Pukka Three Mint: why one mint is not enough

A single mint gives one note, either a cold menthol blast or a soft sweetness with no edge. Put three together and the whole range is covered, which means the cooling arrives with something underneath it.

Front, middle and finish

Each kind of mint lands somewhere between icy menthol and soft herbal sweetness, and a single-mint tea stays at that one spot. Pukka's blend puts three together. The cooling still leads, clean and lifting rather than sharp, but beneath it sits a greener, rounder sweetness, and that is what stops the cup from tasting like toothpaste.

Menthol is less a taste than a sensation that the tongue reads as cold, which is why a one-mint tea can feel strong and still taste thin. The extra mints put real flavour behind the chill. Which three are in this box is printed on the pack; what you notice in the mug is depth rather than extra strength.

Keep the lid on

Few things in a tea bag carry as much volatile oil as mint, and those oils are what you are paying for. They rise out of hot water with the steam, which is why you can smell a mug of it across the house. Resting a saucer on top for the opening minute keeps them in the drink, and it does more for the cup than fiddling with the timing.

Brew for four or five minutes under that saucer. With no tannin in the leaf, a forgotten mug turns stronger rather than harsher, and since none of it is tea leaf, there is no caffeine at any hour. Sixty-four grams across forty bags works out at just over one and a half grams a bag, a generous amount of leaf for a single mug.

Why the forty-bag box

Mint is the one herbal tea that even committed tea and coffee drinkers tend to accept, and that is the case for the larger box. It goes round the table after dinner, it looks after the guest who has turned down coffee, and it needs no selling. Forty bags keeps up with that kind of use, where a small carton soon runs out.

It is not a morning drink, though, and it is no substitute for a strong black tea at breakfast. Save it for after meals and the evening. With food, mint and dark chocolate are old friends, and a chocolate oat biscuit or a dark chocolate ginger biscuit beside the mug makes the cup an after-dinner mint of its own.

The packs we stock

• Pukka Organic Three Mint Home Compostable Herbal, 40 Tea Bags 64g (barcode 5063270119266)

What to eat with it

• McVitie's Hobnobs Dark Chocolate Biscuits The Oaty One, 262g: oats and dark chocolate, the after-dinner mint idea with a crunch.
• Border Dark Chocolate Ginger Organic Biscuits, 150g: dark chocolate and a little ginger heat against the cool mint.
• Cadbury Snowy Fingers Milk & White Chocolate Coated Biscuits Tray, Limited Edition, 115g: milk and white chocolate fingers for a sweeter, lighter plate after dinner.
• Britannia Good Day Butter Cookies, 216g: a plain butter cookie for guests who want their mint without chocolate.

Elsewhere in the Pukka range

• Pukka Organic Herbal Tea Collection, Four Different Flavours, 20 Tea Bags
• Pukka Organic Lemon, Ginger & a touch of Manuka Honey 40 Immunity Herbal, 68g
• Pukka Organic Night Time Berry Herbal Tea With Chamomile 20 Sleep, 32g
• Pukka Organic Night Time Herbal Home Compostable Sleep with Chamomile, 40 Tea Bags 40g
• Pukka Organic Peace Tea With Chamomile Home Compostable Herbal, 20 Tea Bags
• Pukka Organic Three Chamomile Tea Home Compostable Herbal, 20 Tea Bags

The full range is on the Pukka brand page.

FAQ

How is Three Mint different from peppermint tea? A single mint gives one cooling note. Three mints give that cooling plus a rounder, greener sweetness underneath, so the cup has more depth.

Which mints are in Pukka Three Mint? The three are listed on the current pack. Together they add depth: cool menthol at the front and a softer sweetness behind it.

Is Three Mint all right late at night? Yes. The bag contains no tea leaf, so it is naturally free of caffeine whatever the hour.

Can you over-steep mint tea? Not really. With no tannin in the bag, a long steep makes it stronger, not bitter.

What happens to the used bags? The box describes them as home compostable, so they are meant to break down on a garden heap. The pack says what the bag is made from.

Curator's note: Keep this one for the end of dinner and put the kettle on while the plates are being cleared. It is the pot nobody at the table needs persuading into. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Pukka Three Mint: why one mint is not enough

More from the tea wiki

• Pukka: The Organic Herbal Brand
• How to Make Tea Properly: The Eight Step Method
• Caffeine in Tea
• Tea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise
• Peppermint Tea
• Herbal Tea
• Fruit Tea

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