How to make mint tea with fresh mint from your garden! This is such a refreshing summer tea to make using all natural ingredients.
Every summer I make gallons of fresh mint tea. As soon as the mint starts blooming in spring, my youngest son begs me to make mint tea.
My mom was the one who introduced me to the wonderful experience of growing your own mint.
She encouraged me to grow my own, partially because it’s so easy to grow, and it’s virtually impossible to kill!
If you’re familiar with growing mint, you know that it grows and spreads like crazy pretty easily.
And then you have to decide what to do with all that mint!
I used to have my mint growing around a tree. But then I switched to this barrel planter.
I have three different types of mint in this planter—peppermint, chocolate mint, and I can’t remember what the third one was.
It works out really well because it stops the mint from spreading all over the place and getting out of hand.
But every summer we have plenty of mint to make lots of fresh mint tea!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.
How to Make Mint Tea
Making your own mint tea from fresh leaves is easy and fun. It’s something my children have always loved to help with.
I think they like the idea that we’re making this from scratch from something we grew ourselves.
Here are the easy steps to making mint tea at home.
Supplies Needed to Make Mint Tea
- fresh mint
- measuring bowl or other large bowl
- fine mesh strainer
- gallon jar drink dispenser
- kettle (I use an electric kettle like this to boil water)
Step 1: Get a Handful of Mint
First, go out to your garden and cut off some sprigs of mint.
I don’t just use the leaves, I use the stem too. I just cut off the top part of the plant, and that way the mint will continue to replenish itself.
Somehow cutting it seems to make it grow even more!
For a gallon of mint tea, use a handful or two of mint, depending on how strong you want it.
Step 2: Rinse the Leaves
Rinse the leaves under running water to remove any bugs, spiders, or other debris.
I like to gently swish mine in a bowl of clean water first, then I rinse them under some running water.
Step 3: Crush the Leaves
Next, put the clean leaves in a bowl of water and squeeze and crush them with your clean hands. This releases the delicious scent of mint from the plants.
Continue massaging and crushing the leaves in the water until the water turns a brownish color. It will look like tea.
Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer or a cloth into a gallon jar or pitcher.
Step 4: Steep the Leaves
Next, I boil about 8 cups of water in my electric kettle (or use whatever you have to boil the water).
Pour the boiling water over the leaves left in the bowl.
Let the mint leaves steep in the water for about 10-15 minutes, until you see the water turning a light brown.
Step 5: Combine and Sweeten
After the water in the bowl has cooled a little bit (but still hot), pour through the fine mesh strainer into the gallon jar.
Combine with the rest of the mint tea and stir.
Add the sweetener of your choice and stir again.
Serve Your Tea Over Ice
Finally, after your tea has been sweetened, serve it over ice and enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed learning how to make mint tea from your garden! It’s one of our favorite summer drinks ever.
How to Make Mint Tea with Fresh Mint
Ingredients
- 1 large handful of fresh mint sprigs (include leaves and stems)
- 6 cups room temperature water
- 8 cups boiling water
- 1/2 tsp pure stevia extract (or sweetener of choice—honey works well too)
Instructions
- Gather a very large handful of fresh mint leaves. If you want your tea stronger, use two handfuls of leaves.
- Rinse the freshly picked mint with clean water.
- Put rinsed mint in a large bowl and add 6 cups of clean, room temperature water.
- Crush the mint with your clean hands until the water turns a brownish color.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer or a cloth into a gallon jar.
- Boil 8 cups of water (I use my electric kettle for this) and pour over the crushed mint leaves that are still in the bowl (that you just strained). Let the mint leaves steep in the boiled water for 10-15 minutes (I just cover the bowl with a plate to let it steep).
- Add steeped mint tea to the gallon jar with the rest of the tea. Add your sweetener of choice (I use stevia or honey), and stir well to combine. Add clean water to the jar until you have about a gallon of tea.
- Add ice cubes to the tea to help it cool down faster. Serve over ice, and enjoy!
Shop This Post
Here are the supplies that were used in this post:
- fresh mint
- scissors (these black ones are my favorite!)
- measuring bowl or other large bowl
- fine mesh strainer
- gallon jar drink dispenser
- kettle (I use an electric kettle like this to boil water)
Pin This Post for Later
This post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure here. Sharing here.
I, too, tried this iced tea recipe and it was delicious! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m so glad to hear that!
A great recipe and idea for all that prolific mint! Thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop! I hope we see more this Wednesday.
Thank you, Kelly!
There’s nothing like ‘fresh from the garden’! Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ’s.
Thanks Ann!
I’m growing mint this year too and can’t wait to give this a try! Sounds perfect for these hot summer days.
How exciting that you’re growing your own mint! Tea is a great way to use it!
I love mint, and the Chocolate mint is really refreshing! My husband went wild with mint a few years ago and got us a bunch of varieties. We like the Kitchen Mint (tastes like Juicy Fruit Gum) really well.
I love your recipe. It’s simple, but a good reminder to use all that mint out there!
Thanks, Laurie! I’ll have to keep an eye out for the Kitchen Mint!
Thank you for sharing at Best of the Weekend! I will be featuring you this Friday. I have a lot of mint, but didn’t really know how to make tea with it. I’ll be trying this out. Thanks again!
Liberty @ B4andAfters.com
Thank you, Liberty! I’m making a gallon of this tea right now! 🙂
My daughters and I made this today! Delicious!:) Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it! We need to make some more already! 🙂
Thanks for this. I grow mint for adding to ice tea or lemonade but have never tried to make mint tea before. I have a lot of mint! I pinned this and will try it! #Pitstop
Thanks Michele!
I’ve had trouble in the past with getting good mint flavor. Your recipe included steps I think will work better for me. Thank you.
Great! So glad it was helpful!