Curious thing about this Carrington Tea, Peppermint Tea. Its tagless teabags have each, a notably small amount of peppermint leaves within, and yet, it brews up into an intensely icy, delicious beverage with a taste very much like peppermint Life Savers.
This is a pure, peppermint tea, with no other distracting flavors. In fact, if you were going to teach a child what real peppermint tastes like, your best bet would be to give her a mug of this heartwarming beverage.
When brewed according to the plan below, you get a light amber to orange, aromatic drink along with an easily recognized, but by no means monotonous peppermint smell, that never tastes bitter; even if you steep the teabag way longer than recommended.
Carrington Tea, Peppermint Tea is a brisk, refreshing, and pleasant-tasting minty herbal tea product, packaged with relentless attention to creating the cool peppermint flavor. It’s a naturally caffeine free tea, and can be enjoyed either hot or cold. It’s a great drink to share with someone with whom you’d enjoy just slowing down with, and taking it all in, the peppermint tea and everything else.
Benefits, Pros, Features, and Advantages
Gluten free and Caffeine free. It’s gluten free as well as naturally caffeine free, and contains all natural ingredients. Not decaffeinated, as peppermint has no caffeine to begin with.
Does not raise blood sugar. Great for diabetics as this product contains zero net carbs, like most other herbal teas, and may suppress appetite and satisfy sweet-tooth cravings at times.
Widely available. Easily procured at most larger grocery stores and tea shops. However, have not seen this in small grocery shops.
Like other great peppermint teas. The taste of this tea closely resembles other pure peppermint teas.
Economical. At approximately $2.59 for 20 tea bags, the cost per serving is on par per serving, along with other similar products from Bigelow, Celestial Seasonings, et al.
Less teeth staining, attributable to the lighter color of this peppermint tea.
Convenient box. The box has re-closable lid on the top, and made of a sturdy paperboard.
Double strength brewing of desired. The teabags come in sets of two, or pairs. Separated easily they are if you prefer a modest peppermint flavor per mug. But if you like a stronger minty sensation, just steep a pair of the teabags, leaving them attached.
Microwaves do not alter flavor. Brewing in the microwave oven is fine, and even offered as an alternative means of preparation by Carrington Tea Company, this tea’s manufacturer.
Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns
Tea bags not sealed separately. The teabags are NOT individually wrapped. In lieu of this, Carrington Tea provides a large plastic pouch, into which they place the stack of teabags, which are attached to one another in pairs. This works reasonably well at preserving peppermint freshness. However, this pouch is not reseal able without a twist tie or mini bag clip. So, especially when you’re just starting a new box, you won’t find much loose pouch to clip or tie shut. We try to fold it over on itself a few times, and then, while holding it folded, stuffing it back into the box.
Perhaps shorter storage times. This pouch is not completely vapor-tight, as the nose senses the peppermint after the box is opened but before the pouch is cut. This may limit the shelf life of this tea product.
Adequate but bare bones packaging. They definitely skimped on the packaging for this product, although the artwork and bright colors on the outside make this product easily recognizable on store shelves, in the midst of so many other tea products.
Flavor can be destroyed by non neutral sweeteners. As with all peppermint teas, be careful to avoid non flavor neutral sweeteners in them, like honey, molasses, or maple syrup, as very small amounts of these can radically alter the signature peppermint flavor. Avoid them, that is, unless you LIKE how they change the flavor. If you truly seek the peppermint essence in your tea however, we highly recommend not using them.
No caffeine. If you’re looking for a caffeine fix, do not look here. For that, look for a black or green tea, laced with peppermint.
No strings or tags on tea bags. These teabags have no strings or tags (tagless). So you either must remove them from your cup with a strainer spoon when finished brewing, or pick them out with your fingers, in a decidedly UN glorified fashion. Just don’t burn yourself! We’d prefer that bio-degradable strings be added, instead of no strings at all, for added safety and convenience.
Brewing Instructions
Fresh, cold, filtered water is best to start with here, although cold water, drawn directly from the tap, still produces an acceptable flavor.
- In either case, bring the water to a full, rolling boil.
- Remove one tea bag from the box, and place in your favorite cup or mug.
- Pour the boiling water into the cup, over the tea bag, and fill to desired level.
- Allow teabag to steep for three to five minutes.
- Remove the teabag from the cup.
- Avoid ringing it out however into the cup, as this can introduce an undesirable, bitter flavor.
For iced peppermint tea, follow the above directions. But allow to steep a minute or two longer, and then pour the tea over ice, in a tall glass. If you want to make a quart of iced peppermint tea, use four to six teabags with 32 ounces of boiling water. Steep the bags in this water as above. Allow to cool, and then poor the tea over ice. Refrigerate any unused portions, in an airtight pitcher, as you probably do not want the peppermint aroma to infiltrate your ice box, nor what other smells are in your ice box, to infiltrate your peppermint tea. Keep things separate.
Our Tea Rating
We highly recommend this highly beneficial tea for anyone who likes Altoids peppermints or peppermint wafers, and would therefore rate this tea at 98 out of 100. You can drink as much as you like, without fears of developing the caffeine jitters or nausea. No caffeine here.
Where To Buy Carrington Tea Peppermint Tea
Look for this hot tea product with the curiously cool, minty taste in the bright pink box with white and pink lettering and the re closable, cereal box style lid on the top, at medium to larger grocery stores and web sites. The local Walmart sells numerous Carrington tea products including this one, and you’ll also find it on Amazon and eBay. See below for a link to a large list of Carrington Tea resellers.
References
Revision History
- 2015-01-14: Tweaked content, added whitespace, and adjusted ad placement.
- 2014-09-05: Originally published.