Chocolate Mint

I’d definitely dry it. I’ve never seen fresh mint in a tea blend before. “How much” is really based on what you’re looking for and your personal preferences. If you want to drink the mint tisane solo (with nothing else added), I’d suggest starting with 1tsp per 6-8oz of water. If you want to blend it w/ another tea, it all depends on the flavor profile. If you want an equal flavor balance of the tea and the mint, use a 1:1 ratio. If you’re like me and like the base tea to come out stronger in the flavor profile, I’d suggest a 1:2 mint:tea ratios. It also depends on what base you use. Since a black tea normally uses the same parameters as herbals, a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio would definitely be a good place to start. If you want to use a white or green tea as a base, you might want to use more mint since it will be steeping at lower temp for a shorter period of time than if it was paired with a black tea. Then there’s how much of your blend to use. If you want a cup where the flavor components are lighter, I’d use 1tsp per 6-8 cup. If you want the flavor profile of one entire cup of your base flavor in your cup, (or the health benefits of such), then I would use more leaf: 2tsp if you’re using a 1:1 mint:base ratio and 1:2 1.3tsp if you’re working w/ a 1:2 ratio. Again, like everything else tea it completely depends on your personal tastes, but these suggestions will give you a place to start and then you can go up or down from there.

Thanks – very informative response! One area I didn’t think to ask about is how long should the leaves dry and what is the proper way to do it?

Also curious what other garden herbs work well besides obvious choices (mint, lemon grass). I have read of folks using sage, which sounds odd but I am willing to give it a try.

My mom grows chocolate mint in her garden and we brew it in the winter time, usually mixing it with other mints or plain tea. In the summer, I grew up on iced tea with chocolate mint. She brews sun tea, or uses the iced tea maker (woo-hoo, mom’s in the 21st century!) and adds the chocolate mint to the usual Red Rose. I LOVE the flavor! :)

Thought I would give an update. Picked 15 leaves. Rolled the fresh leaves in my hand and put in my pot with about 4g of Prince of Wales to make two cups. I am not much on mint tea but the idea of chocolate made me try this. Brew smelled very minty like gum. I was afraid it would be overwhelming. It was not. It was phenominal. Added sweetener which brings out a hint of chocolate. As it cooled the flavor only improved. Immediately resteeped for another two cups. The Twinings loose leaf was a little weak in the second pot but the mint was still very tasty. Tried for a single cup (3rd steep) but both the tea and the mint had given their all. Unlike my honeysuckle disaster a while back, this was very good and I highly recommend trying it.

I bought some chocolate mint too from Whole Foods and had no idea what to do with it, but it smelled good. I picked some leaves and stems tonight and cut and bruised them and poured hot water over them. Then I saw people mentioning to add actual tea to it… I don’t really like tea, so I added some chamomile. Smells good so far

I received a big jar of dried chocolate mint from a friend. So far I’ve only tried adding it to H&S Florence – just a sprinkling. It’s great! Other than hot chocolate, I’m not sure what else I would do with it. Maybe make a chocolate mint ice cream topping from scratch using cocoa powder…?