Wintergreen

Dried wintergreen leaf.

Wintergreen is an important flavoring in root beer recipes, and also in many herbal teas.

While many people confuse wintergreen with mint, they are not related in any way. The flavour is similar, but compared side by side, Wintergreen has a "little bit of something else" to it.

It goes by many names: teaberry, checkerberry, dearberry, spiceberry and boxberry.

The former refers to its use during the American Revolution as a substitute for heavily taxed British tea.