Peppermint Tea substitute

Best substitute

Spearmint tea or fresh spearmint

Use the same amount one teabag or one teaspoon dried per cup as the peppermint tea you are replacing

Best for Moroccan mint tea

Different taste

The everyday garden mint, and the mint in most supermarket bunches and most spice jars labelled simply mint. Same family, different active compound.

Other peppermint tea substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Fresh peppermint leaves
Close match
Use About 10 to 12 leaves, or 1 tablespoon lightly packed chopped leaves, for every cup of peppermint tea
The same plant the teabag is made from, just undried.
What changes
If you have a pot of mint on the windowsill you have peppermint tea.
Best for
hot mint tea, cold brew and iced tea, steeping into cream or milk for desserts, mint simple syrup
Brighter, greener and cleaner than a teabag, which often tastes slightly dusty and medicinal by comparison. Fresh leaves also brew a much paler liquid, closer to straw than to green, which can look weak even when the flavour is strong. Bruise the leaves between your palms before they go in the water, steep five minutes with a saucer over the cup, and do not boil them hard or they turn grassy and bitter.
3Dried mint from the spice rack
Different taste
Use 1 teaspoon dried for every cup of water
Almost always spearmint, occasionally a peppermint blend, and perfectly good tea.
What changes
The rule of thumb is one part dried to three parts fresh.
Best for
a cup of tea with nothing else in the house, mint tea for cooking or baking liquid, savoury uses such as yogurt sauces and koftas
Dried mint loses the volatile top notes first, so old jars taste flat and hay-like and give you colour without much aroma. Sniff the jar: if it does not smell strongly minty through the lid, use double the amount. Strain well, because dried mint leaves fine green flecks that float and are unpleasant to drink.
4Peppermint extract in hot water
Different texture
Use 1 or 2 drops, or about one eighth of a teaspoon, for every cup of peppermint tea
Not really tea, but it does deliver the menthol, which is the thing peppermint tea is usually there for.
What changes
Best for
peppermint hot chocolate, flavouring a dessert or a syrup, mint mocha and mint lattes
Extract is concentrated and alcohol based, so it hits hard and gives none of the body, tannin or pale green colour of a real infusion. Overshoot by a quarter teaspoon and the drink tastes like toothpaste, and there is no fixing it except dilution. Add it off the heat, taste, and add more only if you need it. Peppermint oil is a different and far stronger product than peppermint extract, so do not swap one for the other drop for drop.
5Crushed peppermint candy or candy cane
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 candy for every cup, stirred until dissolved
A real answer for a hot drink in December and a bad one for anything savoury or unsweetened.
What changes
Best for
peppermint hot chocolate, peppermint mocha, sweet drinks for children
You get clean menthol plus a couple of teaspoons of sugar, so cut the sweetener in the recipe accordingly. It cannot stand in for tea as a brewed liquid: there is no infusion, no colour and no herbal edge, only mint and sugar.
6Green tea, chamomile or lemon balm
Different taste
Use the same amount
The honest option for when peppermint tea is only playing the part of a mild hot liquid rather than a flavour, as in a poaching syrup or a caffeine-free evening cup.
What changes
Best for
a hot drink when mint is not the point, poaching liquids and light syrups, caffeine-free replacements, in the case of chamomile and lemon balm
This is the least-bad option rather than a match. Nothing here is minty. Lemon balm is in the mint family and comes closest in feel, gently lemony and herbal, but with no cooling. Chamomile is honeyed and floral. Green tea brings caffeine and a grassy astringency peppermint does not have, and must be brewed at about 80 C or it turns bitter. If the recipe is named after mint, this is not the swap to make.

What is Peppermint Tea?

Peppermint Tea is Peppermint tea is a caffeine-free infusion of dried peppermint leaves, a natural mint hybrid whose high menthol content gives the cup its sharp, cooling, almost cold sensation on the tongue.

Cooking tips

Always cover the cup or pot while peppermint steeps. Menthol is highly volatile and the smell rising off an uncovered cup is flavour leaving the tea. A saucer on top for five minutes makes a noticeably stronger, cooler-tasting cup with the same amount of leaf.
For iced peppermint tea, cold brew rather than hot brew: eight bags or a large handful of fresh leaves per litre of cold water, in the fridge overnight. It stays clear rather than going cloudy the way chilled hot-brewed tea does, and it tastes sweeter because less of the leaf tannin extracts.
When peppermint tea is going into a dessert, steep the mint in warm cream or milk instead of water. Menthol dissolves better in fat than in water, so a cup of cream steeped with a handful of leaves for twenty minutes tastes far more strongly of mint than the same leaves in water, and you are not adding liquid to the recipe.
Moroccan mint tea is gunpowder green tea plus a large bunch of fresh spearmint plus a lot of sugar, and the mint is always spearmint. If a recipe says mint tea in a North African or Middle Eastern context it means spearmint, and peppermint will make it taste harshly medicinal.
Peppermint tea and herbal infusions in general will not run a kombucha ferment, because the culture needs the nutrients in real tea leaf. Use black or green tea as the base and flavour with peppermint at the second stage instead, and do not alter a tested fermenting recipe to fit a substitution.

Frequently asked questions

Is spearmint tea the same as peppermint tea?

No, though they are close relatives and swap one for one. Peppermint is high in menthol, which is what produces the cold, sharp sensation you associate with after-dinner mints. Spearmint contains carvone instead, so it tastes sweeter and softer with no cooling effect at all. Most fresh mint sold in supermarkets and most jars simply labelled mint are spearmint. Both make good tea, but if you specifically want that cooling hit, only peppermint gives it.

How much fresh mint equals one peppermint teabag?

Roughly ten to twelve medium leaves, or a lightly packed tablespoon of chopped leaves, per six-ounce cup. Bruise them first so the oils are released, and give them a full five minutes covered. Fresh leaves brew a much paler cup than a teabag, so judge by taste rather than colour.

Can I use peppermint extract instead of peppermint tea?

For flavour, yes, but use far less than feels right: one or two drops, about an eighth of a teaspoon, per cup. Extract gives you the menthol and nothing else, so you lose the body and the herbal background of a real infusion. It is a good shortcut in a hot chocolate or a dessert and a poor one where the tea is the drink. Note that peppermint oil is much more concentrated than peppermint extract and is not interchangeable with it.

Does peppermint tea have caffeine?

Pure peppermint tea has none, because it is not made from tea leaf at all, it is an infusion of a herb. Blends are the thing to watch: anything labelled Moroccan mint or mint green tea usually contains real green tea and therefore caffeine, and mint-flavoured black tea obviously does. Check the ingredients rather than the name.

Can I just leave the peppermint tea out?

It depends what it is doing. If it is the liquid in a poaching syrup, a jelly or a braise, plain water or another infusion works and the dish is simply less minty. If the recipe is a mint tea granita, a peppermint hot chocolate or anything with mint in the title, the tea is the flavour and leaving it out leaves you with a different recipe. In that case use fresh or dried mint from the spice rack, or a drop of extract, rather than skipping it.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Peppermint Tea substitute

Other peppermint tea substitutes

2Fresh peppermint leaves

3Dried mint from the spice rack

4Peppermint extract in hot water

5Crushed peppermint candy or candy cane

6Green tea, chamomile or lemon balm