Basil Thai Siam Queen

The aristocrat of the Thai basils, and an All-America Selections winner. Siam Queen takes what is good about traditional Thai basil and makes it bigger leaves close to twice the size of older strains, more vigour, more uniformity, and better resistance to bolting in heat.

The flavour is correspondingly bolder: a powerful sweet-spicy fragrance of anise and clove with a citrus edge, and it holds through cooking rather than fading in the pan.

It is also unusually handsome for a culinary herb. Deep green leaves on purple-flushed stems, topped through late summer with showy spikes of purple-lavender flowers that stand well above the foliage and draw bees and butterflies. Few herbs earn a place on looks alone; this one comes close.