Minthe Nymph

With the fresh, delicate snap of a leaf plucked just after dawn, its perfume comes to you, a green, verdant whisper from some secret, long-forgotten garden.

Mint, that most enchanting of botanicals, prized from antiquity: its dried leaves were discovered in the echo-filled inner chambers of the Egyptian pyramids, dating back thousands of years before the Common Era, a testament to its ancient allure.

The Romans, too, known for their pursuit of art-de-vivre, wove it throughout their existence: crowns of mint adorned the brows of noblemen, and its leaves were used to give scent to the rejuvenating baths that defined the empire.

During the Crusades, mint travelled to Britain; in the Middle Ages, behind the stone-walls that enclosed their herbularius, it was cultivated by diligent monks—guided by the Rule of Saint Benedict, they tended to the plant with meticulous attentions, the air around them thick with sacred silence, broken only by the gentle scraping of their trowels upon the damp earth.

Eventually, the pilgrims, earnest souls that they were, carried mint with them across the vast Atlantic, a tender sprig of hope, the soil of the old-world still clinging to its roots. And even in the rigorous, unyielding landscape of the new world, it spread, soon covering the continent, it would seem, with quiet, almost ferocious abandon.

But perhaps its most captivating lore derives from Greek mythology: a river-nymph called Minthê, so the story goes, caught the eye of Hades, formidable king of the underworld. But their entanglement, clandestine though they attempted it to be, was discovered by Hades’ queen, the fierce and jealous Persephone. In a fit of divine fury, Persephone cursed the unfortunate Minthê, transforming her into a humble, ground-sprawling plant, forever destined to be trodden underfoot. Some versions of the tale grant that Hades, though powerless to undo his wife’s spell, bestowed to mint its sweet and haunting perfume, which lingers in the air as a perpetual reminder of love lost.

Our ‘Minthe Nymph’ sets out to capture this timeless botanical essence. Crafted from Trinidad deep-milk chocolate that has been aged with sprigs of fresh mint, it offers a tasting experience that is exquisitely aromatic, a true and lasting indulgence for the whole of one’s senses.

Flavor Profile Cacao, pink peppercorn, red currant with mint overlay

Ingredients Trinidad cacao, house-pressed cacao butter, cane sugar, non-fat milk powder, fresh mint

Allergen Free of egg, gluten, milk, nuts, soy, wheat

Net Weight 50 g