Mint Tea

When my mint is not being consumed by the slugs in my front yard, it grows quite prolifically.  Amazingly, it is also continuing to grow through our mild winter months!  So, with that in mind I decided to try my hand at mint tea like the West Ladies teach on their "The Art of Herbs" DVD.

Since the mint is right outside my front door - quite handy if I say so myself - I gathered a rather large bunch of mint stalks (really just enough to cover the bottom of a medium sized bowl), pulling all the leaves off and putting them into a bowl.  I didn't take the time to measure the water in the bowl, nor do the West Ladies, so if I had to guess, it was probably 4 - 6 cups of cold water that was added to the bowl.

Here's the fun part, take your hands and squish the leaves down into the water.  There is not an exact "squishing" time to follow, so I quit when the water turned bright, minty green.

Get your pitcher ready . . . you'll need a piece of cheesecloth, larger than the top of your pitcher.  Strain the juice into the pitcher, catching all the leaves.  The best part of this, if that didn't make enough tea, you can go back to adding more water to the bowl and squishing the same leaves all over again.  Don't forget to compost the mint leaves once you are done with them.

Now I added about 2/3 cups honey and stirred really well.

The first taste was "WOW!"  I thought I had just swallowed a pack of mint gum.  It was very strong and not so appealing.  The frugal girl inside of me decided to let the tea sit in the refrigerator for awhile (before throwing in the towel by throwing the tea to my plants) and see if the mint and honey merged to make a more mellow "mint" taste. 

The next day turned out to be much better.  When I poured another glass, instead of "WOW" it was "OOOOH" that's really good and fresh tasting.  What a great way to use mint! 

Now, it's your turn - How have you used mint?