This morning as I was thinking about my blog topic, all that stuck in my brain was this heat and humidity! Ugh. It's just too dang uncomfortable to enjoy the garden! How do people in New Orleans and Houston take this on a regular basis? It brought to mind folks sitting on their front porches sipping iced tea.

Wait a minute! My neighbor has a huge patch of peppermint in her yard. What a great way to make water taste better and give it a refreshing zing. "You're welcome to anything in the garden," she always says. So I grabbed my scissors and handkerchief (for the perspiration) and off to her garden I went with dreams of cooling iced tea in my head.


I clipped off a handful and went back to add the washed leaves to my ice water. Yes it made a nice difference, but I didn't get the "splash" of jumping in the lake that I wanted. I asked my neighbor what kind of peppermint plant she owned. She called it "old fashioned mint" that's been around for years.

Rather than doing my research (like I should), I pose the questions to you, smart gardeners. What's the zingyest mint to add to iced tea? What are good ways to use "old fashioned mint" (her plant is huge!)