Chamomile
The dried flower head of a small daisy-family plant, brewed across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Two different plants share the name: German chamomile is the annual used for most commercial production, and Roman chamomile is a low-growing perennial with a sharper, more bitter character.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Matricaria chamomilla
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Part used
- Flower
- Origin
- Native across Europe, northern Africa, western Asia, the Caucasus, Siberia, Middle Asia, Mongolia, China and India
- Drunk in
- Egypt, Hungary, Croatia, Argentina, Iran
Character
Sweet, faintly apple-like and gently bitter at the finish. Whole flowers give a rounder cup than the crushed material in bags, which extracts fast and turns bitter.
Notes: apple, hay, honey
History
Cultivated in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and named from the Greek for 'earth apple' after the scent of the crushed flower. Commercial cultivation concentrated in Egypt, Hungary and Argentina in the twentieth century, and Egyptian and Croatian material remain the two references the trade prices against.
How it is drunk
Drunk domestically across Europe, and in Egypt and Iran as a household drink rather than a speciality one. In much of Latin America it is manzanilla, sold in every grocer and made in a pot for the family rather than by the cup.
Production
Flower heads are picked at full bloom, when the white ray florets have begun to reflex downward, and dried whole in shade or in low warm air. Over-drying browns the flower and costs the apple note; the yellow disc should stay yellow.
Preparation
Infusion
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 5 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
German and Roman chamomile are sold interchangeably under one name and taste noticeably different. Whole intact flower heads are the visible quality signal; a bag of yellow-brown dust is the same plant milled to nothing.
Common mistakes
- Boiling water and a long steep, which pulls the bitterness forward and buries the apple note.
Related botanicals
- Lemon balm — Both soft, sweet and low in bitterness, and both are drunk domestically across Europe rather than bought as speciality products.
- Linden flower — The two default European household tisanes, both softly sweet and both drunk domestically rather than bought as speciality products.
- Greek mountain tea — Both mild, hay-like and honeyed, and both forgiving of a long steep - the nearest thing in this catalogue to Greek mountain tea for a reader who only knows chamomile.
Comparisons
- Chamomile vs lavender — Two flowers sold side by side as floral infusions, and the practical difference is not flavour but quantity. One takes a spoonful and the other takes a pinch, and treating them alike is why lavender has a reputation for tasting of soap.
- Linden vs chamomile — The two default European household tisanes, split roughly north and south. Both are soft and low in bitterness, and the practical difference is that linden genuinely improves at seven minutes where chamomile does not.
- Greek mountain tea vs chamomile — Two softly honeyed Mediterranean household drinks with very little bitterness. One is sold as loose flowers and steeped; the other arrives as bundles of whole stems and is simmered.
- Yarrow vs chamomile — Two Asteraceae of the European meadow, one of them the most drunk flower in the world and the other a bitter component nobody drinks alone.
Guides
- What is herbal tea?
- Flowers used in herbal drinks
- Leaves, roots, flowers, bark and seeds explained
- Whole flowers versus cut botanical material
- Water temperature for botanical infusions
- What this catalogue can and cannot tell you
- The first five botanicals to try
- What is actually in a tea bag
- How to read a TeaHQ botanical page
- Caffeine-free infusions
- How herbal infusions are categorised
- Tea vs herbal infusion
- How herbal infusions are made
- Loose herbs vs herbal tea bags
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Matricaria chamomilla L. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
Safety information is held, not absent. TeaHQ has a safety record for Chamomile covering tolerability, interactions and pregnancy. It is unpublished, because publishing a safety statement requires an external source of a standard TeaHQ does not yet hold and a named human to take accountability for it. Nothing on this page should be read as saying this plant is safe or unsafe. How TeaHQ handles this.