After a long day, a hot cup of chamomile tea is just what I need to unwind and fall into a deep sleep. But does it actually make you sleepy? What time should you drink it? And what does it even taste like? This guide to chamomile tea will explain all.
I have also included my top-rated chamomile tea reviews, including some chamomile tea blends such as sleepy tea, so you can buy a delicious tea from a reputable brand.
Don’t forget to use the Tea Review Index here at Immortal Wordsmith to easily navigate through my tea reviews by ingredient, brand, or format.
What is Chamomile?
Chamomile tea, also spelt ‘camomile’, is an herbal infusion. This means that it’s made from a plant that isn’t the traditional tea plant, so it is caffeine-free. Typically, chamomile tea is made from the daisy-like flowers of the chamomile plant.
Two plants in the chamomile family in particular are used to make chamomile tea – Matricaria chamomilla which is known as German chamomile and Chamaemelum nobile which is your standard English chamomile lawn. You can even grow these chamomile plants at home to harvest the blooms and make fresh tea.
Although official sources stress that there is no high-quality clinical evidence for chamomile’s health benefits, there are studies that potentially link the tea to reduced anxiety and improved sleep. Learn more about chamomile’s sedative properties below.
How to Brew Chamomile Teabags
Chamomile teabags are very easy to brew. First, remove any outer packaging and place the teabag in your mug or cup. Next, boil your water in the kettle or on the stove. When it reaches a boil, pour it into your receptacle over the teabag. Let the teabag sit for 3 to 5 minutes (to taste), then remove the teabag and discard.
How to Drink Chamomile Tea
The flavour of chamomile is naturally sweet, hay-like and warming, but you can add additional honey if you have a particularly sweet tooth.
Many people are surprised that this tea made from flower heads isn’t floral in the slightest. If you have been put off by lavender, passionflower and other floral sleep remedies, then chamomile is a good choice for you.
Chamomile is often blended with other ingredients as well – you can find a list of recommended chamomile tea blends in the UK below.
Best Chamomile Tea in the UK
These are the chamomile teas that I have personally reviewed for the blog at Immortal Wordsmith. Each tea is made from pure chamomile with no additional ingredients.
1. T2 Just Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 4.2 out of 5
T2 Just Chamomile is my highest rated pure chamomile tea review here at Immortal Wordsmith. Available in loose leaf format or in pyramid teabags, I found this chamomile tea to be very rich and thick. It has a good honey and hay flavour with a hint of floral notes and a slightly cloying sweetness. It is incredibly fragrant, flavourful and rich in a way that most chamomile teas just aren’t.
What’s even more impressive is that this tea is just chamomile, with no additional flavouring or flavour enhancer. You can buy T2 Chamomile on Amazon.
2. Whittard Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 4.1 out of 5
Whittard of Chelsea are well-known in the UK and have many high-street stores dotted across the country. If you happen to visit one, I recommend picking up their loose leaf chamomile. I reviewed a caddy filled with lush chamomile flowers, but it is also available in teabag format for convenience.
My review highlighted just how mellow and relaxing this tea is. The flavour is good but not powerful in the way T2 Just Chamomile is. Instead, it’s gentle with subtler honey notes and a pleasant natural sweetness. The best place to buy it is directly from Whittard.
3. Bion Chamomile Tea
Izzy’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Bion are an herbal tea brand from Cyprus, growing organic ingredients on the island including chamomile and a variety of others. I had the pleasure of reviewing several of their teas and found that the organic herbs in pyramid teabags were so flavourful and fresh.
Bion Chamomile is sweet and rich with notes of honey and hay. It is a typical chamomile tea without exceptional to point out, except that it is perfect. No faults to be found. I was also super impressed with the vibrancy of the aroma. You can buy this tea on Amazon.
4. Tim Hortons Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 3.6 out of 5
With Tim Hortons coffee shops popping up across the UK in recent years, I am seeing an increased interest in their tea line. While they won’t beat my favourite Costa beverage when I’m shopping on the high-street, I am quite fond of their teabag line that you can brew at home. I had the pleasure of reviewing Tim Hortons Chamomile for the blog.
Overall, I found this tea to have a gorgeous aroma with an intense sweetness that reminded me of caramel. The flavour is much more subtle, however, with effortlessly smooth notes of cloying honey and hay. Delicious and available on Amazon UK.
