Marrakesh mint tea is one of the most popular types of mint tea. The original tea is made from a scratch using strong green tea and fresh spearmint, but pre-made blends are extremelly popular too. Marrakesh Mint tea from Teapigs uses a slightly different tea base and a different type of mint. How does it taste like?
What is Marrakesh Mint tea?
Marrakesh Mint tea is a type of tea typically made with gunpowder tea, fresh spearmint leaves, and lots of sugar. It's served in small cups and it's strong and sweet. Typically, it's simmered rather than brewed. The first infusion lasts only a few seconds and is discarded, both to wash the leaves and reduce bitterness. Marrakesh mint tea is usually made with spearmint, which has a sweeter and less minty flavour than peppermint. However, there are no rules when it comes to tea blends. They may include different green teas, and different types of mint, too. Tea blends are not pre-sweetened and blended to give a distinctive flavour without the need to add sugar.
What's in Teapigs Marrakesh Mint tea?
Teapigs mint blend contains Chinese chun mee (or zhen mei) green tea, which has a similar flavour to gunpowder, but slightly fresher and sharper, with a bit more smokiness. Just like gunpowder, it also brews into a strong tea with a darker colour. Gunpowder and chun mee green teas are two of the most commonly used teas for blending. They go well with a whole range of ingredients – from floral to fruity, chocolaty and spicy.
This tea contains 76% of chunmee tea and 24% of peppermint. It's made with loose tea leaves rather than tea dust. What's great about pyramid tea bags is that they will give exactly the same flavour as loose tea, plus they are easy brewing. Each tea pyramid bag contains 2.5 grams of tea, slightly over one heaped teaspoon.
What does it taste like?
Both gunpowder and chunmee tea will have a light bitterness when brewed over 3 minutes. Water temperature is extremely important too. You can brew this tea in 3 different ways, depending on your preferences:
- Brew it 1-2 minutes at 80 degrees Celsius if you want to drink it pure.
- Cold brew it in the fridge – this tea is perfect for cold brewing.
- Brew it for 3 minutes if you want to add lots of sugar or serve it iced.
Neither green tea nor mint is overpowering in this blend. When brewed traditionally with hot water, peppermint is dominating the scent of brewed tea. Flavour is quite light, slightly lighter than it would be if you used fresh mint. It's less sharp and more sweet than fresh mint too. There's also a dose of astringency, which is common for chunmee teas.
Mint is dominating the flavour as well, blended with smoky and mellow chunmee base notes. Because of a light astringency, Marrakesh mint tea leaves a strong sweet and refreshing minty aftertaste. If you don't like astringent teas but want to avoid adding sugar, try cold brewing it instead.
This tea is a good choice for tea drinkers that enjoy mint teas, but don't mind stronger green tea flavours with a light astringency. It's a great after meal tea if you want something more than just mint, and great if you don't like to add sugar to tea. However, it's also great for making iced teas. When preparing it iced, steep it slightly longer and add a sweetener, sugar or honey.
Tea Recap
Water or milk? Water.
Day or night? Day.
Hot or iced? Hot or cold.
Sweetened or pure? Pure or sweetened.
Caffeine? Yes.
What's the price? Starting from 2.00 GBP.
Where to buy? Get it from the Teapigs website or Teapigs Amazon store.