So I was looking through our fridge for something to have for lunch and I realized that we still had a few bundles of mint stuck in a bag in the very back. So I pulled them out and made tea! I made fresh mint tea and then I also went through the process of making dried leaf mint tea. It's super easy if you have a dehydrator, probably not so easy if you tried to do it with just the oven, though. I have dehydrated things in the oven before but it was horrible. The food turned out perfect, the mood of everyone in the apartment, not so much. Dehydrating food in the oven should be left to winter months only.
That being said, making this tea was super easy. I pulled all the leaves off the mint stems. For the fresh mint tea, i just crushed and rolled the mint in my hands to release all the oils and threw it in a tea pot of hot water. It was steeped for about 5-7 minutes before it was mixed with some honey and ice cubes and completely drained by George.
After all the leaves were plucked, I arranged them on three layers of my dehydrator and let the dehydrator warm up for about 5 minutes. I probably could have gotten away with only 2 layers of the dehydrator but I wasn't sure and didn't want to over-crowd it. I put it all together and let it do it's thing for 2-2.5 hours.
The leaves were dried very nicely! They crumble easily too, which will be nice putting them into tea bags. I have a feeling I will never be buying mint tea ever again and just making it myself. It probably is NOT cheaper to do it yourself unless you are getting free mint, since the two bunches of mint I made only filled up two of our smallest rubbermaid containers. I would estimate that it would be about 4 tea bags at most per container.
Given all of that, I enjoyed making my own. I tend to use cooking and prep-cooking as a relaxation and de-stressing technique. If it will make me feel better, I don't see a point in buying it pre-made. I'm excited to use this tea, as the fresh stuff was delicious. These dried leaves still SMELL delicious, so I expect great things from the flavor!
I used a 5-layer Gordon food dehydrator that I found for 15$. It only has two settings, on and off. It's not super fancy but it gets the job done.
I love the first picture! I've always wanted to try a dehydrator, but I could see it being expensive to be buying fresh produce...
ReplyDeleteI need to plant some mint
I do know that Whole Foods Market has mint on sale sometimes for 4 for 1$. Which could probably get you enough mint for a box of store bought tea. But that would probably be the only time. Planting it is the best option.
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