Is the Best Recipe
Mint and Cucumber Green Tea served in a styled dish.

Preview: built by our recipe engine and not yet reviewed. Details may change.

Mint and Cucumber Green Tea

Yield
4 servings

Green tea steeped with fresh mint, sweetened with honey and brightened with lemon, then cooled over cucumber slices for a crisp iced drink. Short steeping keeps the tea mellow rather than bitter.

Ingredients
Show the recipe for

Tips are one tap away.

Ingredients

Servings
Units
Batches and reset

4 servings · US measures · 1 batch

Batching

Brew one base batch at a time in the 2-quart saucepan. For 8 servings, brew a second batch; steeping and infusing times do not change with quantity.

Original recipe: 4 servings.

Nutrition is incomplete. The tea bags and chopped mint are strained out, and the cucumber slices infuse in the pitcher, so the amount each leaves in the tea is not established. Ice, garnishes and extra honey added to taste are not included.

Open shopping list

Before you start

  • Read through the recipe before boiling the water. Gather the saucepan, strainer, pitcher and glasses, and wash the mint and cucumber.

Directions

1

Read and gather

For the whole recipe

Read through the recipe, gather the equipment, and use the ingredient lines to measure and prepare everything, washing the mint and cucumber before you cut them. Everything is measured and within reach.

2

Boil the water and steep

For each pitcher

Boil the water in the 2-quart saucepan over high heat. Take the pan off the heat, add the tea bags and chopped mint, and steep until the tea is pale gold and smells of mint, about 5 minutes.

3

Lift out the bags and strain

For each pitcher

Lift out the tea bags and pour the tea through the strainer into the pitcher, pressing the mint lightly. While the tea is still warm, stir in 3 tbsp honey until the honey has dissolved, then stir in the lemon juice.

4

Let the tea cool and add the cucumber

For each pitcher

Let the tea cool to room temperature, then add the cucumber slices and let them infuse until the tea smells fresh and green, about 10 minutes.

5

Taste and adjust

For each pitcher

Taste the tea. Aim for light and refreshing, gently sweet, with clear mint and a little lemon. If it tastes sharp or flat, stir in honey to taste until it tastes gently sweet and balanced.

6

Refrigerate until cold

For each pitcher

Refrigerate the pitcher until the tea is cold. If you are not serving it soon, refrigerate it within two hours, and lift out the cucumber slices if you hold it for several hours so the tea stays clear.

7

Fill the glasses and serve

For the whole recipe

Fill the glasses with ice to taste and pour the tea over it as 4 servings, adding mint sprigs, cucumber slices and lemon slices to taste, if using. Serve while the ice is still solid. Honey is not safe for babies under 1 year old, so do not serve this sweetened tea to them.

About this recipe

Research preview: these details come from our sourced research and haven't been reviewed by our chef yet.

Why it works

Steeping the tea off the boil for a short time draws out flavor before bitterness, dissolving the honey while the tea is warm keeps it from clumping, and adding cucumber only after cooling keeps its taste fresh.

Associated with

American iced-tea making, with green tea from Chinese and Japanese tea culture

Iced tea is a familiar American way of serving tea, and green iced tea later became popular in China as refrigeration spread. No traditional dish claims this exact mint, cucumber, honey and lemon combination.

Taste

  • Sweet
  • Sour
  • Salty
  • Bitter
  • Savory
  • Heat

Honey and lemon give a gentle sweet-sour balance., Mint and cucumber make it smell cool and fresh; a short steep keeps green-tea bitterness low. · thin, cold and clear, with cucumber slices · cold

Skill level

Easy

Boil, steep, strain and stir; there are no doneness checks.

You'll practice: Steep tea off the boil, Infuse fresh herbs, Dissolve honey in warm tea, Chill and serve over ice

Allergens

Allergens: see each line below.

Bottled lemon juice can contain sulphites; fresh lemon is the listed form.

Diets

Vegetarian: Fits as listed Pescatarian: Fits as listed Vegan: Doesn't fit as written Dairy: See the allergen lines Egg: See the allergen lines Gluten: See the allergen lines

Occasions

  • Warm-weather days · seasonal drink

    A cold drink for summer; we found no religious or civic holiday tied to it. It does not suit Latter-day Saints gatherings because it contains tea.

Course: beverage · Technique: boil, steep, chill · Time: 1-to-2-hours, make-ahead

Serving and keeping

Best served: Well chilled, soon after the cucumber has infused Poured over ice, with the optional mint, cucumber and lemon slices

Make ahead: Add the cucumber and the ice close to serving; the slices soften and cloud the tea after several hours.

Storage: Refrigerate within 2 hours, covered. The keeping time is a quality estimate; no federal storage time for brewed tea was found. Do not freeze.

Leftovers: Strain out the cucumber and mint if you keep the tea for the next day.

Food safety

  • Do not give honey to babies under 1 year old.
  • Rinse the cucumber, mint and lemon under running water before cutting.
  • Refrigerate the tea within 2 hours if you are not serving it right away.

We make no statement about cross-contact in your kitchen or in packaged ingredients. Check the tea bag and honey labels.

Nutrition notes

The sugar comes from the honey. Using half the honey makes it less sweet.

Green tea contains caffeine. Decaffeinated green tea bags reduce it.

We don't show nutrition claims (like “good source of”) until our legal review is done.

Swap notes

  • honey · vegan

    Works with changes

    Use: pure maple syrup, same amount

    What changes: Slightly different sweetness; dissolve it the same way.

    Not a swap: Honey blends or honey-sweetened syrups.

  • honey · jain.standard

    Works with changes

    Use: granulated sugar or maple syrup, same sweetness

    What changes: Dissolve in the warm tea.

    Not a swap: Honey in any form.

  • honey

    Works with changes

    Use: half the honey

    What changes: Less sweet; taste and add more only if needed.

    Not a swap: Fruit juice to make up the sweetness, which adds sugar back.

  • green tea bags · lds.word_of_wisdom

    Works with changes

    Use: mint alone, steeped in place of the tea bags

    What changes: The drink becomes a mint, cucumber and lemon herbal infusion.

    Not a swap: Black or other caffeinated tea in place of green tea.

  • green tea bags · sda.clean_meats

    Works with changes

    Use: decaffeinated green tea bags

    What changes: Very similar flavor with most of the caffeine removed.

    Not a swap: Regular green tea, if you avoid caffeine.

  • honey · passover.ashkenazi

    Works with changes

    Use: kosher-for-Passover certified honey

    What changes: No change to the method; use plain, unflavored tea.

    Not a swap: Flavored or decaffeinated tea without Passover certification.

These notes don't change the amounts, allergens or nutrition shown for this recipe.

For your food tracker

Fields for MyFitnessPal and other trackers
Recipe url
https://isthebestrecipe.com/drinks/mint-and-cucumber-green-tea
Name
Mint and Cucumber Green Tea
Servings
4
Recipe yield
4 servings
Recipe ingredient
about 4 cups water, 4 whole green tea bags, about 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves chopped, 3 tbsp honey, 1/2 whole lemon juiced, 1 whole English cucumber thinly sliced, to taste ice for serving
Copy action wording
Copy recipe and estimated nutrition
Sources

Make it the best

Copy this recipe and make it your own. Change amounts, swap ingredients, rewrite steps. The original stays as it is.

Nutrition Values

Nutrition estimates aren’t available for this recipe yet.

Your notes

Kept on this device.

Return: https://isthebestrecipe.com/drinks/mint-and-cucumber-green-tea

Share recipe

Mint and Cucumber Green Tea