If you enjoy a tasty, refreshing summer cocktail or mocktail, why not grow your own?
No, you’re not likely to grow the spirits — although they do come from plants (vodka from potatoes, tequila from agave and so on). But you can grow other ingredients that make those spirits delicious.
Tips for growing mint and other flavorful herbs
Mint is the easiest herb to grow. It’s so easy it may take over your garden if you aren’t careful, so plant it in a pot and keep the pot away from the soil. Place the pot in full sun and water it regularly. In a few short weeks, you’ll be able to pluck its leaves to liven up your lemonade or mint julep.
If you want to get creative, experiment with a few different varieties. My favorite is spearmint, but peppermint is classic. Chocolate mint, pineapple mint and apple mint each have their charms, named for the scents and flavors they impart. There’s even a specialty variety called Cuban mint, an authentic choice for mojitos.
Basil, too, is available in several cocktail-worthy varieties. Genovese, the Italian variety often paired with tomatoes, works equally well in beverages, as do lemon and cinnamon varieties. Plant them in full sun and provide water, but account for your climate and take care not to over- or underwater them. Remove flower stalks, if they appear, to prevent the leaves from turning bitter.
Lemon verbena smells heavenly and pairs as well with a gin and tonic as it does with sparkling water. Most herbs don’t usually require supplemental nutrients, but lemon verbena benefits from monthly applications of organic liquid fertilizer. Water plants when the soil begins to dry out; overwatering may lead to root rot.
When I have guests, I often muddle sage leaves with 1 ounce each of vodka and ginger liquor, then add to a glass with 4 ounces of ginger beer, and pineapple and lime juices to taste. It’s as simple as can be — and just as impressive.
For the most concentrated flavor, harvest herbs in mid-morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun gets too hot. In my garden, that means around 10 a.m. Place them, stem side down, in a glass of water indoors, out of direct sunlight, until happy hour.
This April 10, 2025, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows mint stems keeping fresh in a glass of water on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
Strawberries, cucumbers and heat
Don’t forget the strawberries (bonus: The plants come back every year in horticultural zones 4-9) and cucumbers, both mandatory components of a proper British Pimm’s cup, one of my favorite summertime cocktails.
I make mine by packing a highball glass with thinly shaved cucumber, sliced strawberries, mint and a couple of sliced mandarin rounds, then topping it with 1 1/2 ounces of Pimm’s No. 1 liquor and 4 ounces of lemonade or lemon-lime soda.
And if you like your drinks spicy, muddle a red-ripe slice of jalapeno with lime juice and pour a shot of tequila over it, then add your choice of mixer. Or drink it straight. I’m not judging you. I’m just the garden lady.
Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.
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The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau finalized the rule last year as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to do away with what it called junk fees. It was paused by the courts before it could take effect.
At the time, the CFPB estimated that American families would have saved more than $10 billion in late fees annually had the fees been capped at $8, significantly less than the $32 average.
Banks and industry groups argued that the rule didn’t allow card issuers to charge fees high enough to deter late payments and discourage repeat violations.
The Texas judge’s ruling earlier this month came a day after a collection of major industry groups and the CFPB under President Donald Trump announced that they had reached an agreement to throw out the rule.
Here’s what to know about credit card late fees:
What is the average credit card late fee?
The average late fee for major issuers has steadily ticked up since the 2010s, going from $23 at the end of 2010 to $32 in 2022, according to the CFPB. WalletHub, which tracks financial data, found the average late fee in 2025 to be $30.50, with the maximum $41.
A September 2023 Consumer Reports study estimated that 1 in 5 American adults, or about 52 million people, paid a credit card late fee in the previous year. People with lower incomes pay proportionately bigger fees, according to the CFPB, with the highest burden falling on communities of color and those living paycheck to paycheck.
How can consumers avoid the fees?
