Ode to Peppermint Tea - A Perfect Beverage

You know what’s so good about peppermint tea? It maintains its awesomeness, no matter how long you take to drink it.

First you drink it hot, and enjoy it as a magical brew – it does nothing but good things as it makes the journey down your food hole to your food storage unit, better known as your gut.

But then you forget about it for a while, and it transforms into a cold, refreshing beverage that leaves nothing but a good taste in your mouth. In fact, this is part of the magic of peppermint tea – it makes itself forgotten. It allows you to enjoy it without attachment, so that its rediscovery is nothing but a pleasant surprise, an unexpected gift.

Unlike my other favourite beverage, coffee, which one becomes dependently attached to from the moment of its diabolical brewing. (Thus the disappointed frown when your once steaming mug spirals ungracefully towards that hellish temperature named “lukewarm.”) But that’s addiction for ya, am I right?

 So, you stumble upon your somehow colder than room temperature, half-filled mug of peppermint tea, and you guzzle it down in a few satisfying gulps.

Then you look at the empty mug with approval, and you notice the tea bag still inside. You think, “there’s still some liquid in that thing I can get to…”

Next thing you know, you’re squeezing out what little elixir is left plumping up that peppermint parcel and pouring it into your mouth like you’ve been out in the desert for weeks.

Then you look at the teabag stuck against the side of the mug, defying gravity via some sort of scientific explanation that’s probably quite straight forward, and you are impressed. “Well done, peppermint tea. You are some sort of lizard-based superhero. I salute you.”

And you do salute. And shed a tear for the service those shredded leaves gave to your day. Their sacrifice will always be remembered. May they grow eternal in some ethereal, heavenly garden where the vibrancy of their green is unmatched by any other surrounding flora.

Or is that just me?

Funny thing is, I didn’t used to like peppermint tea. Actually, I hated it. Not sure why, exactly. Now I’m pretty sure it’s one of those perfect things in this world, a cheat code we stumbled upon at some point in our past. It’s so simple you cannot make it wrong: Grab mug. Leaves in. Boiling water. And – to quote that famous British chef who both swears too much while simultaneously making expensive, posh dishes and calling them budget meals – “Done.”

(Sorry Gordon. Didn’t mean to suddenly throw a dig at you at the end of an otherwise trivial blog-post about a hot beverage… Peppermint tea?)

(clears throat)

In conclusion, teacher, I like peppermint tea very much and try to drink a mug at least once a day. Thank you for reading, and I hope you too have a beverage you appreciate enough to write about.

Till the next cup.