5. Twinings Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 3.4 out of 5
Coming in a number 5, Twinings Pure Camomile may not use my favourite spelling but it is certainly one of my favourite chamomile teas. The flavour is much deeper and richer than other chamomiles, with sweet notes that verge closer to golden syrup than honey. If you like a rich tea, read my full Twinings Camomile review to learn more.
I also like that the teabags are individually wrapped to keep them fresh for longer. This is important if you only want to drink chamomile tea occasionally without the entire pack going stale. You can buy these wrapped teabags directly from Twinings.
6. The London Tea Company Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 3.2 out of 5
Although The London Tea Company aren’t the best of the best, I wouldn’t say no to a cup of their chamomile tea. As I noted in my full tea review, this chamomile is warm with wet hay notes and subtle honey sweetness. It also has a little mustiness to the flavour that gives it a more rounded feel – it doesn’t seem as fresh as the other chamomile teas on my list.
The aroma of oat flapjacks is super pleasant though and the price is also very attractive. If you are looking for chamomile tea on a budget, I would recommend giving it a shot. You can find this tea on Amazon.
Chamomile in Tea Blends
With warm and sweet notes, it is no surprise that chamomile is a common ingredient in many tea blends. The blends listed below all contain chamomile either for those tasty flavour notes or for the health benefits – you will find it in a lot of sleep remedies!
Teapro Yerba Mate and Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Yerba mate is very high in caffeine and has a strong, astringent grassy flavour. In contrast, chamomile is caffeine free and has a mellow, sleep-inducing honey flavour. So how can they work together in the same cup?
Well, Teapro have cracked the code. Their mix of yerba mate and chamomile with a smattering of dried citrus peel is fantastic. The chamomile adds much-needed sweetness and warmth to the bitter flavour, while the mate adds energy and extra freshness. Ultimately, a cup of this tea always leaves me feeling energised but in a calm, focused way. If you are interested in the cognitive benefits of L-Theanine, then this tea will interest you with similar effects. Buy it directly from Teapro.
Tea+ Sleep
Izzy’s Rating: 3.9 out of 5
Tea+ create a range of teas that contain vitamins and minerals to boost your wellbeing. Their tasty Sleep Tea is made with chamomile, passionflower, lavender and other sleep-inducing ingredients alongside 56mg of magnesium citrate. This is designed to stimulate GABA receptors for deep sleep – learn more in the full review.
As for the flavour, it’s a subtly sweet and gentle cherry blackcurrant flavour. The chamomile barely makes an appearance, but if you are seeking a powerful sleep tea, it’s a great choice. Buy it directly from Tea Plus.
Novus Citrus Chamomile
Izzy’s Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Novus Citrus Chamomile blends together chamomile blooms with, you guessed it, citrus ingredients. It’s an unusual combination that I wasn’t too sure about to begin with, but the notes of full-bodied chamomile and zesty herbaceous lemon won me over. It is made primarily with lemongrass, which is great for digestion. Learn more about the health benefits in the Novus Tea Review.
As for where to buy it, Novus are a British brand with a base not too far from me in Essex. You can buy their teas from some stores, as well as Amazon and their official website.
Bion Spring
Izzy’s Rating: 3.8 out of 5
This floral mix from Bion combines chamomile and other ingredients to evoke a sense of spring. Although it contains soothing and sleepy chamomile, Bion Spring is sweet and perfumed with plenty of rose petals and a touch of lavender too. While it is nice to sip in the evening, it is great all time of day. Learn more about how the flavour melts together in the full tea review.
Alongside their pure chamomile tea, all the ingredients for this blend are grown organically in Cyprus where they are blended and packaged too. You can sometimes find this tea available on Amazon, but it’s quite hard to get your hands on.
Pukka Night Time
Izzy’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Pukka Night Time tea is a delicious herbal sleep blend that’s best without milk, but can actually be made into a frothy latte. The flavour is mellow and smooth with herby, woody, and chamomile hay sweetness. Oatflower, lavender and limeflower are the ingredients listed on the package, but general herbs and a note of chamomile are the most dominant in the flavour.
One of the best things about Pukka is that they are everywhere in the UK, so you can find them at the supermarket when you next go food shopping. If you want to get the best price (especially when buying in bulk) then you can buy Pukka Night Time on Amazon too.
Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night
Izzy’s Rating: 3.2 out of 5
Next up on my list is Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night – another sleep tea that includes chamomile among a host of other sleep-inducing ingredients. Stand out ingredients in this blend include catnip (really), spearmint, hops and passionflower. Read the full tea review to find out why these ingredients are great.
The flavour is mildly herby with notes of spearmint sweetness and soft hay from the chamomile. The aroma is what I really love, however. It reminds me of rain in the garden – buy this tea on Amazon to understand what I mean.
Twinings Sleep
Izzy’s Rating: 3.1 out of 5
Twinings Sleep is another good sleep tea based around chamomile. As I explored in the Twinings Sleep Review, this blend utilises passionflower and apple pieces alongside festive spices to create an unusual flavour profile. Most sleep teas focus on light herbal notes, but Twinings have gone the other way to make a sweet and subtly spiced tea. The chamomile and apple are the most dominant notes.
Twinings sell their teas across the UK but you won’t always find their superblends at the supermarket, so I recommend buying it directly from Twinings Official Website.
Twinings Moment of Calm
Izzy’s Rating: 3 out of 5
If you want to calm down and reduce anxiety but aren’t quite ready for sleep, then another Twinings’ superblends tea is Moment of Calm. Featuring chamomile, chicory, apple and spices, it is similar to their Sleep tea but richer with more distinct cinnamon festive spices. Personally, I don’t find it overly calming but it is definitely tasty.
Again, I recommend buying this tea directly from Twinings’ website. They often have discounts and sales that you can take advantage of, plus they have some great teaware and gifts (as featured in my Tea Gifts for Tea Lovers guide).
Pukka Chamomile, Vanilla & Manuka Honey
Izzy’s Rating: 2.4 out of 5
The last chamomile blend that I recommend is this sweet offering from Pukka Herbs. The name would suggest that it’s sweet and rich, but in true Pukka style, they’ve added so much fennel and aniseed that it’s rather liquorice-like.
In the end, the aniseed flavours completely overpower everything with just a little hint of chamomile shining through. If you like aniseed, that won’t be a problem. Learn more in the tea review or jump straight to Amazon to buy this tea online.
Health Benefits of Chamomile Tea
I always recommend reading potential health benefits of herbal teas with a generous amount of apprehension. Most scientific studies provide fairly weak evidence and often use a highly concentrated extract or serum rather than a tea infusion to produce results.
That being said, chamomile tea is one of the most wildly researched herbal infusions and here is what the current literature suggests.
- Anti-inflammatory properties (when applied topically),
- Potential anti-cancer effects by inhibiting tumour growth,
- Soothe cold symptoms when inhaled through aromatherapy,
- Improve cardiovascular health,
- Could treat infant colic disorders,
- Treat eczema (when applied topically),
- Soothe an upset stomach,
- Prevent bone loss (osteoporosis) in old age,
- Induce deep and restful sleep,
- Treat anxiety and seizures,
- General health by boosting the immune system and speeding up the healing process.
Besides reducing anxiety and aiding sleep, the majority of these health benefits are hard to prove and even harder to notice in yourself after sipping a cup. I strongly suggest that you talk to a healthcare professional before trying to treat any ailments with herbal tea.
FAQs
Side effects are extremely rare but an allergic reaction is possible. Chamomile can also interfere with cyclosporine and warfarin.
The best time to drink chamomile tea is in the evening, roughly an hour before bed, so you can enjoy the calming effects and unwind before sleep.
Chamomile, valerian and passionflower are some of the most well-known and widely available herbal teas to help you sleep. Many tea brands blend these ingredients together the create a sleep remedy.
Besides making delicious tea that reduces anxiety and promotes sleep, chamomile teabags can be used topically to reduce inflammation and even used as potpourri.
If you only brewed your tea very lightly, you can re-steep the teabag later that day. As a general rule, don’t re-steep tea once it has sat out overnight. The more times you steep a teabag, the more you risk the bag deteriorating. If you want to re-steep tea regularly, try loose leaf tea instead.
There is no caffeine in chamomile tea. Made solely from chamomile flowers, this is a herbal infusion that does not contain any caffeinated tea.
You would need to drink gallons of chamomile tea to notice any drastic side effects, unless you have an allergic reaction (very very rare). Chamomile is considered a safe ingredient with no known serious risks. As this tea is caffeine free, you can drink as much as you like before bed too.