The Summerdown Story – and how Black Mitcham peppermint came home

As a family the Colmans have always been drawn to robust, piercing flavours. For years it was mustard, but 25 years ago they turned their tastes to mint.

Back in 1995, Sir Michael Colman and his farm manger Ian set their sights on America to track down 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, Ian and Sir Michael decided to take a few cuttings back home, and have a go at cultivating them.

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.

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