What causes Tarragon to have no flavor or smell?
Question:My Tarragon herb is grown, but has no flavor or smell. What happened?
Answers:
True Tarragon has a strong anise odor and flavor when fresh. Russian tarragon, which looks a lot like the real thing has no flavor or odor. Sounds like you have the Russian variety. If this plant makes flowers and seed it is definitely not true tarragon as true tarragon never goes to flower or makes seed
Possibly it won't have a scent until after it's been dried and you rub a dried leaf between the palms of you hands.
A: it isn't tarragon.
B: it is a mutated variety
C: it is a tarragon not used for cooking.
D: it has not yet matured. ( look at the supermarket fresh herb and see if there is any visual difference).
E: It has gone to seed.
There are several types of Tarragon that are grown in gardens, each of them having slightly differing aromas and tastes. If you can check your label, it would be worth seeing which variety that you have.
I'm curious how much sun your plants have been getting, as this usually makes the smell etc. more emphatic - subject to them not being over-exposed.
If your plant is new, it may also be focusing its energy on producing roots and establishing itself too, so may be less of a cause for concern. I'd feed and mulch your plants, allowing the roots to stay nourished, as well as the plant to continue growing for some more of the season:you will probably find that its aroma does increase, as it gets more chance to grow away.
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