Types of microgreens: the full list, compared

Mild and nutty with a delicate fresh crunch, and none of the pepper or mustard heat of a brassica.

Mild and earthy rather than peppery, and very tender: this crop is color on the plate more than flavor in the mouth.

Tender and nutty-green with a real peppery heat: the pungency is the point, and it is far stronger than a mild brassica like broccoli or kale.

Mild, grassy and slightly earthy, and it is a juice flavor rather than a salad one: past its window the stems turn fibrous and bitter and the juice darkens.

Concentrated sweet-spicy basil aroma, closer to a seasoning than a salad green, and strong enough to take over a delicate plate.

Earthy beet and spinach with a mild sweet edge, milder than the root but not neutral, and one extension review simply calls beet microgreens sour.

Mild, juicy, unmistakably cucumber, on a leaf with fine bristly hairs that you notice in the mouth.

Mild, fresh brassica with a faint bite: none of radish or arugula's pepper, and none of the sulfur note cooked mature broccoli carries.

Savory brassica with a real, deliberate bitterness: this is rapini, stronger and less sweet than broccoli, and the bitterness is the product rather than a defect.

Mild and lettuce-like, juicy and crisp, with a tangy citrus edge that keeps it from reading as plain.

Mild and earthy in the way a beet is earthy, crisp and juicy rather than peppery, and it does not disappear into a dish.

Mild, clean and slightly sweet cabbage with very little peppery heat, which is the whole difference from the red type.

Mild, crisp cabbage with a small peppery edge: gentler than the mature head, and more recognizably cabbage once the true leaves advance.

Mild and sweet, recognizably carrot top rather than carrot root, with a fine feathery texture like dill and none of dill's flavor.

Mild cabbage and cauliflower, fresh brassica without any of radish's heat, with enough crunch and substance to work as a base green rather than a garnish.

Concentrated aromatic celery, recognizably the vegetable but sharper and stronger than the stalk, closer to a seasoning than to a salad green.

Mild and earthy with a spinach-like green note and no heat at all: this crop is bought with the eyes, not the tongue.

Delicate mild sweet anise, closer to parsley and tarragon than to licorice candy, and it only really arrives once the first curled true leaves do.

Minty and herbal with a real bitter, almost spicy edge, and the bitterness sharpens if you leave it past the cotyledon stage.

Mildly sweet and nutty in a clearly leguminous way, with a small tart zest at the front and no heat anywhere in it.

Delicate mild onion-herb, noticeably gentler than onion microgreens or garlic chive, and it fades rather than sharpens as the blade grows on.

Bright, citrusy and unmistakably cilantro: the herb itself rather than a generic green, and it gets stronger the longer you leave it.

Mild and light with a gentle grassy sweetness, closer to a salad volume green than to anything with a bite, and it turns noticeably bitter if held past its early window.

A crisp, mild cabbage bite with a slightly bitter edge and a little sweetness behind it, and none of the pepper that mustard or radish brings.

A refreshing cucumber note without bitterness, on thick dark green shoots: cooling rather than flavor-forward, and nothing like a peppery brassica.

Mild at this stage but unmistakably dill: sweet and citrusy, an aromatic pickle-and-fresh-herb note rather than anything peppery.

Mildly bitter at the cotyledon cut and distinctly more bitter once true leaves start, and the bitterness is the product rather than a fault.

Sweet, unmistakable anise, mild at the cotyledon stage and intensifying after the first true leaf, with (E)-anethole carrying most of the aroma.

Concentrated earthy methi bitterness with a curry note, mildest at days 6 to 8 and noticeably bitter past day 10, and a little goes a long way.

Light, tender and close to neutral rather than peppery, and the texture is the point: soft and faintly slick, not crisp.

Mustardy on the tongue and then a warm pepper heat that climbs into the nose like horseradish, sharpest at the cotyledon cut.

Mild, gently earthy brassica with no heat in it at all: recognizably kale, without the toughness or the bitterness of the mature leaf.

Mild, slightly sweet cabbage, with markedly less pepper than radish or mustard: the color is louder than the flavor.

Mild, slightly sweet mustard-spinach with a gentle brassica bite, and it sharpens as the leaves darken rather than staying put.

Mild sweet onion, gentler than a mature leek but concentrated enough that a heavy handful takes over the plate.

Mild, sweet and nutty with a juicy snap, closer to fresh pea than to anything peppery, and it turns woody and faintly bitter if left too long.

Mild, softly sweet and close to neutral: a tender salad base rather than a flavor, and slightly bitter only if you leave it too long.

Sweet, cooling spearmint with less of peppermint's harsh menthol: an aromatic finish measured in leaves, not a green you eat by the handful.

Mild mustard with a light peppery bite and a little sweetness, nothing like the heat of a hot mustard.

Mild, nutty and faintly earthy with a juicy bean-sprout crunch: volume and texture rather than flavor.

Peppery to pungent rather than merely green, with a mustard heat that arrives in the nose: Garnet Giant is described as only mildly spicy, and Wasabina is sold as sweet and spicy.

Strong peppery horseradish, close to wasabi, with a brief sweetness in front of the heat.

Concentrated fresh onion and scallion, strong enough that a few strands season a plate: seasoning rather than salad.

Concentrated resinous oregano, the pizza-herb note undiluted: a seasoning in leaf form rather than a green.

Mild, faintly sweet Chinese cabbage with a gentle brassica edge, carried by a crisp juicy stem rather than any heat.

Mild, clean, recognizably parsley: subtler than the mature herb, with a crisp young texture and none of its bitterness.

Mildly sweet and recognizably like a fresh garden pea, with a crisp watery stem and no brassica pepperiness.

Intensely sweet juicy corn with a crisp snap, closer to a dessert note than to a vegetable, and it turns fibrous and bitter if left tall.

Mild and spinach-like with a crisp succulent bite and a faint sourness: texture and water rather than heat.

Very mild, soft and grassy-nutty, closer to baby spinach than to anything peppery, with almost no aroma and an intensity the crop guide itself rates 2.5 out of 10.

A crisp, juicy radish bite, peppery enough to season a sandwich rather than merely taste green, and it sharpens as the true leaves advance.

The sources do not agree: one supplier calls it mildly sweet and subtle, another calls brown sesame spicy, and the one guide that compares eating quality says it tastes better cooked.

A subtle licorice and anise herb with mint, basil and cinnamon notes rather than a salad green, and it turns spicier and more basil-minty as the tray ages.

Bright, sharp, lemon-tangy acid rather than a green flavor: an acidifier you use by the leaf, not a salad base you eat by the handful.

Mild, sweet and unmistakably spinach, with less of the bitterness the mature leaf carries: tender leaves on juicy stems.

Mild, nutty and noticeably crunchy, closer to a fresh sunflower seed than to anything peppery.

Mild, spinach-like and lightly earthy-sweet, with none of a brassica's pepper: the colored stem does the work, not the flavor.

Mild and lightly sweet with a subtle nutty edge, well short of arugula's pepper or a hot mustard: a leafy brassica you can eat by the handful.

Intense thyme with pine and mint behind it, concentrated into a very small leaf: a herb you use by the pinch, not a green you eat.

Crisp and mild-sweet, cabbage and turnip with a light pepper finish rather than a mustard bite.

A sharp peppery brassica bite, closer to mustard or radish than to a salad green, on a tender small leaf.

Mildly sweet with a pleasant bitterness and an unmistakably grassy finish: a juice flavor rather than a salad one.