This delicious herbal tea is a fun twist on the standard summer iced tea and a great way to use up your fresh garden mint…and it’s so pretty it practically demands a mason jar and a porch swing. It’s my fresh strawberry mint lemonade, and it’s the perfect drink to cool you down on those hot days when you want something more than water.
It’s also a great idea when your mint patch is threatening to take over the entire yard, or you’ve got a few too many quarts of fresh strawberries from the garden. And let’s be honest, it’s healthy… if you just overlook all the sugar that makes lemonade recipes taste so dang good.
In this recipe I prefer to use Spearmint, but Peppermint or Apple Mint would be delicious too. Whatever mint you have on hand, be creative with it….we all know how prolific mint is. The more creative ways you have to use it, the better.
Since we’re talking specifically about Spearmint (Mentha spicata), I want to tell you about its amazing herbal properties in addition to tasting delicious.
All About Lemon & Mint
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) isn’t just a delicious addition to your glass—it comes packed with herbal benefits that make it a standout in your mint tea or any drink.
Here’s what it brings to the table:
-
Digestive support – calms gas, bloating, and post-dinner regret
-
Antispasmodic – eases muscle cramps
- Antimicrobial – helps fight viral, bacterial, and fungal infections
- Carminative – helps to relieve gas and spasms
- Diaphoretic – promotes perspiration
-
Nervine relaxant – soothes the nervous system
-
Topical analgesic – works on the outside too, but let’s stick to sipping for now
And then there’s lemon. That lemon rind holds all kinds of bright, cleansing goodness. When you add lemon slices to a hot infusion, it draws out way more than juice—it brings out the volatile essential oils hiding in the peel. Lemon juice itself is packed with vitamin C, and it’s the base of this drink, so don’t skimp on those fresh lemons.
Harvesting Mint
There are a few things you should be aware of when harvesting fresh herbs. First, be aware of the time of day you are harvesting. The most concentrated amount of volatile oils (the medicinal bits) are throughout the plant in the heat of the day. The absolute best time to harvest mint is the day after a rain when the sun is the hottest.
When it comes to plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae family), they grow prolifically. Giving them a healthy trim benefits you and your crop. When I harvest mint, I leave approximately 6 inches of growth behind to allow for plenty of future harvests that season.
Back To The Recipe...
Spearmint itself doesn’t have an overwhelming flavor to it. It’s slightly sweet with a mild mint flavor. I find that the best way to maximize the flavor is to do a hot infusion of spearmint first and then cool it. The cold infusion process takes longer, and if you have kids anxiously awaiting, the hot infusion process makes the process faster too. I also add the lemons during the infusion process to pull the properties out of the lemon rind as well.
While the mixture is still warm, I add the cane sugar and homemade strawberry syrup. Doing this while it’s warm helps the sugar to dissolve and everything to fully incorporate. A note: if you don’t have homemade strawberry syrup, pureeing a bit of strawberry jam will do just fine.
Then we quickly cool by topping off the gallon jar with ice.
Serving this fresh is delicious but my personal favorite is having it the next day after it has spent the night in the fridge. Oh, and I couldn’t tell you how long this will keep in the fridge, because it doesn’t last more than 2 days in our house.
I walk you through the whole process over on YouTube, harvesting the spearmint, making the tea, sweetening it just right, and finishing off your fresh lemonade.
You can also grab the printable recipe card and keep it handy for all your fruity lemonade adventures. It’s one of those new recipes that ends up living on repeat all summer long.
Strawberry Spearmint Lemonade Tea
Ingredients
- 1 Lemon
- 1 bunch Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
- 1 cup Cane Sugar
- 1/4 c Homemade Strawberry Syrup (or) Preserves
- 3/4 gallon Water
Instructions
- Fill a jar 3/4 of the way up with boiled water
- Steep Spearmint and Lemon in boiled water for 15 minutes
- Strain herbs and add Cane Sugar
- Mix until sugar is dissolved
- Add Homemade Strawberry Syrup
- Top off the jar with ice, mix and serve
