Minty fresh

I'm kind of picky when it comes to mints.

See, the problem is that I associate spearmint with toothpaste and mouthwash, so when I have a Mint Julep or or chewing gum with that flavor, I don't like it so much. An exception would be mint chocolate chip ice cream, but that stuff uses peppermint a lot too, so I don't know what I'm usually tasting... and there are chocolate mint candies, and I have no idea what those are...
And usually peppermint doesn't usually taste right to me except during Christmastime, so I generally avoid those round candies unless they're offering it for free in a bowl, like in a restaurant. But I really things like Peppermint Patties and After Eights, so chocolate-covered peppermint is okay by me any time of year.
Things get stranger when you start talking about those modern chewing gum flavors with names like "Black Frost" and "Blue Mountain", which I don't think are natural mint flavors, and some of them are truly awful-tasting to me- like Arm & Hammer toothpaste on steroids.

Ultimately I prefer wintergreen over all of them. This is because my grandma always has wintergreen Life-Savers in her car, so I always have them when we visit her (and thus associate them with good feelings). Weirdly enough, it's not a true mint! And it's really irritating because they're not as easily available as spearmint or peppermint- only recently have wintergreen Altoids been available in nearby stores where we live.

I've been to a couple of gardens with mint plants, and plucked some bits off to smell them. I remember being pleased with the scent of Catmint (aka Catnip), and blown away by a particular cultivar of peppermint called "Chocolate Mint"- it seriously smells like chocolate and mint! I wonder if it's ever used for desserts...

Speaking of scents I associated with toiletries, my mom loves lavender-scented soap, so I always think of lavender as the generic soap smell. Because of this, any lavender-flavored candies I have is like putting soap in my mouth, so I find it extremely distasteful.