Queenette

Queenette is a true Thai basil, the bai horapha type used across Southeast Asian cooking, imported directly from a Thai seed producer and sold in the US as a Renee's Garden exclusive. Though it shares a species with Mediterranean sweet basil, it carries a pronounced licorice-anise character that is the signature aroma of Thai and Vietnamese dishes. The plant is as ornamental as it is culinary: tiny leaves clustered tightly around distinctive purple-red stems, topped with showy violet flower spikes that bees work heavily. Select Seeds rates it at 65 days to harvest on a plant about a foot across, small enough to edge a path or fill a pot. This is the basil to grow if you cook pho, green curry or Thai stir-fries, where a sweet Genovese would taste wrong.