The digestive mint and orange herbal tea is a beverage to enjoy hot or at room temperature — perhaps I should call it an infusion, but the name doesn’t matter: it’s tasty and helps with digestion. It’s made with only 2 ingredients: fresh mint and oranges. I used Tarocco or blood oranges that I miraculously found here in the Netherlands imported from Spain.
The colors were so beautiful that I thought to use them for a drink. And after dinner, when I suddenly felt that little evening boredom hunger, I prepared this herbal tea. How good it was!
Making an herbal tea is certainly a great way to make water more pleasant to the palate and therefore drink more. It only takes about 5 minutes to boil the water and cut the fruit, and the tea is ready. If you want to enjoy it at room temperature, you can let it cool for a while or prepare it in the evening to drink the next day.
Adding herbs will give the tea even more flavor and benefits: our metabolism wakes up, our body detoxifies and therefore losing weight becomes easier.
Here are a few words about the ingredients — not everything that could be said, but at least I wanted to report the most important things that struck me the most.
Mint, thanks to its high menthol content, is a natural analgesic and relieves pain in the digestive tract, mainly the stomach. It is ideal for gastrointestinal issues such as stomach aches, aerophagia, colic, irritable bowel and it promotes digestion. It is also great to counteract post-lunch sleepiness, so if used in the evening it’s better right after dinner, a few hours before going to bed; otherwise it could cause difficulty falling asleep.
The orange has a high Vitamin C content and is also able to enhance iron absorption, useful for red blood cell formation — excellent against anemia. In addition, the orange contains antioxidants that help counteract cellular aging caused by free radicals and contribute to strengthening the immune system and keeping the metabolism more active.
My advice is to use this beverage after meals, hot or at room temperature. But it’s also a great idea in the morning since the body needs to be hydrated after a night’s sleep. And we can wait about half an hour before coffee — it’s not a big sacrifice if we want to stay in shape.
Other detox beverages that help you drink more water can be found here:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 15 Minutes
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Cooking methods: No cooking required
- Cuisine: Healthy
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter and Spring
Ingredients
- 4 1/4 cups water
- 1 orange (preferably untreated and organic)
- 10 leaves mint (fresh or frozen, preferably organic)
- Points per serving = 0 WW points
Tools
- Teapot
- Strainer
Steps
Making the mint and orange herbal tea is very simple: wash the orange and the mint well. Slice the orange and cut the mint leaves in half if they are large.
Put everything into a large teapot. Fill to the brim with boiling water.
Let it infuse for about 15 minutes and drink it hot. Alternatively, leave it out at room temperature until it reaches the desired temperature.
After meals or whenever you wish to drink it, simply strain it. If you like, you can also add the orange slices and mint directly to the cup: you can even eat the orange slices. You can sweeten it with a teaspoon of agave syrup, but of course you’ll need to count the extra Weight Watchers points.
And if you have trouble falling asleep it’s better to avoid drinking it right before bed. Mint doesn’t help sleep, so drink it soon after dinner, a couple of hours before going to sleep.
I really enjoyed it and I make it often. Make it too and leave me a comment at the bottom of the recipe or on Facebook to let me know if you liked it.
Good digestion!
by Giovanna Buono
Tips
For more information on the importance of drinking water read this article: Drinking water: the challenge of 8 glasses a day. There’s also a printable chart to download.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Mint is not in season now
Be clever: when mint is in season, harvest it and put it in freezer bags. You can then add it to boiling water without thawing it.
