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.