The feeling of mintiness - not technically a
taste - is a result of mint's
local anaesthetic action; it numbs your temperature sensors, giving you a cool feeling. It also numbs your
taste buds, which is one of the main reasons it is used in almost all toothpastes (to stop them tasting
rank) and also the reason why everything tastes weird when you've just eaten a mint.
In the days before proper anaesthetics were invented, mint was often used in this capacity. So were cloves (either whole or as clove oil); these have a somewhat similar, but more powerful numbing effect.