Tarragon is a very important ingredient for recipes.
However the best tarragon for cooking and growing at home will depend on 3 items:
- The type of tarragon
- Whether you use shop bought or homegrown tarragon
- How easy it is to get your tarragon types.
Below you will find our comparison information & why we ranked them in this order:
There are 3 main Tarragon varieties.
Please find below our comparison – there is more info further down the page on the rating system we used.
French Tarragon
One of the most important herbs in French cooking, with a very delicate aromatic flavour.
The best way to grow it at home is to use a plug plant or larger plant – available from Amazon
The Chef’s Gardener
Grow at home because not available in shops
Summary
French tarragon is the key tarragon type to use if you are into cooking. This is one of the most important herbs we grow, for usage have a look at the example French tarragon recipes. Yes, growing can be a bit tricky but well worth it.
Mexican Tarragon
Ideal for Mexican & Latin American recipes, less flavour then French Tarragon but slightly different (see below). Key advantage is that you can grow it from seeds.
Seeds are available from Amazon
The Chef’s Gardener
Grow at home because not available in shops
Summary
This type of tarragon is a great alternative to French tarragon. However it’s important to realise that it has less flavour than French tarragon, although it does have a slightly stronger aniseed flavour resulting in slightly differently tasting meals, as seen from our example recipes
Russian Tarragon
Very pretty plant that is great for on the patio but not as an ingredient. Much weaker flavour than French tarragon (about 25 % of the flavour).
Very easy to grow – seeds are available from Amazon
The Chef’s Gardener
Grow at home because not available in shops
Summary
When using it for cooking use it the same way as French tarragon but add 3 to 4x as much.
For advice on how to grow it visit our Russian Tarragon growing guide.
The best Tarragon for cooking & growing at home
Above is our comparison of the different varieties of tarragon.
How we rated each type
We firmly believe that tarragon grown at home has some major advantages – not only in that it will have the best possible flavour but also that will allow you to grow varieties not always available in shops.
However, in our rating we have not only included the flavour they add, but also how difficult they are to grow.
Please note… The tarragon seed or plant cost is only an estimate based on the latest time we checked, follow the links for today’s cost.
The best tarragon for cooking & growing at home
Hopefully our guide will help you decide on what type of basil to grow at home.
For more information have a look at our guide to growing tarragon indoors
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