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.
botanical
What is being compared
Why these get confused
Both are sold as 'floral tea' with the species unstated. Chamomile has two species under one name, and lavender is routinely lavandin.
Point by point
| Aspect | Chamomile | Lavender |
|---|---|---|
| The plant | A daisy-family annual, and two different species share the name — German chamomile for most commercial material, Roman chamomile for a sharper perennial. | A Mediterranean shrub. Culinary lavender is the narrow-leaved species; the lavandin planted for hedging is a hybrid with far more camphor. |
| Part used | The whole flower head, dried intact. | The flower bud, cut before full bloom. |
| Flavour | Sweet, faintly apple-like, with a light bitterness at the finish. | Intensely floral with a cooling camphor edge, and soapy if over-used. |
| How much to use | A heaped spoonful is reasonable. It is a forgiving flower. | A pinch. A spoonful is a mistake and is the usual reason people dislike it. |
| Drunk alone or blended | Usually alone, across Europe, Egypt and Latin America. | Usually blended. Almost no tradition drinks lavender by itself. |
| Buying signal | Whole intact heads that open in the water. Yellow-brown dust is the same plant milled to nothing. | Whether it is true lavender or lavandin, which most labels do not distinguish. |
The short answer
Chamomile is the forgiving one and lavender is the one that punishes generosity. Anyone who has found lavender soapy has almost certainly used too much rather than met a bad batch.
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