WE ARE THE PEPPERMINT PEOPLE
We’ve been growing, harvesting and distilling our very own Black Mitcham peppermint for almost three decades, all from our family farm in the Hampshire countryside.
Thanks to the slow, sustainable way we farm, Summerdown Mint has a pure, invigorating taste and aroma – unlike anything you’ll have tried before. Wander through our fields on a summer’s day and you’ll be struck by its crisp intensity, its ability to cut through the distractions and ground you in the right-now.
We transform this vibrant plant into an astonishingly aromatic, barrel-aged peppermint oil, which plays the starring role in all our award-winning chocolates, teas, candles, diffusers… and everything in between. It’s a unique, revitalising range designed to slow you right down and brighten up the everyday.
THE SUMMERDOWN STORY AND HOW BLACK MITCHAM CAME HOME
As a family, the Colmans have always been inspired by robust, piercing flavours. For years it was mustard, but 25 years ago they turned their tastes to mint.
Back in 1995, Sir Michael Colman travelled to America in search of Black Mitcham peppermint – a notoriously tricky herb to grow and one which had, 100 years before, been native to England.
Struck by the overwhelmingly intense, nostalgic flavour of this peppermint, Sir Michael decided he’d take a few cuttings back home, and have a go at cultivating them with the help of his farm manager, Ian. After a lot of research, advice and a good bit of patience, they started by planting a plot the size of a tennis court. And, over time, those peppermint plants slowly started to establish themselves in the soil at Summerdown.
Skip forward a few decades to today and we now grow over 100 acres of English peppermint, transforming it into the world’s purest peppermint oil, which we use in everything we make. We also sell this oil directly to our favourite makers, so that they can use it in their collections, too. We’ve become ‘the peppermint people’.
What’s more, every single one of our peppermint plants is related to those original cuttings taken by Sir Michael, and has fully acclimatised to our environment. That’s why the flavour and aroma you get from Summerdown Mint is so refined – and completely unique.