Peppermint tea

Twinings Organic Peppermint Tea
2.22 for 40g, 55.50 per kg

Highs: This tea has the shortest brewing time at just two to three minutes. But, unless you have a mouth lined with asbestos, you won't be able to drink the boiling hot liquid after that length of time anyway. It is quite good value - although not as cheap as you might think - and will almost certainly be the most easily sourced of the brands tried. The no-frills tea bags, hailed as organic on the box, smell pleasingly of polo mints.

Lows: Despite the smell, the taste is considerably less minty. In fact, the flavours are so subtle you might get more of a kick if you poured your hot water onto a single polo mint and let it sit for a few minutes. There are just 20 tea bags in each box so you will run out of these faster than any of the competition.

Verdict: Easy to find and pretty harmless. Star rating: ***

Cotswold's Loose Peppermint Tea
€2.55 for 100g, €25.50 per kg

Highs: Gram for gram, this tea offers better value than all but one of the other brands. It smells fresh and has a lovely clean and refreshing peppermint taste. Despite its terribly English name (and the similarly English requirement that it be brewed in a warmed china teapot), it comes from Spain, a country long been fond of its peppermint teas. The loose tea leaves afford it a novelty value and you get more than 40 pots per box.

Lows: There really is a lot of palaver associated with this tea. In the absence of a china teapot, it was forced to slum it in a regular teapot but it seemed to do it no harm. Brewing it does take longer - up to 10 minutes - than the others and a tea strainer is required as the mint is quite stalky.

Verdict: Old school tea. Star rating:****

Ronnefeldt Peppermint Infusion
5.20 for 40g, €130 per kg

Highs: This is one of the more upmarket brands tried, at least if the price is anything to go by.

It smells very fresh and very strongly of peppermint, with a vague hint of butterscotch in the mix which is a little strange but quite pleasant.

Lows: The box makes much of the special "teavelopes" which are supposed to "seal in the tea's individual flavour". Whatever about that, it certainly adds to the amount of waste generated by the box.

This is the most expensive of the brands tried and it is hard to justify paying this price when there are much cheaper, very similar options available. It will also prove difficult to track down and it hardly seems worth the bother.

Verdict: Dear and disappointing. Star rating:**

Herboristerie d'Orgeval
€6.29 for 50g, 125.80 per kg

Highs: This tea smells amazingly minty and when brewed has a lovely golden honey colour and fresh zingy taste.

It also leaves a pleasant minty aftertaste in the mouth, almost creating a just brushed teeth effect. With its chic box - written entirely in French - and its quite distinct metallic gauze tea bags, this looks like the most expensive of the teas tried.

Lows: Which is handy because it is very nearly the most expensive of the brands tried. And really, you have to ask, what is the point of expensive looking tea bags?

And whatever about the fancy design, the bags left a great deal of sediment in the cup, which is never an entirely pleasant experience.

Verdict: Tasty but overpriced. Star rating:***

Edward Peppermint Tea from Lidl
79c for 56.25g, €14.04 per kg

Highs: Now, this really is the business. At just 79 cent it is considerably cheaper than even its closest rival and makes the prices attached to the supposedly upmarket teas simply laughable.

It is almost one-tenth the price of the Ronnefeldt tea yet looks and tastes almost identical.

Each tea bag weighs 2.25g, compared with the average of just 2g commonly found in the other brands. The extra weight might explain the extra minty smell. Worth stocking up on next time you're in Lidl.

Lows: Whether it's worth making the trip just for these tea bags however is open to question. Mint tea is, after all, just mint tea.

Verdict: Cheap and cheering Star rating: ****