One of my family’s favorite summer time drinks is fresh garden mint tea. There is just something special about being able to pick mint from the garden, where you know where it comes from, and then take it to the kitchen to make fresh garden tea. Besides the fresh, great taste, it also is satisfying to see the time and energy you put into it bear results.
For me, this is more than something that my wife and I enjoy drinking. It goes back to my Grandma Miller, who passed it onto my mom, and who then passed it onto us. It brings back memories of going to Grandma’s house and drinking garden tea while playing in the yard with my brothers and cousins. Those summer days were so much fun. As I grew older, my Mom would often have a pitcher full of tea for us during those hot summer months. It means so much to our family that when my mom moved a year ago, my wife actually went to her old house and asked the new owner if she could transplant some of my Mom’s original mint so my Mom could have it for her new house. My youngest brother was a missionary in Southeast Asia for 5 years and before that a missionary in Haiti for 2 years. When he had a chance to visit, usually during the summer, he would always let us know that he was looking forward to fresh garden mint tea while home. There is just something about it that evokes memories for our family.
How To Enjoy Garden Mint Tea Year-Round
Growing and maintaining mint is one of the easiest things you can garden. At our house, we keep our mint in a raised garden bed. Although you may still have to control the mint that may grow on the outside of your bed, it is easy to maintain because there is no weeding, and it is a perennial so it grows back every year. Really, it can’t get much easier.
One of my favorite smells when I come home from work is the smell of the mint tea being made. My wife knows exactly what our family likes, and typically, if we have a gallon jug of mint tea in the house, it doesn’t last long with three active teenagers plus Sarah and me. As summer comes to an end, we start thinking about how we can preserve this summer drink to enjoy through the winter. We use a recipe out of the Lehman’s Sapphire Cookbook to easily freeze the tea in order to preserve it for the winter.
Garden Mint Tea
Recipe is from Lehman’s Sapphire Cookbook Collection
Ingredients
- 4 quarts water
- 4 cups garden tea leave, packed lightly
- 4 cups sugar
Instructions
- Pick fresh tea leaves and rinse. Bring water to a boil, then add tea leaves and bring to a boil again.
- Boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Let steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain out tea leaves.
- Add sugar to tea and stir to dissolve. Cool and pour into quart jars. Be sure to leave some head space for the liquid to expand when freezing.
- Freeze tea concentrate.
- When ready to serve, mix 1 quart of melted tea concentrate and add 3 quarts of water.
Notes
What else you will need:
Canner or Stockpot: Stainless Steel Canner & Stockpot
Wooden Spoon: Lehman’s Wooden Spoon
Quart Wide Mouth Jars: Ball Mason Jars
Keywords: beverages, tea
Zach Coblentz
330-620-9589
zcoblentz@hrm-enterprises.com
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OMG! I love mint tea and often cook with mint as well. And I can’t wait to start putting up my own concentrate after reading this..
I grew several varieties of mint in an herb garden when we first moved to our home. For some reason, they died out after a few years. But many years later, I discovered a patch of one of the varieties growing “wild” on the back of our property. Apparently seeds were carried to that area. Now I am going to work even more at caring for ths patch with the hopes of having it get larger.
Might even try this with other tea concentrates.
Thanks for sharing!
I didn’t have enough freezer space for a gallon, so I reduced the recipe to 1, 1, 1 and froze the concentrate in ice cube trays. Now we can drop the cubes into water any time we want some delicious mint tea! Thanks for the great recipe! This summer will be cool & minty fresh!
We are so happy to hear you love this delicious recipe, Lisa!