I've had a jar of coffee and you can't stop me from sleeping all weekend

[venta]

I am a big fan of mint milkshakes. They are, however, tricky to find. Java, the internet café in Whitby, sells them. I found a stall at Glastonbury that sold them. But that's it.

A while back, I bought some peppermint oil from Culpeper's. I wondered if a few drops, mixed with milk, would be nice.

It wasn't.

It really, really wasn't. It was all the bad stuff mint can be: harsh, and bitter, and making the back of your throat feel like someone was blowing freezing cold air down it. I suspect I put too much in (though it was only a few drops). But I don't think it'd be nice even if you got the quantities right.

Don't do it, kids. I've gone back to the banana Nesquik.

Comments

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Could you try whizzing some fresh mint with milk?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I reckon you need that Sirop de Menthe stuff you can buy in France: you know, where it comes in a cylindrical container with a green lid in the centre of the top, and you can buy blackcurrant, strawberry, aniseed and almost every other flavour you can think of as well. That stuff is very sweet, and I'm sure it would be delicious with milk. (If, y'know, you liked milk, which I personally don't).

[kate-r.livejournal.com]

YOu can but mint cordial and I'd suggest trying it with that - I made the same mistake with almond oil whist trying to make almod smoothies. You could also try googling for peppermint syrup.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Eep! Peppermint essential oil?
One drop in my bath leaves me slightly tingly, so I'd hate to think of the effect of a few drops in a drink!

I've just had a mint cornetto which gives me the idea of whizzing up some mint icecream and milk to make a mint milkshake.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Aiee - I'm not sure essential oil (which is what you'd have got from Culpeppers') is at ALL meant for consumption! Essential oils are meant for baths, compresses, massages - about the closest I'd get to using them for anything other than external use would be adding a few drops to hot water to use in a steam inhalation!

You want peppermint *essence* - from the cookery section of the supermarket!

Also, if you do want to try making from fresh herbs - remember there are a lot of types of mint - and the common mint you get in your garden isn't peppermint, it's the mint that goes with lamb ;)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Further to various people's comments: Although you can get peppermint cordial from (for example) Tesco, by far the easiest way to make nice mint shakes is to stick some milk in a blender with some mint icecream (about two scoops for a tall glass).

If you do want to try finding peppermint cordial, the trick is to realise that unlike the French sirop (mentioned by purple_pen above) it's clear, not green. Also good in cocktails, since it's more concentrated than creme de menthe so you don't have to fill your drink up with sugar syrup if that's not the intention. Mmm... Grasshoppers !

[(Anonymous)]

Wow! Frazier Chorus. I have a creakingly old tape copy of a couple of their albums and never ever found out anything about 'em... lovely lyrics, such as the subject line...

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

There is a tea shop in Lyndhurst which offers just about any milkshake flavour you can think of. Many of the syrups they used, as I recall, were coffee flavourings. A google search reveals this:

http://www.discountcoffee.co.uk/acatalog/Philibert_Routin_1883_Syrups_Frosted_Mint.html

which might be the kind of thing you want.