprises 80 - 90% safrole which is carcinogenic in animals;this herb,especially in the form of oil and safrole is subject to legal restrictions in some countries

OK..to jumb on the wintergreen bandwagon...it is indeed gaultheria procumbens and known in New England as wintergreen,teaberry or checkerberry....All the same thing depending on who is talking about it.

yes ele i was objecting to
wintergreen = spearmint
by the way why "checker" berry
"tea" berry i can see why

O.K., so where can we get some?
Thanks, birdie

Do the leaves get a *checkered* color or pattern to them?

Kathie

Hi The common teaberry plant grows wild here We as children always ate the berries and chewed the leaves as also the birch tree bark. I recently put a birch tree in my yard along with a sassafrass tree from my son in laws woods. We also chewed the leaves and always in the spring gathered some of the root and chipped it into slivers and put it on the back of the coalstove and simmered it into a strong brew which we cut with hot watere sugared and drank for a blood thinner. Had to have it no matter how young one was. Another plant from my childhood which grows wild on my banks is trailing arbutus which is very rare anymore and gives off the sweetest smell in May. It want eaten though.