It's the same method for making any tea, using soft parts of the plant such as leaves or flowers. You are making an infusion.

Pour 1 cup of boiling water onto a heaped teaspoonful of the dried herb and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain and drink. One cup per day is a medicinal dosage for an adult.

Fresh leaves and/or flowers can be used - just use 'a sprig'. With herbal medicines, measurements are given as a guide only - they don't need to be precise.

Warning: Do not give mint to very young children. Avoid mint if suffering from Âacid refluxÂ. It may suppress lactation in nursing mothers. Although considered a safe herb, it should not be used daily in medicinal doses for extended periods of time.

Although frequently used to treat digestive problems, if taken for too long, or too frequently, or in large doses, it can have the opposite effect!

I like to make peppermint tea with a little lemon rind. I boil the water with a few strips of lemon peel (washed well and taken off with a vegetable peeler), then pour it over a bunch of peppermint leaves to steep.

Fresh leaves obviously arnen't as concentrated as dried; I like to use several sprigs for a cup.

And I personally wouldn't worry about drinking it on a daily basis - whether for medicinal purposes or not, my wife has been drinking mint tea as well as real tea with mint added, on a daily basis, for, oh, about the last 20 years.

It took my peppermint a season to get established, but it's going crazy now, with enough leaves for tisanes, mojitos, herb salads, and on and on....