Peppermint Vs Green Tea: Ultimate Comparison
By now, you’ve likely heard of the health benefits of both peppermint and green tea. Both have been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, and their popularity continues today. Due to the bioactive healthy compounds in peppermint and green tea, both are excellent beverages to include in your diet.
So what are the key differences between these two teas? Let’s explore what they each have to offer.
Peppermint Vs Green Tea at a Glance
Peppermint Tea Advantages:
- Pleasant minty taste
- Caffeine-free
- Benefits like calming and fighting inflammation
Peppermint Tea Disadvantages:
- Not ideal if you are looking for a caffeine boost
- Can make heartburn symptoms worse
Green Tea Advantages:
- Rich in antioxidants
- Lightly caffeinated
- Benefits like improved brain function and fat loss
Green Tea Disadvantages:
- Not caffeine-free
- More bitter taste to peppermint
Winner: Don’t want to read the full article? The editor’s choice says: it depends! Both teas are highly recommended for their health and mental benefits. If you want an energy boost, Green Tea is your friend. If you want to be calmed and soothed, go for peppermint!
The Lowdown on Green Tea
Green tea is known as one of the healthiest beverages in the world [1], and for good reason! Here’s why:
1. Rich in antioxidants: green tea has high levels of antioxidants. That means it fights free radicals in the body, which prevents cancer and reduces inflammation.
2. Assists with fat loss: Due to its caffeine levels, green tea boosts your metabolism and increases your body’s fat-burning. For most of us, this is great news!
3. Prevents cardiovascular disease: Green tea can reduce some of the risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease. It can lower LDL levels (harmful cholesterol), and reduce the overall risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
4. Improves brain function: Once again, caffeine’s superpowers come to the rescue. Caffeine from green tea can improve your memory, reaction time, mood, and overall brain function. Plus, green tea also contains the amino acid L-theanine, which further boosts your brainpower. It even prevents aging in the brain which can lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
5. Prevents type 2 diabetes: Green tea may help with lowering elevated blood sugar levels and improving insulin sensitivity, which prevents and supports the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Green tea has a more bitter taste than peppermint tea, but when sweetened with a bit of honey (or your favorite sweetener of choice), it can be quite pleasant.
Green tea, unlike peppermint tea, contains caffeine so it’s best consumed before noon. Drinking too much caffeine from green tea can lead to trouble sleeping, caffeine jitters, and digestive distress.
Peppermint Tea
Peppermint contains high levels of menthol, up to 40%, which gives it its sharp cooling flavor. It contains no caffeine, so it can be enjoyed at any time of day. Due to its powerful digestive support, peppermint tea is an excellent beverage choice after a large meal.
Some of the particular benefits of peppermint tea include:
- Antioxidants: like green tea, peppermint contains antioxidants; specifically, flavonoids which can reduce your risk of cancer, premature aging, and chronic diseases.
- Soothes tired muscles
- Protects mucous membranes
- Digestive relief: Offers excellent digestive relief and support, including relief from Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms [2]
- Reduces congestion: Eases sore throats, stuffy nose, and coughs
- Helps inflammation: Reduces acute and chronic inflammation and pain
- Improves immune function
- Kills mouth bacteria
- Reduces bloating
- Improves migraines
- Relieves cramps
- Calms nerves
However, one thing to note is peppermint tea may worsen heartburn symptoms. Likewise, if you have silent reflux/laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR,) peppermint tea may relax your sphincter so it’s best to skip it.
Peppermint is also a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, calcium, and potassium.
What Do These Two Teas Have In Common?
Both teas may help reduce bad breath- great news for garlic lovers!
While green tea’s caffeine levels can help with weight loss, that’s not the only reason it’s good for your waistline. Both peppermint tea and green tea may help with weight loss because hot, soothing, low-calorie beverages fill your stomach and hydrate you, causing you to feel fuller and eat less overall.
Brewing Peppermint and Green Tea
Peppermint and green tea should be brewed quite differently.
Let’s start with brewing fresh peppermint tea:
1. Boil two cups of water- ideally filtered, if you can, because the quality of the water will impact the taste of your tea. Avoid distilled water which can taste quite flat.
2. Prepare 15-20 fresh mint leaves; we recommend crushing them to bruise them and release more of the oils and flavor from the leaves
3. Allow the mint leaves to steep in the water for 15-20 minutes
4. Strain the leaves from the water
5. If desired, add a teaspoon of honey or your sweetener of choice. Fresh lemon or ginger is also a tasty addition.
6. Enjoy!
To brew dried peppermint tea, simply add boiling water to the teabag and allow it to steep for 4-6 minutes. Unlike green tea, there is no harm in letting it steep longer.
We love this summertime recipe for iced mint tea:
1. Boil two cups of filtered water.
2. Prepare 15-20 fresh peppermint leaves, crushing to release more flavor
3. Steep the peppermint leaves for 15-20 minutes
4. Strain the leaves from the water
5. Add your favorite sweetener of choice- we love local honey or agave nectar. Fresh lemon or ginger is also a tasty addition.
6. Chill for 2 hours and serve over ice cubes with a reusable straw.
7. Enjoy! To learn about the process of brewing peppermint tea in detail, read here.
Brewing green tea requires slightly more attention because green tea brewed too long turns bitter fast.
To brew tasty green tea, follow these steps:
1. Boil your filtered water. If your kettle has a temperature setting, set the kettle to between 160 and 180°F. If you are using loose leaf tea, use two grams of loose tea leaves for every six ounces of water. Add a bit of extra water to the kettle so you can heat your teapot before you add the tea!
2. Warm up your teapot by pouring some hot water into it and letting that sit for a minute. Otherwise, your boiling water will rapidly cool once you add it to the pot, and your tea will not brew as well. Once your teapot is warm, toss out the water.
3. Add your tea leaves or sachet and hot water to the teapot. Let it steep for as long as the package suggests, typically between 1 and 3 minutes. Do not brew it longer than that, or it will taste bitter! If you are unsure, you can taste it while it steeps.
4. Remove your tea bag or loose leaves. They’re organic matter so make sure you put them in the compost bin, not the garbage can!
5. Pour in your favorite mug and enjoy! It’s delicious on its own, or with honey. To learn more about brewing green tea, click here.
Conclusion
Whichever tea you choose, it’s hard to go wrong with either peppermint or super healthy green tea. Both are tasty, healthy beverages that are perfect for any time of year. They each contain antioxidants and many other healthy compounds that will support your long-term health goals. Cheers!
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855614/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16767798/
Written by Stephanie Moore
Stephanie is a professional writer who is a ‘SIBO survivor’ herself with broad experience writing in the health field. She is a regular writer for SIBO Survivor and calls Berlin, Germany home.