Enrolling in auto-pay for your credit cards can help you avoid making late payments, and there are some credit cards that don’t charge late fees at all (though it’s important to note that these cards may have other fee or penalty structures, or higher interest rates.)
Citi Simplicity and the Apple card do not currently charge late fees, and Discover offers a card that will automatically waive the first late fee.
It’s also possible to appeal credit card late fees charged by your credit card company by calling them directly. The companies will often reverse the fees, especially if it’s your first late payment.
You may also want to consider making payments on your credit card balances during the month. That means you’ll have paid more of the balance by the time the amount comes due, and keeping your balance low relative to your credit limit can improve your credit score.
If you’re having trouble making ends meet, you can ask your credit issuers about hardship programs. These are typically available to people affected by job loss, illness or medical conditions, natural disasters, or other emergencies.
What was the CFPB credit card late fee cap rule about?
Concerned that credit card companies were building a business model based on high penalties, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act), which banned the companies from charging excessive late fees and established clearer disclosures and consumer protections.
In 2010, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors voted to issue a regulation implementing the CARD Act, which said that banks could only charge fees to recover costs associated with late payment.
However, the rule included an “immunity provision” that let some banks charge $25 for the first late payment and $35 for subsequent late payments, adjusted for inflation each year. Those amounts subsequently grew to $30 and $41.
After a review of market data, the CFPB finalized a rule that would have capped late fees at $8 and ended automatic inflation adjustments. Based on records analyzed by the CFPB, a late fee of $8 would be sufficient for card issuers, on average, to cover collection costs incurred as a result of late payments.
How have banking groups responded to the court decision?
Industry groups, including the Consumer Bankers Association, American Bankers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others, said they welcomed the court’s decision eliminating the cap.
The groups said that the rule would have led to higher interest rates and reduced credit access for card holders. The groups also said the rule would have “reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances.”
The CFPB has estimated that banks bring in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.
How have consumer advocates responded?
Horacio Méndez, president and CEO of Woodstock Institute, an organization for advancing economic equity, called the ruling a “devastating blow.”
“By tossing out the CFPB’s common-sense rule to cap these predatory late fees — some as high as $41 — a federal judge is putting corporations over the lives of everyday consumers,” he said. “The CFPB’s rule was borne out of clear evidence: the credit card industry was using inflated late fees as a profit engine, forcing families with the least financial cushion to pay.”
Méndez said that while consumers have come to expect fees for services, those fees needn’t be punitive to be effective.
The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
People with high blood pressure that is uncontrolled or poorly treated with most medications may benefit from a new drug that is showing promise in clinical trial results, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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The study found that lorundostat, the drug made by Pennsylvania-based Mineralys Therapeutics, averaged a 15-point average decrease in participants’ systolic blood pressure, a finding that was a little more than double the reduction observed in patients who received placebo treatment. Conducted in 285 patients nationwide, including some living in San Diego County, the study’s findings are similar to those observed in a phase three trial of lorundostat conducted in 1,083 patients, for which preliminary results were released in March.
Systolic blood pressure is the higher of the two figures that patients are commonly quoted during regular medical checkups. It represents the force exerted on blood vessels when the heart beats.
Dr. Michael Wilkinson, the local principal investigator for the San Diego arm of the phase two study and a cardiologist at UC San Diego Health, said that the drug, which blocks the action of the hormone aldosterone, is particularly promising because of its ability to lower systolic blood pressure while also causing minimal complications. Aldosterone is known to cause water and sodium retention in the kidneys, increasing total blood volume and thus pressure which can damage blood vessels and other critical tissue in the body.
“The key to understanding the significance of the reduction in systolic blood pressure is that these are patients we see in our clinic who have uncontrolled hypertension, despite the use of two to five anti-hypertensive medications,” Wilkinson said. “These patients need new and additional options to treat their high blood pressure.”
Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is said to affect more than 120 million Americans.
Being able to reduce pressure by 15 points, he said, could be clinically significant, especially for those on the more extreme side of the scale.
