Chamomile
Chamomile is an infusion of dried daisy-like flower heads, caffeine-free and one of the most widely consumed herbal teas in the world. The tea most people drink is German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), prized for its honeyed, apple-like sweetness, though Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) is also used and runs slightly more bitter. It is the archetypal gentle, before-bed cup and is popularly associated with relaxation and winding down.
The clearest quality marker is the flowers themselves: look for whole, intact golden flower heads rather than crushed powder, dust, or a lot of green stem and chaff. A good chamomile has a strong, sweet, distinctly apple-and-honey aroma even before brewing, and a brew the color of pale gold to light amber. Egyptian chamomile, especially from the Nile valley and Fayoum, is widely regarded as a benchmark for large, fragrant, sweet flowers, though good chamomile also comes from Croatia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Tea-bag chamomile is often the fine siftings left after whole flowers are sorted out, which is why it can taste thin, dusty, or hay-like. Because the aroma is carried in volatile oils, freshness matters: a flat or strawy smell means the flowers are old. People with allergies to ragweed and other plants in the Asteraceae family may react to chamomile.
The standard tea chamomile is German chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla (also seen as Matricaria recutita), an annual flower in the daisy family, Asteraceae. The premium commercial supply is associated with Egypt, with additional production across Croatia, Eastern Europe, and Argentina. Processing is gentle: the flower heads are harvested and dried, ideally whole, to preserve the apple-scented volatile oils that define the cup. No part of the plant contains caffeine.
Use about 1 to 2 teaspoons of whole flowers (or 2 to 3 g) per cup, water at 95 to 100°C, and steep 4 to 5 minutes; covering the cup while it steeps helps trap the aromatic oils. Flowers are delicate, so there is little benefit to very long, very hot steeping, though chamomile will not turn harshly bitter the way real tea does. For a stronger, more calming brew, simply use more flowers rather than steeping longer. A second steep is possible but markedly weaker, so chamomile is generally treated as a single-use infusion.
Affordable: roughly €5-12 (about $5-13) per 100 g, with whole-flower Egyptian or organic-certified chamomile sitting at the higher end and cut tea-bag grade at the bottom.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Lavender
Lavender is the other classic evening floral, far more perfumed and intense, where chamomile is mellow and apple-sweet; the two are frequently blended for a wind-down cup.
Lemon Balm (Melissa)
Lemon balm is a common companion to chamomile in calming blends, adding a soft lemon-mint lift to chamomile's honeyed roundness.
Rooibos
Rooibos is the other widely loved gentle, caffeine-free evening drink, but it is earthy and vanilla-sweet rather than floral and apple-like, covering quite different flavor territory.
Linden Flower
Linden flower is another soft, honeyed European flower infusion taken to relax in the evening, lighter and more nectar-like than chamomile's fuller apple character.
The name traces to the Greek khamaimelon, meaning ground apple, a nod to the apple-like scent of the fresh flowers. Despite being one of the gentlest teas around, chamomile is a true member of the daisy family, closely related to plants like ragweed and marigold.