How to properly dry mint at home
At any time, you can enjoy fragrant tea if you dry the mint for future use. How to do it? Find out in this article.
How to dry mint? It is important to choose good raw materials
First you need to properly collect the raw materials. Mint contains the largest amount of nutrients during the flowering period. This time falls in June and July. Cutting the grass is recommended before lunchtime, when the peak of solar activity has not yet arrived. This will keep the maximum of essential oils in the mint. Discard the blackened, deformed leaves. The collected herb should be bright green, fragrant.
An important nuance: medicinal herbs cannot be dried in direct sunlight and at high temperatures. So they will lose both in properties and in smell. The place should be dry and well ventilated. The temperature in it should not exceed 35 degrees.
Drying takes place as follows. The mint leaves are laid out on a horizontal surface covered with a clean cloth. You don’t need to cover the mint with anything for the first few hours, but when the water evaporates from it, you can cover it with paper.
The drying process will take several days, it is impossible to tell the exact number of them. It depends on the room temperature, humidity level
Properly dried mint should crumble easily in your hands. If the leaves wrinkle, bend, but do not break, then there is still water in them and drying must be continued. Add other aromatic herbs to mint and you get an excellent herbal collection that has a healing effect. On its basis, you can prepare a decoction that calms the nervous system.
How to dry mint in an electric dryer for vegetables and fruits, is it permissible? It is possible, but it is necessary to ensure that the temperature level does not exceed 30 degrees.
If the grass is heavily contaminated, it is allowed to rinse it with cold water. Then you need to throw the mint into a colander and shake off excess water from it.
We figured out how to dry mint properly, but how to store it correctly? For this purpose, glass jars with a tight-fitting lid are perfect. Beautiful containers with dried grass in them can also become an additional decorative element in the kitchen. You can also store mint in thick linen bags.
The workpieces should be stored in a place sheltered from sunlight. To save space, you can grind the mint, but still it is the whole leaves that retain the maximum aroma.