Minty Green Tea Martini

Tea, meet vodka! This refreshing green tea martini with a dash of mint is the perfect pick-me-up drink. Easy to whip up for a crowd, turn it into your signature cocktail (I won’t tell).

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Minty Green Tea Martini Ingredients

Tea mixology, or using tea in alcoholic drinks, is an art that’s gained a lot of traction lately and appears to be here to stay. It can be tricky – some teas have very delicate flavors that are easily overpowered – but the possibilities are endless.

We’ve mixed tea and booze plenty of times already here at Farm to Jar (like for my white tea and cucumber cocktail, or the festive chai espresso martini), but there’s always room for one more. The Summer season is waning here, but I’ll squeeze in one more summer drink: a refreshing, minty green tea martini.

You’ll only need five ingredients to make a batch of these. Let’s dive right in!

Green Tea

With its botanical and sweet flavor profile, green tea makes the perfect base for a nice summer cocktail. For your martinis, try a green tea blend with dried mint leaves, like our Moroccan Mint Green Tea.

You’ll want to brew a strong green tea, using around 2 teaspoons loose leaf blend per cup of water, and steep for up to five minutes.

It’s important to use water that’s around 180 °F, rather than boiling, to prevent bitterness.

FAQ: Does green tea have caffeine? It does, but since you’re only drinking a small amount of green tea per martini, you won’t get more than around 5 mg of caffeine per serving. Compare that to around 100 mg in a cup of coffee!

Vodka

You don’t need a $100 bottle of vodka to make a green tea martini, but it’s important to avoid bottom-shelf brands. After all, green tea is quite subtle, so you don’t want a bad vodka to steal its spotlight.

In this recipe, I use regular Smirnoff vodka. Just pick your favorite vodka brand and go with that.

Mint Syrup

Green tea and mint get along like a house on fire. Whether you’re using green tea that already has mint leaves added or not, I recommend also adding some mint syrup to play up the mintiness even further. It doesn’t have to be a lot; a little goes quite a long way.

You can buy mint syrup (I use one by Teisseire) or make your own. It’s super easy, and you can use any leftovers for other mint cocktails like a mint julep. Or just mix it with water and some lemon slices in a big pitcher for a refreshing, non-alcoholic summer drink!

Mint syrup is made by combining equal parts (one cup, for example) of water, sugar, and mint leaves. Bring to a boil, stir until the sugar dissolves, and then let cool. Strain out the mint and you’re ready to make some drinks!

Tip: You can add a drop or two of green food coloring to your homemade mint syrup if you want your cocktails to be bright green like the one in these pictures. Otherwise, they will have the yellowish tinge of green tea and honey.

Honey

Since we’re using all these wonderfully floral and botanical ingredients, I couldn’t resist adding a little honey to my green tea martinis. You can skip it if you don’t like your drinks overly sweet, but it does add an extra layer of complexity.

You can’t use pure honey in a cocktail, as it’s too thick to mix properly in a shaker. Instead, you can either stir the honey into the green tea when it’s still warm or make a honey syrup using equal parts honey and hot water.

Lime juice

Citrus is another flavor that works wonderfully with green tea. We’ll use fresh lime juice in our martinis to balance out the sweetness of the mint syrup and honey.

Try adding a little green tea to this citrus vodka collins that was made in Spring for Earth Day

Garnishes

I kept my cocktails simple by just rimming the martini glasses with sugar (using lime juice as “glue”) and decorating them with a slice of lime.

If you want to go all out, you could make your own lime sugar, using some lime zest for added color and flavor.

Minty Green Tea Martini Method

Most of the ingredients in this cocktail need some time to cool, so it’s best to prepare them a little in advance. Brew some green tea, whip up your mint simple syrup (if you choose not to buy pre-made), and mix the honey with hot water or with the tea to make it workable.

Tip: Don’t forget to pop your martini glasses in the freezer either: a mint green tea martini is best enjoyed icy cold. Fifteen minutes or more should do the trick.

Once all the ingredients are ready, get the glasses out. Run a wedge of lime along the rim and dip in sugar. Then, place all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously, and immediately strain into the glasses. Add the lime slice and voilà! All done.

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