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Drink

Mint Tea

A chilled tea brewed with mint and lemon, sweetened to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mint Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Brew

  1. Steep the tea as for iced tea.

  2. While hot, add the mint stalks and let steep for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the tea and dilute as needed.

  2. Add the lemon juice and sweeten to taste.

  3. Serve over cracked ice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Mint + teatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mint stalks
Adds a fresh, aromatic flavor that infuses into the hot tea.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetener.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tea, lemon):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tea, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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