The crisp and sweet, airy tang of peppermint tea is one of the most vibrant and punchy of all herbal infusions and, like all such teas, proper peppermint tea is decaf. You will find a few peppermint brews around that are tributes to the way North Africans always added mint to their food and drink. When Europeans first took tea across the Mediterranean to Morocco, the locals blended it with mint, making it as Moorish as it is moreish. Tea blended in this way will be caffeinated to some extent, depending on the blend.
Pure peppermint tea is as it should be, made only with Mentha piperita leaves from the world’s freshest corners. Proper peppermint tea, which is properly pepperminty contains no tea at all.
Got it. So, peppermint tea is decaf? Right?
No. Not quite. Peppermint tea is un-caffeinated. Peppermint has no caffeine in it at all. You can’t decaffeinate something that has no caffeine in it in the first place. That’s just silly.
All that aside, the purity of peppermint tea is important because it has been shown to have several benefits from digestive problems to relief of migraines, as well as its ability to help with blocked noses. That little wafer-thin mint on your plate after a restaurant blow-out is not there by accident and neither is the menthol oil that relieves nasal congestion like a boss. We can’t make health claims because of ‘the man’, but we all know what’s right.
Peppermint tea is not tea either
Strictly speaking, it is a herbal infusion. Tea is different: Black, green, white and oolong tea all come from the leaves of varieties of a kind of camelia bush or, rather, rows and rows of camelia bushes. Camelia sinensis is an evergreen shrub, native to Southeast Asia. Blend those leaves with mint leaves and switch the kettle on and you’ll have a caffeinated drink, just like those Europeans taking tea across the Mediterranean. It’s a bit like those pan-faced telly chefs who insist on adding ‘a twist’ to traditional recipes by sprinkling balsamic vinegar, yuppie sauce or liquid nitrogen into the pot.
We have shown decaf peppermint tea cannot be decaffeinated because it contains no caffeine at all, and it cannot be said to be tea because there is no tea in it. Which only leaves the crisp and sweet, airy tang of peppermint behind.
If you’d like your own crisp, sweet and airy properly pepperminty peppermint ‘tea’, then take a look at I Love Decaf’s ballistic Intercontinental Peppermint Tea – as well as our Moorish blend of peppermint and decaf, Menthol Health Tea. Get yours while it’s cool.