Anyone know how to make mint tea? spearmint?

i know how to make it but i don't know if you still can when the leaves get real small. maybe i'm not picking it right. but about july,the leaves are so small. should i make sure i get each top bud so it doesn't flower? is this natural for the leaves to be small after a few months. i'd like to hear how others make it.

Anyone know how to make mint tea? spearmint?
Take a gallon jar and loosly fill it with bruised mint. I take a hand full of stems and leaves and twist them. Add a cup of vodka, fill with water and leave it in the sun for a day just like 'sun tea'. Filter out the leaves and stems and store in the fridge. Serve over ice or heat in the microwave and float a fresh leaf on top. Hot or cold the alcohol is difficult to detect but adds depth of flavor unlike any other recipe. RScott
Reply:the size of the leaves is not important, but small leaves can be a sign of nutrient poor soil or underwatering. yeah, you want to pick off the flowering buds to keep the plant "young." and you can use those buds in your tea. as for making the tea, aficionados boil the (filtered) water, pour a bit into the tea pot to "scald" the pot, empty it out, then put a strainer full of leaves in, pour the now slightly cooler boiled water in (cooler means preserving more flavor of the leaf), and covering with a tea cozy or towel to keep the heat while steeping. for herb tea, not so important about steeping for a long time, for green or black tea, no more than 3 mins or it gets bitter.





oh, and this question does not deserve a "duh." it's a perfectly good question. ignore that person.
Reply:put mint in your tea. duh.
Reply:I have a large plant pot of chocolate peppermint that makes wonderful tea. I simply break off a sprig of it, rinse it, put it in a cup and pour boiling water over it, let it steep for a bit. Because it is picked regularly, it doesn't flower until late in the season when we leave sprigs just for that purpose. Ours tends to have smaller leaves during the hottest weather, figured it was due to needing a bit more water since, when the weather cools, the leaves tend to be bigger again.