Spearmint Tea

Spearmint tea is made from the dried leaves of Mentha spicata, whose main aroma compound is carvone rather than menthol. The result is a sweeter, softer mint, green and fresh with a honeyed edge. Steeped in a glass teapot at 95°C for five to seven minutes.

Origin & Story

Peppermint shouts and spearmint hums. Both are mints, but they are built differently. The chief aroma compound in spearmint oil is carvone, which smells sweet and green, and it has very little menthol, the compound that gives peppermint its cold, sharp bite. That is why a cup of spearmint tastes sweeter and softer, and why people who find peppermint too strong often prefer it.

Spearmint is also the mint of the Maghreb. In Morocco the cultivar Mentha spicata Nana, nana mint, has a clear, pungent but mild aroma and is the herb in the country's famous sweet mint tea, where fresh sprigs go into the pot with green tea and sugar. Moroccan mint is grown in the mountainous parts of the country, and people there were making tea from it and other herbs long before true tea reached the region.

On its own, with no green tea and no sugar, spearmint makes a clear, pale green-gold cup. Dried leaf is simple to brew: about 3 g per cup, hot water, and a lid to hold the aroma in, for five to seven minutes. Glass shows off the color.

Steep 3 g of dried spearmint in 240 ml of water at 95°C for five minutes in a covered glass pot.

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