PlantFiles: Chocolate Mint, Peppermint
Mentha x piperita f. citrata 'Chocolate'

I'm living in the tropics where the temperature can go as hot as 90+ degrees, but the plant's still living for quite a while. My seller told me to water it once every two days but knowing the nature of this plant, I just watered it every day. It doesn't look as lively as I've seen in pictures posted here, but seems that it's hardy enough to thrive in a place as hot as here.

I don't place it on direct sun, though, because I know for sure the sun will burn the plant and I might be forced to use them all for tea.

I have this plant groing in a barrel half on my back deck. It's bright, but mostly shaded; it gets a couple hours of sun mid-day and that's it. Does great and really does smell like chocolate. Taste's great with tea.

I have had this plant for 10 years. Got a start from a friend. It is very invasive, so I keep it in a pot sunk in the garden.

My aunt who lives in Rochester, WA originally found this plant living in a swamp in her backyard. She took a small portion of it, and put it in a bucket with water (because it originally grew in water) & it lived for quite a while, and she separated a piece of it for me. I then went back home and planted it in a pot about 8" inches across by 6" inches deep. In 5 months it had such significant root growth, that when i went to transplant it, it was just a mess of roots packed together. It was still going strong though!!! I then planted it in my backyard, where in 1 month, it has tripled in size, and all I used to get it going was organic plant food. The soil here isn't ideal for a plant that is used to water!!! The soil is very dense & a large amount of rocks. I uploaded a picture of how well this thing has grew.

The zone here is 8b.

I put this plant directly in the ground, and it's not that big of a deal - Perhaps because it's always being pulled up and consumed. :) This peppermint has unbelievable taste and smell.

this plant is extremely hardy in my zone 8b...winters over well and comes back year after year...it got into my pond and has completely surrounded the banks growing in the waters edge and now growing up the banks...i would be interested in knowing if this could be a deterrent for snakes???

Chocolate Mint is easily contained in the garden by sinking a plastic pot, with the bottom removed, into the bed. Leave the pot edge about 2" above the soil. I mulch around the outer edge of the pot to help conceal it. The plant will need to be divided when growth ceases to be vigorous. (About every three years, depending on the size of the pot used.)

I love the peppermint patty smell, but something weird keeps happening with mine. It grows to fill the pot, and then dies. And then slowly comes back to life, fills the pot, and dies. Rinse, repeat. Right now it's got a couple inch-high sprouts, amidst a sea of dead peppermint stem. What am I doing wrong?!

I personally love this plant - in pots.

It grows surprisingly quickly, doesn't seem to care whether I stick it in a half-sunny window or a full-sun one, and is distinctly non-picky about water. The only changes are how leggy it gets and how quickly it flowers in the spring.

However, when I planted some in the garden, it soon spread to three or four times the space I'd allowed for all three types of mint I had growing there, and very nearly took over instead of the other two, missing that margin due solely to my rescuing them into pots of their own.

Plant it with caution, preferably in containers - but it's a lovely smell, a wonderful lemonade mint, and smashing in icing for cakes.

I agree with many comments. If you like peppermint patties, this is the mint for you. It is vigorous where I live (zone 6a). when I didn't have it in a pot, it tried to take over the lawn. Now it is behaving nicely in a pot, sending out runners every so often.
I read somewhere that with all the mints, harvest the leaves before any blooming for great flavor without bitterness. Hard to do that!

Fabulous mint -- perhaps my favorite of all the mints I grow (and I grow a LOT of mint). I have it in pots and between treads of a slate path. It's reasonably step-able, as long as the crushing is an occasional thing. But oh, what fragrance with every step!

I pinch a sprig off every morning to toss into a cup of tea, coffee, or in winter, hot chocolate. Also very good as a sort of "lace" edge presentation to a scoop of sorbet. I've never harvested the leaves to make a tea on their own, but I definitely add it to the hot or cold beverages I'm already brewing. I even give a little leaf of it to the dogs for "afters" when they've had a meal. Certainly eradicates dog food breath!

I love this plant -- all herbs really, but I can plead addictions to basil, rosemary, and this chocolate mint. Are there any fresher, happier scents in existence?

We've had two very hot summers here, so I definitely give this a little drink every day. Not wet feet, but a drink in the morning and a drink in the late afternoon, and it's growing like gangbusters in sun/part shade.

This is my first year with Chocolate Mint. It seems to be taking off quite well. Spearmint (which I love) grows exceptionally well. I have never done much with these herbs and I would like to know how to use these as teas? Is there a web site to learn how to harvest your herbs?

I love this plant. I am very new at herb growing and don't realy know the best way to harvest do I clip the top or pinch leaves?

I kept my chocolate mint in a shallow pot on top of a table and let it cascade down... BEAU-TI-FUL! The pot was under my front porch and only received a few hours of morning sun each day and evidently thay was plenty. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any this spring, but I'm still looking. Probably wouldn't plant it in a bed, because it does grow VERY fast and I would consider it invasive. But it's awesome in a pot.

This plant has been extremely invasive here. I really like it, so I don't have the heart to give it a negative. I pull it up by the handfuls and throw it away at least twice during the summer months in order to keep it at least part way under control.

Chocolate mint smells exactly like a mix of chocolate and mint but tastes mintier than chocolatey (slight chocolate flavor) pretty shiny leaves with dark brown vening and dark brown stems.... Easy to grow.

Nice flavor and even better aroma. Our plant spreads but our area is basically a desert ....... so the dry soil and the speading is not to the point where I would ever complain. We're using it as a ground cover beneath a few of our 40 year old Leyland Cypress trees. The Chocolate Mint is attractive and the height. I like the different coloration from our Spearmint plant which is invasive.

This is my second year for this plant and it hasn't been invasive so far. We're in a fairly dry area and that may keep it from getting too carried away.

The scent is fantastic.

Chocolate Mint has a vining habit, as you will see when my pictures come through. All you have to do is snip off a piece with a couple of florets and leave it on top of soil.
It does not need any fertilizer, this may cause long roots and less flavor in the leaves.

You can use the layering method for it to propagate:

Without cutting the vine take a piece and lay it on top of the soil; use a very small piece of twig or popcicle stick and push it gently down on top of vine and into the soil, to hold the piece of vine down into the soil and in place. Leave the small piece of twig or popcicle stick there. After 2 weeks check the plant, it should have developed enough of it's own roots for you to snip it off of the parent plant. You then have a brand new plant start to give to a friend.

You may also take the very tip of the vine; poke a hole into the soil using your finger tip, blunt pencil, bamboo skewer, or chop stick and then push the tip of the vine up to the first set of leaves into the soil; push the soil lightly around the tip you just pushed into the soil. Wait as above.

This is a wonderful mint plant but it's pretty finicky here in zone 9a. Of all the mints my friends and I grow, this has been the most troublesome (it doesn't seem as hardy here as, say, spearmint or apple mint). We've found that when propagating with softwood cuttings, chocolate mint does much better when left in a vase of water to grow roots (add a pinch of rooting hormone to the water) than it does being dipped in rooting hormone and potted right away.

In Florida, this plant needs partial shade and plenty of moisture. Give it a little space and it will perform well. I love to put the leaves in iced tea.

Chocolate Mint has a wonderful scent, much like that of a Peppermint Patty candy. If you grow it in the garden, place it in a large container, like a 5 gal bucket with drainage holes, otherwise it will take over. Great in teas, coffee, and baked goods. I can’t get enough of it. Propagates easily from cuttings