Essential Oils vs dried leaves

[FlyingDutchman]

So I am working on an order from Monterey Bay Spice (Herbco.com). A few of the ingredients I am ordering are available as essential oils and dried leaves (Peppermint, Spearmint, and Wintergreen).

I have heard/read pros and cons on both. I thought I read somewhere that the dried leaves lose the oils that are the main flavoring. If they are steeped in water, will they produce as many flavor compounds as their essential oil counterparts?

Essential oils are not soluble in water and - according to the Monterey Bay website - the lots can vary widly in flavor oncentrations. Can the oils be dissolved in alcohol (everclear - not isopropyl) to make them water soluble and not just a suspension that will settle out? Also has anyone had experience with the varied flavor concentration issue the website talked about?

Finally, Which would you recommend?

Thanks,

 

[Andrew5329]

Your right that dried herbs wont give you that "fresh" peppermint/spearmint taste, as the taste comes from the oils present in the leaf. They will still taste pepperminty but not quite the same.

What I would do personally, is go to the grocery store (or preferably a wholefoods/other organic vendor) and just buy fresh herbs, and put those in a hops bag during your boil.

Either way, the flavors should be imparted to your wort either way during the boil.

 

[Tuppence]

Essential oils will dissolve in alcohol and the flavour concentration of oils such as peppermint doesn't vary sufficiently to be noticeable in any form of culinary work. However they are very concentrated so use them with care.

 

[KevinM]

Dried leaves that are steeped will taste different than essential oils. If you're curious abou the difference, it's pretty easy to get dried peppermint leaves for 25 cents per dry weight ounce and peppermint extract (oil or alcohol based) pretty cheaply as well. I find that extracts have that "fresher" taste, though I admit that I usually use any dried herbs in boiling water for a tea. macerations of dried leaves in alcohol vs fresh leaf tastes different too. You can directly crush some herbs/spices, but those are usually citrus peel. When you crush fresh leaves, you get chlorophyll which turns into something unpleasant tasting after a certain time.

Essential oils don't mix too well in alcohol from what I've seen. You still get oils sitting around. However yes, flavor will seep into the alcohol.

I expect that the concentration of flavor can vary more because they're doing small pot still batches. Essential oils are created similar to the way whisky is distilled in Ireland and Scotland. You can read more (I recommend from www.seriouseats.com) about how Bushmills and places like that do theirs. But when you do use an alembic, each batch may have slight differences. If you do say... 100 batches, then each batch is different, but if you toss all 100 batches into one single container, stir and divide into 100 batches again, then it'll be more similar. Larger companies can do this, they have the space and want each bottle to be exactly the same as the last for consistency.

The concentrations should be somewhat similar, but you may find yourself needing more or less drops than the last batch. That's the problem with small batches. But then again, you can say that the sodas are unique from batch to batch because of this.