How to Brew Muña Tea Three Ways (Hot, Iced, Cold Infusion)

Muña is an odd herb to explain to people who haven’t had it. It grows wild above 2,500 meters in the Andes — on rocky slopes between Cusco and Huaraz, mostly, though it runs all the way down into Bolivia. The leaves are small and serrated. The smell is a cross between spearmint and something earthier, almost wild. Peruvian families in the highlands use it for everything from altitude discomfort to post-meal gas to getting through cold evenings.

The tea tastes different from European mint. More intense, slightly pungent, with a warming-then-cooling sensation that makes more sense the third time you drink it than the first.

What most people who buy muña tea bags don’t realize: the same herb makes three genuinely different drinks depending on how you approach it. The hot cup is standard but easy to get wrong. The strong iced version is one of the better warm-weather drinks you can make at home. The cold infusion is the one that surprises people — softer, sweeter, more aromatic than any heated method.

Here’s how to do all three.

Method 1: Hot Brew (the daily cup)

This is the most common use and also the most often brewed wrong. Most people either pour boiling water directly on the bag or steep for two minutes and wonder why it tastes like warm water with a faint menthol note.

What you need:

• 1 tea bag (or 2g loose leaf per 240ml cup)
• Water at 85–90°C (185–195°F) — not fully boiling
• A mug with a small plate or lid to cover it
• 5–8 minutes steeping time

The steps:

1. Heat water to 85–90°C. If you don’t have a temperature kettle, bring water to a boil then let it sit uncovered for 2–3 minutes — it drops roughly 5–8°C per minute.
2. Place the bag in your mug.
3. Pour the water over the bag.
4. Cover the mug with a small plate or lid immediately. This traps the volatile oils — menthone, pulegone, carvone — that carry most of the flavor and carminative effect. They escape into steam quickly if the mug is left open.
5. Steep for 5–8 minutes. Longer gives a more medicinal, slightly bitter cup. Shorter is lighter and more aromatic.
6. Remove the bag without squeezing. Squeezing pulls bitter compounds from the leaf material.

When to use it: After dinner, or when you need something warming. The covering step matters more than the exact temperature — a covered 88°C cup beats an uncovered 95°C one every time.

Method 2: Strong Iced Brew

Iced muña is a good summer drink that most people outside Peru haven’t tried. The trick is making it double-strength before adding ice — otherwise the dilution flattens it to nothing.

What you need:

• 2 tea bags per 240ml of water (double the normal ratio)
• Water at 85–90°C
• Ice — enough to half-fill your glass
• Optional: fresh lime juice and honey or yacon syrup to sweeten

The steps:

1. Brew as in Method 1, but use 2 bags per cup of water and steep for the full 8 minutes, covered.
2. While still hot, stir in sweetener if you’re using it. Honey and lime work especially well with muña’s minty, earthy profile.
3. Fill a tall glass halfway with ice.
4. Pour the hot, strong tea over the ice directly. The temperature drop is fast enough that you won’t dull the flavor.
5. Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice, stir once, and drink immediately.

Flavor note: Lime brightens the tea considerably. Muña has a slight earthiness that lime cuts through cleanly — a pairing that shows up naturally in Peruvian highland cooking. Without lime it’s fine. With lime it’s noticeably better.

When to use it: Midday in hot weather, or as an after-lunch digestive drink in summer. It’s refreshing in a way that chamomile and lemon verbena aren’t — more complex, less sweet.

Method 3: Cold Infusion (overnight)

Cold infusion is the method most people skip because it requires planning ahead. It’s also the one that produces the most interesting result — a softer, slightly sweeter cup with very little bitterness, because cold water extracts aromatic compounds without pulling the bitter tannins and alkaloids that heat extracts.

This method is particularly good if you find the hot cup too intense or too medicinal-tasting.

What you need:

• 3–4 tea bags (or 6–8g loose leaf) per 1 liter of cold filtered water
• A glass pitcher or jar with a lid
• Refrigerator
• 8–12 hours

The steps:

1. Add the bags to your pitcher.
2. Pour cold or room-temperature filtered water over them. Do not use hot water — you’ll get a different, more astringent result.
3. Cover and refrigerate. Eight hours is the minimum; twelve is better. Overnight is the easiest approach.
4. Remove the bags in the morning. Here you can gently press them — cold water doesn’t over-extract bitterness the way heat does.
5. Drink over the next 48 hours. Keep refrigerated.

Flavor note: Cold-infused muña tastes noticeably different from the hot version. Cleaner, more floral, with a menthol coolness that builds slowly rather than hitting you upfront. People who don’t like the hot cup often prefer this one.

When to use it: Mornings, or kept in the fridge as a cold digestive drink throughout the day. Makes solid prep-ahead hydration for the week.

A quick comparison

The three methods aren’t just temperature variations — they produce genuinely different drinks:

• Hot brew: Most intense flavor, most traditional use. Best for cold evenings or after heavy meals when you want something warming.
• Strong iced: Bright and refreshing, best in summer. Lime makes it a proper drink rather than cooled tea. Best after a midday lunch.
• Cold infusion: Softest flavor, least bitter, highest aromatic clarity. Best for people who find the herb too intense hot, or who want a ready-to-drink fridge staple.

A few honest caveats

Muña is a mild herb, but it’s worth knowing what’s in it. The compound pulegone, present in muña (and in pennyroyal, a botanical relative), can cause liver stress in very large doses. A cup or two a day is well within safe range for most healthy adults — that’s consistent with both traditional use and the research that exists.

Pregnancy is a different question. Traditional Peruvian sources caution against muña during pregnancy, and the pulegone content is likely the reason. Worth discussing with your doctor if that applies to you.

Muña has no well-documented drug interactions at typical tea doses, but if you take blood pressure medications or blood thinners regularly, run any daily herbal tea habit by your pharmacist. That’s standard advice for any herb used regularly, not a specific muña warning.

If muña’s flavor profile appeals to you but you want something gentler for daily use, Lemongrass (Hierba Luisa) Tea is the closest comparison — citrus-forward, mild, and also useful after meals. Chamomile (Manzanilla) Tea is the other standard option for digestive calm with a more European flavor profile.

Browse the full herbal tea collection →

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Andean Mint — Muña Tea is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.