Peppermint vs Spearmint Tea: The Difference, Strength and Caffeine

No. They are two different plants in the same genus, Mentha, and they are directly related. Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is a species in its own right, named for its narrow, pointed leaves. Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) is a natural hybrid of spearmint and watermint (Mentha aquatica). The × in the name is the botanical marker for a hybrid.

So spearmint is one of peppermint's parents. Peppermint inherited a very different oil profile, and that oil is what you taste in the cup.

How to tell the leaves apart: spearmint leaves are usually brighter green, more wrinkled, and sit almost directly on the stem. Peppermint leaves are usually darker, smoother, sit on short stalks, and the stems often have a purple tint. The surest test is to crush a leaf: if it smells cold and sharp, it is peppermint; if it smells sweet, like spearmint gum, it is spearmint.

Mint flavor comes from the essential oil in the leaf, and the two plants make different oils.

Menthol is what makes peppermint feel cold. It triggers TRPM8, the receptor your mouth and skin use to detect cool temperatures, so a hot cup of peppermint still reads as cooling. Carvone is what makes spearmint taste like spearmint: sweet, round, a little herbal, with no real chill.

A note on those numbers: they describe the distilled essential oil, not the tea. A cup of tea carries only a small, variable amount of oil, depending on leaf quality, freshness, and steep. The ratio still holds, which is why peppermint tea always tastes cooler and sharper than spearmint tea brewed the same way.

Peppermint is stronger. Its high menthol content gives it a sharper, more intense, cooling flavor that can fill a room with aroma. Spearmint, with almost no menthol, tastes milder and sweeter.

"Stronger" here means flavor and aroma, not stimulation. Neither tea contains caffeine, so peppermint will not keep you up any more than spearmint will. Some people describe peppermint's smell as more invigorating; that is the menthol, not a stimulant.

If you find peppermint too intense, you have three easy fixes: switch to spearmint, blend the two half and half, or shorten the peppermint steep to 3 or 4 minutes.

No. Pure spearmint tea and pure peppermint tea are naturally caffeine free. Both are herbal infusions made from mint leaves, not from Camellia sinensis, the plant that gives us black, green, white, and oolong tea. USDA FoodData Central lists brewed herbal tea (other than chamomile) at 0 mg caffeine, and a laboratory study of 20 commercial teas (Chin et al., Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 2008) detected no caffeine in the herbal teas it tested.

For how much caffeine those blends carry, see the green and black rows in our tea caffeine chart. For caffeine-free evening options beyond mint, see the best teas for sleep.

"Mint tea" is not a single thing. On a label it can mean any of these:

• Peppermint tea: the most common single-mint tea bag in U.S. stores. Caffeine free.
• Spearmint tea: sold under its own name, milder and sweeter. Caffeine free.
• Mint blend or "mint medley": usually peppermint and spearmint together. Caffeine free unless tea leaves are listed.
• Moroccan mint tea: traditionally Chinese gunpowder green tea with spearmint. Contains caffeine from the green tea.
• Mint green or mint black tea: true tea flavored with mint. Contains caffeine.

So when someone compares "mint tea vs peppermint tea," the answer depends on the box. Peppermint tea is one kind of mint tea. The ingredient list tells you which kind you have and whether it has caffeine.

Both teas are traditionally used as gentle, caffeine-free drinks after meals and in the evening. The research on each plant goes in different directions, and most of it did not use tea.

Peppermint. The most studied form is peppermint oil in enteric-coated capsules, which has been tested in randomized trials for irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Reviews of those trials (Khanna et al., Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 2014; Alammar et al., BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2019) reported better symptom scores than placebo. A cup of tea is a much smaller and different dose than a capsule, so those findings do not transfer directly. People commonly drink peppermint tea after heavy meals for comfort, which is a traditional use rather than a proven effect of the tea.

Spearmint. Spearmint tea itself has been studied, in small trials on androgen hormones. The most cited is a randomized trial of 42 women with polycystic ovary syndrome (Grant, Phytotherapy Research, 2010), in which drinking spearmint tea twice a day for 30 days was associated with lower free and total testosterone compared with a placebo tea. The trial was small and short, and it does not show that spearmint tea treats any condition.

Shared practical upsides: both are caffeine free, have essentially no calories without sweetener, and are an easy way to drink more water.

Peppermint tea is bold and clean, with a cooling finish that lingers and a slightly peppery edge. It clears the palate after a meal and holds up to lemon or honey.

Spearmint tea is softer and sweeter, closer to spearmint gum or the mint in a mojito. It is easier to drink plain, and it blends well with green tea, lemon verbena, or chamomile.

A simple rule: if you want mint to be the whole point of the cup, brew peppermint. If you want mint in the background, brew spearmint.

Both mints brew the same way, and both are forgiving. Unlike green tea, mint leaves do not turn bitter in boiling water.

• Water: freshly boiled, 200 to 212°F.
• Amount: one bag or about one heaping teaspoon of dried leaf per 8 oz cup. For fresh leaves, use a small handful, lightly bruised.
• Cover the cup. Mint's flavor lives in volatile oil that escapes with the steam. A saucer on top keeps it in the cup.
• Steep: 5 to 7 minutes. Peppermint gets sharper with time; spearmint gets fuller.
• Iced: brew double strength, then pour over ice, or cold brew in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours.

For temperatures across every tea type, see our tea brewing temperature chart.

Pick peppermint if you want a strong, cooling cup, a palate cleanser after dinner, or mint that stands up to lemon and honey.

Pick spearmint if peppermint tastes too sharp, if you get heartburn from peppermint, if you want a sweeter everyday tea, or if you want to make Moroccan-style mint tea with green tea (that version will have caffeine).

Pick a blend if you want cooling without the bite. Many mint medleys are exactly this.

They cost about the same, so most cupboards can hold both. For a tested shortlist of the stronger mint, see the best peppermint teas. If you are curious how the same comparison works for true teas, see green tea vs black tea.

Mint tea is cheap enough that trying both costs less than one cafe drink. These are the listings we checked on Amazon:

• Peppermint, everyday bags: Yogi Purely Peppermint, a 4-pack of 16-bag boxes, from our best peppermint tea shortlist.
• Peppermint, loose leaf: Davidson's bulk organic peppermint, a full pound for the strongest cup of the bunch.
• Spearmint, single box: Traditional Medicinals Organic Spearmint, 16 bags, the easy low-commitment way to taste the sweeter side.
• Spearmint, volume buy: FGO Organic Spearmint, 100 count, for daily spearmint drinkers.

All four are single-herb mint teas, so all four are caffeine free. Prices change; check the current price on Amazon.