Herb Trivia
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48 free Herb trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
44 free herb trivia questions with answers for cooks, gardeners and anyone who has ever argued about whether cilantro tastes like soap. The quiz sticks to true herbs, the leafy green parts of plants, and covers the classics: basil, mint, rosemary, parsley, coriander, oregano, thyme, dill, sage, bay leaves, tarragon, chives, chervil, lemongrass and lavender. Along the way you will find out which herb was reclassified as a sage in 2017, which one Greeks burned in their temples for courage, which is the only onion relative native to both the Old and New Worlds, why peppermint is a hybrid, what the four fines herbes are, what goes into a bouquet garni, and why lavender ends up in North American herbes de Provence but rarely in French ones. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia before publishing and each question links to its source. Difficulty ranges from easy questions about pesto and dill pickles to expert questions on plant families and Latin etymology, so it works for a dinner-party round or a serious garden-club quiz. Spices get their own quiz on BrainPickle.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In culinary terms, herbs come from which part of a plant?
The leafy green or flowering parts
Culinary herbs are the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant, while spices come from seeds, bark, roots and fruits; coriander supplies both.
Q 02The word 'herb' ultimately derives from a Latin word meaning what?
Grass
Grass: Latin herba meant grass, and English left the h silent until the 19th century, so the h-less American 'erb' is the older sound.
Q 03Which four herbs make up the classic fines herbes of French cooking?
Parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil
Parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil: Escoffier called it an absolute error to pass off an omelette flavoured with parsley alone as 'aux fines herbes'.
Q 04What is a bouquet garni?
Herbs tied in a bundle and fished out before serving
Herbs tied in a bundle and fished out before serving: the sturdy herbs used give up their flavour through long simmering, blending into the stock or stew.
Q 05Basil, mint, oregano, thyme, sage and rosemary all belong to which plant family?
Lamiaceae
Lamiaceae, the mint family, is also called Labiatae, 'the lipped ones', because its flowers split into an upper and a lower lip.
Q 06The name basil comes from a Greek phrase meaning what kind of plant?
Royal or kingly
Royal or kingly: the herb was possibly so named because it was believed to have been used in making royal perfumes.
Q 07Pesto, the Italian basil sauce, originated in which city?
Genoa
Genoa: pesto takes its name from pestare, 'to pound', because the basil and garlic are crushed in a mortar.
Q 08Tulsi, the plant also called holy basil, is sacred in which religion?
Hinduism
Hinduism: devotees worship tulsi as a goddess, and many Hindu homes keep a living plant in the courtyard.
Q 09In American English, what name is used for the leaves of the coriander plant?
Cilantro
Cilantro is simply Spanish for coriander, and because heat dulls the leaves' flavour, cooks usually add them raw or just before serving.
Q 10Gene variants near an olfactory receptor make coriander leaves taste like what to some people?
Soap
Soap: a 2012 study tied the soapy taste to a variant among smell-receptor genes, including OR6A2, which detects aldehydes in the leaves.
Q 11Which bitter herb gives the spirit absinthe its name?
Wormwood
Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, named absinthe, and its German name, Wermut, also gave vermouth its name.
Q 12On molecular evidence, rosemary was reclassified into which genus?
Salvia
Salvia took in rosemary after DNA showed Rosmarinus had sat inside that genus all along, so keeping it separate would have split Salvia.
Q 13Rosemary's name comes from Latin words meaning what?
Dew of the sea
Dew of the sea: Latin ros marinus, which English probably bent toward 'rose' and 'Mary', so it now looks like 'rose of Mary'.
Q 21Which compound gives peppermint its cooling aroma and flavour?
Menthol
Menthol activates the cold-sensing TRPM8 receptors in the mouth, which is why peppermint feels cold without being cold.
Q 22Oregano became popular in the US after soldiers returned from which war with a taste for the "pizza herb"?
World War II
World War II: GIs are said to have brought home the taste, and oregano's rise then went hand in hand with pizza's spread across America.
Q 23One popular etymology says the name oregano comes from Greek words meaning what?
Joy of the mountain
Joy of the mountain is the popular reading of Greek oros and ganos, but the word's origin is disputed and it may be a borrowing.
Q 14Sprigs of rosemary are traditionally worn on which national day?
Anzac Day
Anzac Day: rosemary has long been an emblem of remembrance, and Ophelia says 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance' in Hamlet.
Q 15What are the two main kinds of leaf parsley?
Curly and flat
Curly and flat: long before parsley became a garnish, the ancient Greeks wove it into wreaths for tombs.
Q 16Which Lebanese dish is made mostly of finely chopped parsley?
Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is mostly parsley in the Levant, but many Western versions flip the balance and use more bulgur than parsley.
Q 17Hamburg parsley is grown mainly for which part of the plant?
Its root
Its root: Philip Miller wrote that when he brought the seed from Holland in 1727, English kitchen gardeners refused to try it.
Q 18The Greek word that gave us 'parsley' literally means what?
Rock celery
Rock celery: the Greeks probably gave it that name because it was often found growing on rocky hillsides.
Q 19Peppermint is a natural hybrid of spearmint and which other species?
Water mint
Water mint crossed with spearmint gives peppermint, a hybrid that rarely sets seed, so it spreads by creeping stems instead.
Q 20In Greek myth, the nymph Minthe was turned into a mint plant after being loved by which god?
Hades
Minthe, a nymph of the underworld river Cocytus, was loved by Hades; a jealous Persephone (or Demeter) transformed her into the mint plant.
Q 24Which herb seasons gravlax, the Nordic cured salmon?
Dill
Dill: gravlax takes its name from a word for burying, because the salmon was originally cured by burying it in the ground.
Q 25Dill is native to which regions?
North Africa and the Middle East
Dill is native to North Africa and the Middle East, from Iran to the Arabian Peninsula, though Scandinavian and Russian cooking, gravlax included, made it their own.
Q 26The genus name of culinary sage comes from a Latin word meaning what?
To be healthy
To be healthy: sage's Latin name was given for the healing powers once credited to the herb, used for sore gums and aching joints.
Q 27Which herb flavours the classic English 'and onion' stuffing served with roast turkey?
Sage
Sage and onion stuffing is the classic, and English folklore said sage grew best in gardens where the wife ruled the house.
Q 28Culinary bay leaves most commonly come from which tree?
The bay laurel
The bay laurel's leaves made the laurel wreaths worn as marks of honour in antiquity, the origin of the word 'laureate'.
Q 29The Indian bay leaf, tej patta, comes from a close relative of which spice?
Cinnamon
Cinnamon: tej patta is thought to have supplied malabathrum, the leaves Romans used in perfumed oils and in cooking.
Q 30Tarragon is the main flavouring of which classic French sauce?
Bearnaise
Bearnaise is named after Béarn, Henri IV's birthplace, but it is believed to have been first served near Paris, at a restaurant named after that king.