The power of Mint

When I first started making tea for myself, I didn’t know much about mint. To me it was simply a smell — strong yet calming, fresh yet familiar. One inhale and my shoulders dropped a little. That was enough.

Out of curiosity, I began asking Meri about it. Her stories sent me looking further, and what I found surprised me: mint has been part of human gardens for thousands of years.

It grew in ancient Egypt, in Greece, in Rome. It travelled north with monastery gardens and never left. To this day, when we think of freshness, most of us think of mint first. Natural hybridisation is unusually common in this genus, which is why there are so many mints and why no two gardens grow quite the same one.

What I did not expect was how different they taste from one another. I grow three, and side by side they are barely the same plant.

Moroccan mint is the gentle one — sweet, clear, almost round in the mouth, with very little menthol. Peppermint, itself a natural cross between spearmint and watermint, is sharper and cooler, with far more essential oil. And lemon mint barely smells of mint at all: it is citrus first, soft and faintly floral.

Those three are the mints you will find in every Merifemme blend.

Mint became more than a flavour for me. It became a reminder that something very simple can carry centuries with it. That is why every blend begins with mint: whatever else joins it in the cup, mint ties it together — fresh, clear, and a small invitation to slow down.

Just breathe.

With love,
Rebeka