Like a breath of fresh air, there’s no other herb quite as uplifting as peppermint. Found in everything from breath mints and toothpaste to desserts and herbal tea, it’s the epitome of refreshment. Some of our favorite peppermint is sourced from a pristine farm in Washington State, where the combination of the climate, soil, and organic practices yields a high level of essential oil that we can’t find anywhere else. When you’re in the mood for a blast of minty goodness, you can rest assured that a cup of our Organic Peppermint tea will invigorate your taste buds just when you need it.
Ancient writings reveal that people have used mint since the time of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. The Romans collected mint—likely spearmint—using it as a flavoring in their food and in their daily hygiene, and ancient Roman physician and botanist Pliny the Elder claimed it could uplift the spirit. It wasn’t until the late 17th century that the highly aromatic peppermint plant was discovered. A sterile hybrid between spearmint (Mentha spicata) and watermint (Mentha aquatica), peppermint (Mentha x piperita) does not seed as other plants do, but rather propagates through cuttings and division. And once it grows, it can take over a whole garden—a welcome abundance for those who want to take advantage of its delightful flavors for foods and beverages.
Menthol, one of peppermint’s chief active compounds, is what gives the leaves their distinctly cooling, bright, and refreshing flavor. This compound is captured by steam distillation, and added as drops of essential oil to liqueurs, candies, and confections. Environmental factors like sun, rainfall, and soil quality impact the amount of menthol produced by the peppermint plant. Achieving the right amount of menthol is what makes our Peppermint tea so incredibly flavorful, and it all comes down to a long-standing relationship with a few organic farmers with ideal growing conditions.
Trout Lake Farm is positioned where the rainforests of Western Washington meet the dry deserts of Eastern Washington, offering the perfect balance of rain and sun. Trout Lake’s proximity to Mt. Adams endows the farm with a rich, loamy soil perfect for growing peppermint. These factors, plus their rigorous organic farming practices, help ensure us a consistent quality, year after year, and we’ve been partnering with them since the 1970s. The peppermint grown at Trout Lake Farm contains up to 2% essential oils, making our Peppermint tea taste incredibly minty. Very few other tea companies and farmers go to such lengths to ensure this kind of quality.
So, the next time you reach for any old box of peppermint tea, remember that it takes special care for peppermint to taste as minty and fresh as ours.