“We would expect that being able to help these patients achieve safer blood pressure levels will make a significant difference in helping them to avoid heart attacks and strokes,” Wilkinson said.
UC San Diego, and several other smaller local clinical trial centers, are among 104 nationwide that participated in the phase two trials that enrolled patients with blood pressure measurements of at least 140/90 mm Hg. The randomized and placebo-controlled trial is open only to those taking, but not significantly benefiting from, between two and five anti-hypertension medications.
Participants were required to stop their existing medication regimens and adopt a standardized course of treatment before taking the drug, which was assessed either at a 50 milligram daily dose or in an escalating dose to 100 milligrams over the study’s 12-week course.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — As pressure grows to get artificial colors out of the U.S. food supply, the shift may well start at Abby Tampow’s laboratory desk.
On an April afternoon, the scientist hovered over tiny dishes of red dye, each a slightly different ruby hue. Her task? To match the synthetic shade used for years in a commercial bottled raspberry vinaigrette — but by using only natural ingredients.
“With this red, it needs a little more orange,” Tampow said, mixing a slurry of purplish black carrot juice with a bit of beta-carotene, an orange-red color made from algae.
Tampow is part of the team at Sensient Technologies Corp., one of the world’s largest dyemakers, that is rushing to help the salad dressing manufacturer — along with thousands of other American businesses — meet demands to overhaul colors used to brighten products from cereals to sports drinks.
“Most of our customers have decided that this is finally the time when they’re going to make that switch to a natural color,” said Dave Gebhardt, Sensient’s senior technical director. He joined a recent tour of the Sensient Colors factory in a north St. Louis neighborhood.
Last week, U.S. health officials announced plans to persuade food companies to voluntarily eliminate petroleum-based artificial dyes by the end of 2026.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called them “poisonous compounds” that endanger children’s health and development, citing limited evidence of potential health risks.
The federal push follows a flurry of state laws and a January decision to ban the artificial dye known as Red 3 — found in cakes, candies and some medications — because of cancer risks in lab animals. Social media influencers and ordinary consumers have ramped up calls for artificial colors to be removed from foods.
Senior Application Scientist Nicole Carey works in a lab to match food coloring at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Beet juice is seen on a mixing tank used in the making of coloring at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Abby Tampow works in a Sensient Colors laboratory in St. Louis on April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)
Liquid color samples are stored in bottles in a room at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Caleb Whorl pours a container of caramel coloring into a vat to be mixed before packaging at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Applications Scientist Anuj Bag watches candy spin inside a drum while being coated with yellow coloring as he demonstrates the process of developing new food colors at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Natural food coloring is held in a jar in a lab at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
The results of various synthetic and natural food coloring are displayed inside a lab at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Candy using food coloring are displayed in a lab at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Technician Heather Browning pours a liquid color sample into a smaller container to be shipped to a customer at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Technician Heather Browning packages a color sample made of beet powder for a customer at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Sensient Technologies CEO Paul Manning speaks during an interview at a production facility for the color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Bottles containing a variety of colored liquids sit on a shelf in a lab at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Containers of material wait in a warehouse for certification by the Food and Drug Administration at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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Senior Application Scientist Nicole Carey works in a lab to match food coloring at Sensient Technologies Corp., a color additive manufacturing company, in St. Louis, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
The Food and Drug Administration allows about three dozen color additives, including eight remaining synthetic dyes. But making the change from the petroleum-based dyes to colors derived from vegetables, fruits, flowers and even insects won’t be easy, fast or cheap, said Monica Giusti, an Ohio State University food color expert.
“Study after study has shown that if all companies were to remove synthetic colors from their formulations, the supply of the natural alternatives would not be enough,” Giusti said. “We are not really ready.”
It can take six months to a year to convert a single product from a synthetic dye to a natural one. And it could require three to four years to build up the supply of botanical products necessary for an industrywide shift, Sensient officials said.
