Lavender Chamomile Tea in 3 Easy Steps (and Benefits)

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This post contains an herbal tea recipe with chamomile and lavender. Leading up to the recipe, it explains some benefits of the two ingredients. Lavender and chamomile are both plants that are known to be relaxing, as well as having other beneficial effects. This post explains in a bit more depth some of their benefits that have been confirmed by research. Scroll down a little to read about that, or scroll way down to get straight to the recipe for lavender chamomile tea. There is also a bonus section at the bottom on how to turn your tea into a latte at home.

Chamomile Benefits

Chamomile, a member of Asteraceae/Compositae, or daisy family, is a plant usually cultivated from one of two varieties: German, aka Chamomilla recutita or Matricaria chamomilla; and Roman, or Chamaemelum nobile. It has long been used in folk medicine to treat… well, nearly everything. It might be faster to list common ailments that it hasn’t been used for than to list what it has been used for. Its uses range from inciting menstrual flow, to aiding digestion, to pain relief. Today, we commonly use it as a sleep aid and mild relaxant. Because it has been so useful and been treated basically as a panacaea, it has been, and is being, studied by scientists.¹

Below are some interesting and nonexhaustive findings. In doing research for this post, I found so many legitimate uses for chamomile that I might make multiple posts on it. I could organize it based on most active compound, or by type of use. We’ll see how it ends up!

Antibiotic Action

Interestingly, multiple studies that compared chamomile to tetracycline for treating flesh wounds found that the groups treated by chamomile had faster healing times, and were more effectively cleaned.² One of the ideas about this is that chamomile can prevent the growth of biofilm.³ It has also been found that chamomile in many cases has greater antimicrobial effects than traditional antibiotics, and can work with them synergistically.⁴

Can Help Prevent Cancer

Chamomile has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer. This reduction of risk is associated with the flavonoid apigenin, which is abundant in chamomile. The reduction of risk is not enough to replace an overall healthy lifestyle and routine checkups, at least with the amount naturally present in the plant.⁵ Perhaps chamomile can help aid more rigorous prescriptions, but it should not be used as a replacement for a doctor’s treatment plan.

Can Help with Blood Pressure and Heart Rate

The use of chamomile by oral administration has been shown to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as heart rate in human participants. The participants in the study literally drank chamomile tea. They were each given a hot cup of tea made with two teaspoons of powdered flowers and boiling water.⁶ The recipe I share below uses 1 teaspoon of chamomile, but feel free to add another teaspoon.

Can Help Relax

Probably the most common use of chamomile tea today is to help people relax and fall asleep. It is believed that the mechanism for this is that apigenin binds to benzodiazepine and GABA receptors.⁷⁸

Lavender Benefits

Lavender is a traditional herb originating in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The most commonly used lavender species is Lavendula agustifolia, or English Lavender, a frost-hardy flowering plant with a distinctive fragrance. It has long been used for physical and mental ailments, from burns and insect bites to stress and insomnia.⁹ Scroll down for more on some of the lavender benefits that have been confirmed by modern scientific practices.

Reduces Anxiety

In a meta-analysis of the use of lavender essential oil for the treatment of anxiety, it was found to be effective when used by inhalation and potentially when taken by oral consumption.¹⁰ This suggests that aromatherapy and lavender-scented things (such as lavender tea) may help reduce feelings of anxiety.

Reduces Stress

Another meta-analysis of the use of lavender found that it significantly reduces stress. According to researchers, it contains flavonoids that act on the limbic system. It increases GABA in the amygdala, and also has a focused effect on the hippocampus. It was also found that aromatherapy was the best method to effect this outcome, and they astutely made the connection between the limbic system, memory, and the olfactory system.¹¹ (Memories are highly associated with smell, as well as the amygdala and the hippocampus.)

Helps Improve Quality of Sleep

A study that sought to measure the effects of lavender aromatherapy on heart rate in perimenopausal insomniacs found that it had a lasting effect on the participants’ sleep quality.¹² Another study on students (both women and men) found that lavender inhalation improved their quality of sleep as well.¹³

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Now that we understand how healthy chamomile and lavender are, and how they can help us sleep, let’s make a tea out of them:

Lavender Chamomile Tea Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tsp chamomile flowers
• 1/2 tsp lavender buds
• 8 oz water

Equipment

• Reusable tea bag, sieve, or mesh strainer
• Kettle
• Mug

Instructions

1. Set the water to boil.
2. Fill the reusable tea bag, sieve, or mesh strainer with the flowers and buds, and place it into the mug.
3. When the water boils, pour it into the mug. You can leave the flora in until the water cools enough to drink.

Make it a latte: Lavender Latte with Chamomile Tea

With this extra step, you can add steamed milk at home to make a relaxing sleepytime tea latte. The ratio should be 1:1 tea:milk (half tea and half milk). If you use 8 oz of water to make your tea, you will want to use 8 oz of milk. Make sure you have your tea prepared in a 16 oz mug before you heat your milk.

You have two options for preparing the milk: You can heat the milk on the stove and use a milk whisk/hand frother to froth it, or you can use a froth pitcher, which will do everything for you.

To heat milk on the stove:

Equipment:

• Small pot
• Stove
• Thermometer
• Hand frother/electric whisk (same thing)

Ingredients

• 8 oz of milk

Directions:

1. Pour 8 oz of milk into a small unheated pot, and attach the thermometer so it is positioned to give readings from the milk.
2. Heat on low to medium-low, stirring frequently, and checking the temperature on the thermometer. Don’t let your milk boil.
3. When the temperature reaches 150 F (65.5 C), remove from heat.
4. Submerge hand frother in the milk just below the surface, and run on high until you have the amount of foam you want.
5. Pour your heated and whisked milk into your tea and enjoy.

To use a froth pitcher:

Equipment:

• Froth pitcher

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of milk

Directions:

1. Pour 8 oz of milk into your froth pitcher.
2. Turn the pitcher on and operate it according to the instructions it came with. Usually all you have to do is put the lid on and press a button.
3. Once that’s done, pour the steamed and frothed milk into your tea.

Below is the recipe card:

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your tea however you take it, and have a restful night 🙂 Don’t forget to subscribe to Herbs and Brew below (just below the footnotes)!

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/ ↩︎
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28034365/ ↩︎
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26312934/ ↩︎
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669018303340 ↩︎
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5207605/ ↩︎
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29656575/ ↩︎
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/ ↩︎
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/ ↩︎
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612440/ ↩︎
10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944711319303411#sec0034 ↩︎
11. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229922000346#sec0075 ↩︎
12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3159017/ ↩︎
13. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22582680/ ↩︎