How to Make Peppermint Tea Properly
Updated Mar 12, 2025
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Peppermint leaves can be used to make an herbal tea by brewing it in water and it can be made hot or iced. See how easy it is to make this tea perfectly at home with tips from a Tea Sommelier.
Peppermint Tea
Peppermint tea is a caffeine-free herbal tea (also called an infusion or tisane) made by steeping peppermint leaves in water. It’s the most popular mint and it’s grown everywhere around the world, but it originated in Europe and Asia. Peppermint is a mix of two plants in the mint family: watermint and spearmint.
Peppermint isn’t a real tea, it’s an herbal tea. For a tea to be a real or pure tea, like black or green tea, it has to come from the camellia sinensis plant. The peppermint tea comes from the mint plant, not camellia sinensis.
Note from Jee
I use peppermint tea in a lot of different drinks. I steep it in hot water to make hot tea, cool the hot tea down and add ice to make iced tea, or steep it in cold water in the refrigerator to make cold brew.
I also mix peppermint tea with lemonade to make a mint lemonade, or mix it with black tea or green tea to make a mint iced tea.
My trick to making mint syrup to flavor and sweeten drinks is to use peppermint tea bags, sugar, and water, to make an easy mint syrup. I add the syrup to hot chocolate, coffee, and tea.
RELATED: Iced Green Tea with Fresh Mint
Ingredient Notes
- Peppermint tea: Loose tea and tea sachets contain better quality tea than tea bags. When I’m having peppermint tea with just water, I use loose tea or tea sachets but if I’m mixing the tea with other ingredients, I go with tea bags.
- Water: Instead of using tap water, I always use filtered water. The better the water tastes, the better the tea tastes.
For full ingredients and detailed instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Boil water. I like to boil water using an electric kettle with a temperature setting, setting the water to 208°F. Boil extra water to warm the teapot.
Step 2: Warm up teapot. Pour some freshly boiled hot water into a teapot and swirl the water around. Throw out the water. Warming up the teapot keeps the boiled water hot so that there isn’t a big temperature drop when steeping the tea.
Step 3: Put peppermint tea into the teapot and add hot water. Cover teapot and steep.
Step 4: Strain peppermint leaves and pour hot tea into a teacup.
Photo Credit: Harney.com
Tea Sommelier’s Tips
Serve peppermint tea with or without sugar or milk.
Both hot and iced peppermint tea can be had without sugar or milk.
Peppermint tea can be steeped for longer without getting bitter.
You can steep it longer than 5 minutes and it’ll still taste great.
Use loose tea to adjust strength.
Using loose tea means you can easily adjust the amount of tea used, so you can make it stronger or weaker.
Store it properly.
Peppermint tea can be brewed and stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Keep it covered or airtight glass container or pitcher.
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Peppermint Tea
Ingredients
- 1 cup water, + more to warm teapot
- 2 teaspoons peppermint tea, or 1 tea sachet or tea bag
Instructions
- Boil water. If using an electric kettle with temperature setting, set it to 208°F. Boil a little more water than needed so that it can be used to warm up the teapot. Filtered water is best.
- Warm up teapot.Pour hot water into a teapot halfway and swirl it around a bit. Discard the water. Warming up the teapot is an extra step that all tea professionals take the time to do, so that when the tea steeps, the water temperature won't drop drastically.
- Put peppermint tea into the teapot and add hot water. Cover teapot and steep for 5 minutes.
- Strain peppermint solids and pour hot tea into a teacup.
Notes
- Peppermint tea is pretty forgiving when it comes to steep time. You can steep it longer than 5 minutes and it’ll still taste great and won’t get overly bitter.
- Using loose tea means you can easily adjust the amount of tea used, so you can make it stronger or weaker.
- Peppermint tea can be brewed and stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Keep it covered or airtight glass container or pitcher.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I added honey but yes it was great, helped kids with cough.