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50 free Herb trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 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
Herba meant grass or herb; Americans typically drop the h when saying it, Commonwealth speakers pronounce it.
Q 03Which four herbs make up the classic fines herbes of French cooking?
Parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil
Fines herbes are parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, chopped fine and added late to delicate dishes such as omelettes and fish.
Q 04What is a bouquet garni?
Herbs tied in a bundle and fished out before serving
A bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs, classically thyme, bay leaf and parsley, tied together, simmered in stocks and stews and fished out before serving.
Q 05Basil, mint, oregano, thyme, sage and rosemary all belong to which plant family?
Lamiaceae
Lamiaceae, the mint family, includes basil, mint, oregano, thyme, sage and rosemary; parsley, dill and coriander belong to the carrot family Apiaceae instead.
Q 06The name basil comes from a Greek phrase meaning what kind of plant?
Royal or kingly
Basilikon phyton is the source; the herb is native to tropical regions from Central Africa to Southeast Asia.
Q 07Basil is one of the two main ingredients, with olive oil, of which Italian sauce?
Pesto
Pesto alla genovese pounds basil with olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan; the name comes from pestare, to pound.
Q 08Tulsi, the plant sacred in Hindu tradition, is a species of which herb?
Basil
Holy basil is Ocimum tenuiflorum, a different species from the sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) used in Italian kitchens.
Q 09In American English, what name is used for the leaves of the coriander plant?
Cilantro
Cilantro is simply the Spanish word for coriander; American cooks use it for the leaves and reserve 'coriander' for the seeds.
Q 10A variant of which gene is linked to some people tasting soap when they eat coriander leaves?
OR6A2
OR6A2 codes for an olfactory receptor sensitive to the aldehydes in coriander leaves; a 2012 23andMe study linked a variant near it to the soapy taste.
Q 11Crushed coriander seeds have a lemony flavour thanks to which two terpenes?
Linalool and pinene
Linalool, around two-thirds of coriander seed oil, and pinene give crushed seeds their lemony flavour; the plant is an annual in the carrot family.
Q 12In 2017 rosemary was reclassified into which genus on molecular evidence?
Salvia
Molecular evidence turned Rosmarinus officinalis into Salvia rosmarinus, to the irritation of every gardener with a label maker.
Q 13The Latin name of rosemary translates as what?
Dew of the sea
Rosemary's Latin name ros marinus means 'dew of the sea'; the evergreen shrub grows wild along Mediterranean coasts.
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
US soldiers returning from Italy after World War II brought home a taste for oregano, the 'pizza herb'; its flavour comes largely from carvacrol and thymol.
Q 23One popular etymology says the name oregano comes from Greek words meaning what?
Joy of the mountain
Q 14Sprigs of rosemary are worn on which national day of remembrance?
Anzac Day
Sprigs of rosemary are worn on Anzac Day (25 April) because the herb grows wild on the Gallipoli peninsula; Ophelia calls it 'for remembrance' in Hamlet.
Q 15What are the two main types of garden parsley?
Curly and flat
Garden parsley comes in curly and flat-leaf types; the flat-leaf kind is often sold as Italian parsley, and both are biennials in temperate climates.
Q 16Parsley is a key ingredient in which Lebanese salad?
Tabbouleh
The parsley, not the bulgur, is the bulk of a proper tabbouleh.
Q 17Hamburg parsley, popular in central and eastern Europe, is grown for which part of the plant?
Its root
Hamburg parsley is grown for its root, which looks like a thin parsnip and goes into soups and stews or is eaten raw.
Q 18The Greek word that gave us 'parsley' literally means what?
Rock celery
Petroselinon, the Greek root of 'parsley', means 'rock celery'; the plant is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean.
Q 19Peppermint is a natural hybrid of spearmint and which other species?
Water mint
Peppermint, Mentha × piperita, is a sterile hybrid of water mint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata), usually propagated from cuttings.
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.
Oros is mountain and ganos is joy; sweet marjoram is its close relative in the same genus.
Q 24Ancient Egyptians used which herb for embalming?
Thyme
The Greeks burned it as temple incense and thought it a source of courage; thymol is its main aromatic compound.
Q 25Which herb is the eponymous ingredient in the pickles served with an American deli sandwich?
Dill
Dill pickles take their name from the herb, the only species in the genus Anethum; Russian and Scandinavian cooks use it with abandon.
Q 26Dill 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 27The genus name of culinary sage comes from a Latin verb meaning what?
To be healthy
Salvia comes from Latin salvere, 'to be healthy' or 'to save'; the Romans called sage the holy herb and used it as a medicine.
Q 28Which herb flavours the classic English 'and onion' stuffing served with roast turkey?
Sage
Sage and onion stuffing is the traditional one; the herb also goes into Lincolnshire sausages, Italian saltimbocca and Sage Derby cheese.
Q 29Culinary bay leaves most commonly come from which tree?
The bay laurel
Bay laurel, Laurus nobilis, supplies the culinary bay leaf; the leaves stay stiff after cooking, which is why recipes say to fish them out.
Q 30The Indian bay leaf, tej patta, tastes like a milder version of which spice?
Cinnamon
It comes from Cinnamomum tamala and is about twice as long and wider than a European bay leaf.