Chamomile tea is made by steeping dried chamomile flower heads in hot water, but the journey from field to cup involves harvesting at the right moment, careful drying to preserve the flower’s beneficial compounds, and brewing at the right temperature. Whether you’re buying a box of tea bags or growing chamomile in your garden, understanding each step helps you get a better cup.
Which Chamomile Plant Becomes Tea
Most chamomile tea comes from German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), an annual plant that grows up to 50 cm tall and produces the classic white-petaled, yellow-centered flowers. Roman chamomile, a shorter perennial that tops out around 15 to 30 cm, contains similar compounds and also works for tea, but it’s far less common commercially.
The two look nearly identical, but you can tell them apart by cutting a flower head in half. German chamomile has a hollow center, while Roman chamomile is filled with solid pith. Both have a strong, sweet, apple-like scent when you rub the flowers between your fingers. That scent is a good sign you have true chamomile and not a lookalike. Mayweed, a poisonous relative, has a weak or unpleasant smell, hairy leaves, and a pithy (not hollow) flower base.
How Chamomile Is Harvested
Chamomile flowers are harvested in early summer when they’re in full bloom. For small-scale growers, this means picking individual flower heads by hand, ideally on a dry morning after the dew has evaporated. Commercial farms use a specialized chamomile harvester attached to a tractor that combs through the plants and strips the flower heads while leaving the stems behind.
Timing matters for more than just yield. Research on essential oil retention found that flowers harvested at a medium ripening stage hold onto their volatile oils longer during storage than flowers picked at full maturity. Picking too late means you start with less of the aromatic compounds that give chamomile tea its flavor and calming properties.
Drying: The Most Critical Step
Fresh chamomile flowers are roughly 80% water, so drying is essential to make them shelf-stable and concentrated enough for tea. How you dry them has a significant impact on what ends up in your cup.
Sun drying and shade drying preserve the most beneficial compounds. Flowers dried in the sun or shade retain their full flavonoid content, around 12 mg per gram of dried material. By contrast, drying at 60°C (140°F) in an oven for two days destroyed 65% of total flavonoids. Even a shorter blast at 105°C (221°F) cut flavonoid levels by roughly 40%. High heat also breaks down key aromatic compounds. Chamazulene, which gives chamomile oil its distinctive blue color, dropped from 4.3% in sun-dried flowers to just 1.5% when dried at high temperature.
If you’re drying chamomile at home, spread the flower heads in a single layer on a screen or drying rack in a warm, well-ventilated area out of direct moisture. A shaded spot with good airflow works well. The flowers are ready when they feel papery and crumble easily between your fingers, typically after 1 to 2 weeks depending on humidity.
Commercial producers use climate-controlled drying rooms and conveyors that move flowers through warm air at carefully monitored temperatures. After drying, the flowers pass through vibrational sieves and pneumatic separators that remove stems, leaves, and debris, leaving only clean flower heads for packaging.
What’s Inside the Flower
Chamomile flower heads contain over 50 identified flavonoids, with apigenin being the star. Apigenin binds to the same receptors in the brain that anti-anxiety medications target, which explains why chamomile tea has a genuinely calming effect rather than just a placebo one. The flower’s volatile oils contain esters that contribute additional sedative properties, along with a compound called alpha-bisabolol that has anti-inflammatory effects.
All of these compounds are concentrated in the flower head itself, which is why chamomile tea uses only the blooms, not the stems or leaves. This is also why the drying method matters so much: gentle drying keeps these compounds intact, while aggressive heat breaks them down before they ever reach your cup.
How to Brew Chamomile Tea
The standard ratio is 2 level teaspoons (about 4 grams) of dried chamomile flowers per 8 ounces of water. If you prefer a stronger cup, double that to 4 teaspoons or 8 grams.
Heat your water to about 200°F (93°C), which is just below a full boil. You’ll see small bubbles forming on the bottom of the pot but not a rolling boil. Pour the water over the flowers, cover the cup or teapot to trap the volatile oils that would otherwise escape as steam, and steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Five minutes gives a lighter, more floral cup. Ten minutes pulls out more of the calming compounds and produces a stronger, slightly more bitter flavor. Covering while steeping is important because many of chamomile’s aromatic and active compounds are volatile, meaning they evaporate easily.
If you’re using tea bags, the same rules apply: water just off the boil, covered steeping, 5 to 10 minutes. Loose flowers generally produce a more flavorful cup because the larger pieces allow water to circulate more freely than the finely ground material in most tea bags.
Storing Dried Chamomile
Dried chamomile loses potency over time, especially when stored at room temperature. Research on storage conditions found that flowers kept at cool temperatures (around 2°C/36°F) retained about 84% of their essential oil content over time, while warmer storage accelerated degradation. For home storage, keep dried chamomile in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. A sealed glass jar in a pantry works well. Avoid storing it near the stove or in direct sunlight.
Interestingly, one flavonoid, apigenin, actually increased in concentration after a year of storage as its precursor compounds broke down into free apigenin. So older chamomile isn’t necessarily less effective, but it will taste less aromatic as the volatile oils fade.
Fresh Chamomile Tea
You can also brew tea directly from fresh flowers, though you’ll need roughly three times the volume compared to dried, since the fresh flowers contain so much water. Use a generous handful of fresh flower heads per cup, pour hot water over them, and steep covered for the same 5 to 10 minutes. Fresh chamomile tea has a lighter, more grassy flavor with less of the concentrated sweetness you get from dried flowers.
Allergy Cross-Reactivity
Chamomile belongs to the same plant family as ragweed, mugwort, and chrysanthemums. If you have a known allergy to any of these plants, chamomile can trigger a cross-reactive allergic response. One documented case of anaphylaxis after drinking chamomile tea was traced to cross-reactivity between chamomile proteins and mugwort pollen, confirmed through antibody testing. Reactions are rare but can be serious, so this is worth knowing if you have pollen allergies to plants in the daisy family.