Minty describes the fresh, cool, tingling taste or smell of mint plants. When you bite into a candy cane or chew a piece of peppermint gum, that clean, sharp flavor that makes your mouth feel cool is minty. Toothpaste tastes minty because it contains mint oils that leave your breath feeling fresh.

Mint is a family of plants with leaves that contain natural oils. These oils create that distinctive cooling sensation on your tongue. If you've ever eaten a mint leaf straight from a garden, you've experienced the strongest version of minty flavor: intense, refreshing, and almost tingly.

People describe things as minty when they have that characteristic mint quality. A minty tea might contain peppermint or spearmint leaves. A minty breeze could carry the scent of wild mint growing nearby. Sometimes people say something tastes “too minty” if the mint flavor overpowers everything else, like when someone uses too much toothpaste.