How to make tea from mint leaves
Do you need something delicious to perk you up? Mint tea is an instant mood booster and its energizing effects will last for hours without giving you the crash that coffee is often responsible for. It is pretty easy to brew your own homemade mint tea, too – especially if you have fresh mint leaves at hand from your herb garden. If you don\’t, you can also use store-bought mint leaves, fresh or dried.
Do be warned, however, that after drinking your homemade mint tea, you just might start an herb garden with mint as the main feature! Which is great because mint is very is to plant and maintain. Once it starts blooming, you will definitely have fresh, energizing and healthy tea every day. It spreads pretty easily and is very difficult to kill, so it\’s a great herb to start with when you are thinking of creating an herb garden in your home.
Fresh mint + dried mint leaves
When brewing your mint tea, you can opt to either use fresh mint leaves or dried mint leaves. We recommend that you use fresh mint leaves when mint is blooming or you can get it from the grocery and dried leaves whenever you cannot access the fresh mint leaves.
In fact, drying mint leaves is a pretty easy affair and you can hang it to air dry or decide to bake it. When drying mint using your oven, spread out the fresh mint on a cookie sheet and then set the lowest temperature you can get away with and let it slowly dry for approximately 2-3 hours. Once you air dry or oven dry, you can then go ahead and crumble up your dried mint leaves, storing them in an airtight container for a maximum of 6 months.
This makes it easy as each time you brew your mint tea, you will only need to scoop up a teaspoon of the dried mint leaves, and steep it for around 3 minutes in hot water to make yourself a single cup of mint tea.
Types of mint
Mint has over 30 different types and they have been used in various capacities as part of medicinal recipes or culinary recipes. However, the most common types of mint found today, and especially used in brewing tea are:
- Spearmint
- Peppermint
- Chocolate Mint
Spearmint has pointed leaves, while peppermint has rounded leaves and is a hybrid of Water Mint and Spearmint. Peppermint has higher levels of menthol and hence its taste is chillier than that of spearmint. It is also great at aiding in digestion and rich in vitamin C and other minerals such as magnesium, potassium, iron, copper and calcium.
On the other hand, spearmint is softer and tastes a bit sweeter than peppermint. It is also a great antioxidant and a great source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamin, etc. and may also have antibacterial and antiviral properties.
Finally, chocolate mint is a strain of peppermint and it is sort of like a dessert mint with its sweet smell and has less of a tingle than the other mints. Its stem look brownish-purplish though its leaves look like those of peppermint. It smells like a mix of cocoa and peppermint.
Benefits of mint tea
- Mint tea is great for a morning rejuvenation or afternoon pick-me-up. This is because mint tea contains little-to-no caffeine but having a natural flavor and chilly aroma from the menthol. It is great if you want to boost your mood or energy.
- When taken after a meal, it is great in aiding digestion; therefore, a fresh cup after lunch or pre-bedtime will help you have a great afternoon and even help you sleep more comfortably.
- Mint tea is also calming and it also helps in soothing nausea and even relieving the symptoms of an upset stomach.
- For pregnant women, mint also helps soothe the morning sickness and calm them through the anxious phases.
How to make sun tea with mint
In the summer, why not save energy and use the sun to help make your mint tea? You read that right; sun tea is totally a thing! When it\’s hot out, you don\’t want to be heating up the house inside just to enjoy some refreshing tea. You can instead brew your mint tea using the sun\’s energy.
To do so, all you need to do is fill up a suitable jar with water and add either black or green tea bags before setting it in the sun. The length of time it takes to brew is between 2-3 hours and this depends on how hot the sun is, so check on the color of your tea to determine if it\’s done brewing.
Before brewing, ensure your jar is thoroughly clean and fill it with filtered water before adding the tea bags, water and a few sprigs of the mint or mint leaves. Use two tea bags for half a gallon of water.
When the brewing time is about 20 min from lapsing, make a simple syrup consisting of equal parts water and sugar, depending on how sweet you want your tea to be. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring until all the sugar is fully mixed in. Allow the syrup to cool. Bring your jar inside and remove the tea bags and then add the syrup and stir.
You can drink while lukewarm or place it in the fridge to chill. If you use crushed mint leaves, you can sieve them out, but for whole mint sprigs, then you can leave them in. Serve your tea and then garnish with fresh mint or a slice of lemon and enjoy!
How to prepare mint leaves for tea
When preparing your mint leaves for tea, you want to make sure that if you are using fresh mint leaves, pluck them from the main stem of your store-bought or homegrown sprig that you have set aside for the tea. Wash them thoroughly, rinsing them under running water and then chop them up or squeeze and crush them with your clean hands.
For dried mint leaves, on the other hand, once you air dry or oven dry your leaves thoroughly, crumble them. Set the ones you will use for your tea aside while storing the rest in an airtight container, placing it in a dry and dark place. Chopping, crushing or crumbling your leaves will help release the scent of the mint, making it more noticeable than it would be if you used the leaves whole.
How to make iced tea with mint leaves
To make half a gallon (2 liters) of iced tea with mint leaves, all you need is a handful of fresh mint sprigs, thoroughly washed and rinsed, or three heaped tablespoons of dried mint leaves, 3 cups of room temperature filtered water, 4 cups of boiling water and a sweetener of your choice. You can use more mint if you want your tea to be stronger.
Once you have all your ingredients, put your mint in a large bowl and add your filtered water, crushing the fresh mint with clean hands or alternatively, stirring the dried leaves until your water turns a brownish color.
Strain the mixture into a clean jar, add in your 4 cups of boiling water over the crushed mint leaves still in the bowl, cover it, and leave it to steep for about 15 minutes.
Strain once more into the jar with the rest of the tea and add your sweetener, stirring until fully mixed in. Chill in the fridge or directly add ice cubes and then serve the cool tea over ice and enjoy! You can add lemon to make it lemon mint tea for that extra refreshing taste.
Moroccan mint tea: Green tea with mint
In Moroccan culture, mint tea is a staple drink often referred to as \’Moroccan whiskey.\’ However, rest assured that there is no iota of alcohol in it. It is just a delicious tea made often with spearmint and brewed especially with green tea and is specially brewed when it\’s cold out or when people want are in a gathering of friends or/and family.
To make the Moroccan mint tea, you will need about a quarter a cup of mint leaves from your bought or homegrown mint sprig, three teaspoons of loose green tea, about three teaspoons of sugar and a corresponding 3 cups of water. You can add the ingredients linearly if you want to brew more tea or reduce them respectively if you want to brew less than three cups of tea.
Once you have collected all of the ingredients together, boil the water and pour it together with the loose green tea into a kettle placing it over medium heat for about three minutes. Remember to keep your kettle uncovered as the tea simmers. After the three minutes elapse, take it off the heat and quickly add in the sugar and mint leaves before pouring the tea into a cup and back into the kettle a couple of times to ensure the sugar dissolves. Do not stir. Once the sugar fully dissolves, pour out a cup for yourself and enjoy!