Normally I’m not a huge mint girl, but who can argue with a free teabag, right? Plus, while I tend to shy away from peppermint (which seems to be the typical ‘mint’ flavor everyone goes with), I am a spearmint fan so I figure there’s a decent chance of me liking this.
Dry it smells sweetly minty which I think is a good sign. Steeped up, though, it’s weird. Mostly because the sweet, lighter-toned mint is mixing equally with the darker, almost musky smell of green tea. It’s not bad so much as really unexpected. I mean, how often do you smell green beans and mint at the same time?
Even though the smell is quite strong, the taste is much gentler and the two flavors blend fairly well. The first and last taste is a menthol minty whoosh but the rest of the taste is a mix of mint and buttered green veggies, specifically now soybeans. I would definitely call this as more of a mint tea than a green tea since mint is the dominant flavor, but the green tea isn’t hiding, just plays a more supportive roll.
This tea does leave me with some mixed feelings though. As a mint tea, it’s good – it’s noticeably minty and helped unstuff my head a bit, so points for that. Additionally, the green tea gives the mint a little depth, which is nice since straight mint teas can be somewhat flat. But as I drink it, I can’t help but think it is the liquid equivalent of eating soybeans seasoned with mint. Which is not something that I think I’d ever do, even after having this tea. It just… doesn’t seem right to me. That being said, I’m totally open to an awesome soybean & mint recipe changing my mind. But even after this tea, that combo seems weird enough that I’m not going to search it out.
Ultimately, I think this is a tea I could potentially get behind if given more time with it. But since there was only one free teabag and not three, I probably won’t get a chance to spend that needed extra time because I’d have to buy some more. And buying more of this tea is just not something that this cup has quite convinced me to do (unless, for some reason, I just really needed a mint tea).
1 teabag (2.3g)/5oz