“It’s not like there’s 150 million pounds of beet juice sitting around waiting on the off chance the whole market may convert,” said Paul Manning, the company’s chief executive. “Tens of millions of pounds of these products need to be grown, pulled out of the ground, extracted.”
To make natural dyes, Sensient works with farmers and producers around the world to harvest the raw materials, which typically arrive at the plant as bulk concentrates. They’re processed and blended into liquids, granules or powders and then sent to food companies to be added to final products.
Natural dyes are harder to make and use than artificial colors. They are less consistent in color, less stable and subject to changes related to acidity, heat and light, Manning said. Blue is especially difficult. There aren’t many natural sources of the color and those that exist can be hard to maintain during processing.
Also, a natural color costs about 10 times more to make than the synthetic version, Manning estimated.
“How do you get that same vividness, that same performance, that same level of safety in that product as you would in a synthetic product?” he said. “There’s a lot of complexity associated with that.”
The insects that could make ‘Barbie pink’ naturally
Companies have long used the Red 3 synthetic dye to create what Sensient officials describe as “the Barbie pink.”
To create that color with a natural source might require the use of cochineal, an insect about the size of a peppercorn.
The female insects release a vibrant red pigment, carminic acid, in their bodies and eggs. The bugs live only on prickly pear cactuses in Peru and elsewhere. About 70,000 cochineal insects are needed to produce 1 kilogram, about 2.2 pounds, of dye.
“It’s interesting how the most exotic colors are found in the most exotic places,” said Norb Nobrega, who travels the world scouting new hues for Sensient.
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Artificial dyes are used widely in U.S. foods. About 1 in 5 food products in the U.S. contains added colors, whether natural or synthetic, Manning estimated. Many contain multiple colors.
FDA requires a sample of each batch of synthetic colors to be submitted for testing and certification. Color additives derived from plant, animal or mineral sources are exempt, but have been evaluated by the agency.
Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children.
The FDA says that the approved dyes are safe when used according to regulations and that “most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”
But critics note that added colors are a key component of ultraprocessed foods, which account for more than 70% of the U.S. diet and have been associated with a host of chronic health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
“I am all for getting artificial food dyes out of the food supply,” said Marion Nestle, a food policy expert. “They are strictly cosmetic, have no health or safety purpose, are markers of ultraprocessed foods and may be harmful to some children.”
The cautionary tale of Trix cereal
Color is powerful driver of consumer behavior and changes can backfire, Giusti noted. In 2016, food giant General Mills removed artificial dyes from Trix cereal after requests from consumers, switching to natural sources including turmeric, strawberries and radishes.
But the cereal lost its neon colors, resulting in more muted hues — and a consumer backlash. Trix fans said they missed the bright colors and familiar taste of the cereal. In 2017, the company switched back.
“When it’s a product you already love, that you’re used to consuming, and it changes slightly, then it may not really be the same experience,” Giusti said. “Announcing a regulatory change is one step, but then the implementation is another thing.”
Kennedy, the health secretary, said U.S. officials have an “understanding” with food companies to phase out artificial colors. Industry officials told The Associated Press that there is no formal agreement.
However, several companies have said they plan to accelerate a shift to natural colors in some of their products.
PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said most of its products are already free of artificial colors, and that its Lays and Tostitos brands will phase them out by the end of this year. He said the company plans to phase out artificial colors — or at least offer consumers a natural alternative — over the next few years.
Representatives for General Mills said they’re “committed to continuing the conversation” with the administration. WK Kellogg officials said they are reformulating cereals used in the nation’s school lunch programs to eliminate the artificial dyes and will halt any new products containing them starting next January.
Sensient officials wouldn’t confirm which companies are seeking help making the switch, but they said they’re ready for the surge.
“Now that there’s a date, there’s the timeline,” Manning said. “It certainly requires action.”
Dee-Ann Durbin contributed reporting from Detroit.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
