Best Chamomile Tea Brands for Anxiety & Sleep: 2020 Review

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Chamomile tea is one of the most popular teas and herbal supplements out there.

But what is chamomile tea, and what is the best chamomile tea brand? Let’s take a look at the unique properties of chamomile tea.

We spent 20 hours researching how chamomile can benefit your health, the kinds of conditions it can help with [1], as well as what the best chamomile brands are. To pick the best brands, the company’s quality standards, sourcing, and reviews were researched to make sure you can get the best chamomile tea for your needs.

Best Chamomile Tea Brands

1. Traditional Medicinals Organic Chamomile Tea – Best Bagged Tea

After reviewing the rest of the brands, we think Traditional Medicinals makes the best chamomile tea overall.

With Traditional Medicinals Chamomile tea you’ll get to enjoy organic Egyptian chamomile tea in the convenience of a bag. While it may not be as potent as loose leaf tea, this is a great option if you’re looking for a chamomile tea bag. Traditional Medicinals is a trusted brand that’s been making high-quality tea since 1974.

Pros:

• It is cultivated from Fair Trade Certified Farms
• All Ingredients Certified Organic and Kosher
• Sourced from the Nile Valley in Egypt
• 100% Pure Chamomile giving the tea a fragrant and floral taste with honey notes
• Non-GMO
• Rated 4.7 stars

Cons:

• Some reviewers have noted a weaker taste compared to other brands, possibly because of the tea bags are filled less

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2. Celestial Seasonings Chamomile Tea – Best Tea for Sleep

People love this tea, just check out some of the reviews on Amazon. While it’s not organic or anything fancy, it’s a bagged chamomile tea at an affordable price. This is the brand you’ll likely find at your local supermarket or drug store. It’s gluten-free and caffeine-free (most chamomile teas are). Celestial Seasonings first started in 1969 in Colorado. Now they produce over 100 tea varieties and they claim to serve more than 1.6 billion cups of tea per year. That’s a lot of tea!

Pros:

• 100% Chamomile
• Non-GMO
• Great value
• Less wasteful pillow tea bags are used without strings, tags or staples
• Top-Rated on Amazon

Cons:

• Because of the more eco-friendly packaging, there’s less to keep the tea fresh, so they should be used soon after opening the box

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3. U.S. Wellness Naturals Chamomile Tea – Best whole chamomile flower

Okay, so if you want the real flavors of chamomile and are the most interested in the medicinal benefits of chamomile, this is the tea for you. It’s a bag of dried chamomile flowers. While it’s sourced from Egypt this is the German Chamomile flower (Matricaria Chamomilla). The brand name could use some work but the product is amazing. Buyers are also opting for this pure product to use for other purposes like infused in facial products.

Pros:

• 100% Organic
• BPA Free (shouldn’t this be the case for every tea??)
• Sourced from Egyptian Al-Fayyam planes
• The loose chamomile leaves can be easily used for infusions and extracts

Cons:

•  Some buyers mention there are more pieces of other parts of the flower other than the petals than with other brands

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4. Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile –
Best Chamomile Tea Blend

Chamomile has a more subtle taste and some people prefer a more intense flavor for their tea. A chamomile tea blend can offer a variety of more robust flavor experiences, and Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla blend is our favorite. It is infused with cinnamon, hibiscus and orange peel, giving it a citrusy, slightly floral flavor profile. There are no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives added, and the packaging is made from recycled paper, so it’s a good environmentally and health conscious option.

Pros:

• Gluten-free
• No artificial flavors, colors or artificial preservatives
• Non-GMO
• Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars

Cons:

• Buyers have mentioned the chamomile flavor is more subtle than other teas they’ve had

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What is Chamomile Tea?

Chamomile teas are derived from flowers and buds of the chamomile plant. Caffeine-free and gluten-free, it can be enjoyed by a variety of people regardless of health concerns, as it won’t cause anxiety or an upset stomach. Traditionally, it is a bedtime tea heralded for its calming effects.

What Does Chamomile Tea Taste Like?

Chamomile teas are a delicious blend of fruity and herbal notes with a smooth and refreshing finish. It’s like taking a bite out of an earthy apple (but less sweet).

The soothing, relaxing smell of Chamomile has made it a popular choice for candles and essential oils.

Does Chamomile Tea Help with Anxiety?

Chamomile tea can help alleviate minor day-to-day anxiety and promote relaxation. It increases the production of serotonin and melatonin, both hormones can help improve mood and alleviate stress.

Chamomile is also rich in antioxidants! It promotes more efficient circulation, which helps with inflammation and alleviates minor aches and pains, including headaches.

While the effect is not particularly strong, it makes for a perfect tea to sip on before bed.

Are There Other Health Benefits of Chamomile Tea?

Chamomile tea boosts immune health, as it is rich in antibacterial properties, and the robust but gentle scent can clear sinuses. It is also great for digestive problems, and to relieve gas or prevent stomach ulcers, while the anti-inflammatory nature of chamomile helps prevent diarrhea.

Lastly, chamomile may be used as a topical treatment for skin conditions such as eczema and rosacea and may help improve scar healing as well as minimize wrinkles.

When to Drink Chamomile Tea for Sleep?

Chamomile can help make you feel tired because of a chemical it has called apigenin, a chemical compound that encourages sleepiness when it binds to the GABA receptors in the brain. These receptors are bound by anti-anxiety drugs, and therefore results in a relaxing effect.

It’s best to drink the tea 45 minutes to an hour before bed in order for your body to start metabolizing it and begin making you feel sleepy. However, there isn’t any evidence that the tea can improve the quality of sleep.

Choosing a Chamomile Tea

With all the different chamomile tea brands to choose from, it can be hard to find the best chamomile tea for you. Don’t worry, you’ll be sipping some nice, calming chamomile tea in no time!

It’s helpful to think through the following factors (and determine which are the most important to you).

Loose Leaf vs. Bagged Chamomile Teas – Tea connoisseurs will shun bagged tea since it’s usually not as fresh and has less flavor. When looking for the highest quality tea, it’s best to go the loose leaf route. There’s also the added benefit of having a lower environmental impact as the loose leaf requires less packaging and processing. It’s also very pleasing to watch the dried chamomile flowers soak up the water as they release their flavor.

However, bagged tea is the most convenient way to enjoy your tea. Also, you’ll often save money when going with bagged chamomile tea (usually mass-produced).

Source: Amazon bagged tea (left) vs. U.S Wellness Tea (right)

Organic – There are plenty of great certified organic chamomile tea options available. Similar to groceries you’ll pay a bit more for organic but at least you won’t have to worry about chemical fertilizers or pesticides in your tea.

Price – There is a wide range of quality from the super cheap options of chamomile teas compared to the more expensive. Look beyond the branding and marketing when evaluating price. Instead, focus on the type of chamomile, where it’s sourced, or if it’s mass-produced.

Pure Chamomile Tea – Keep an eye out for blends. Sometimes lower-cost fillers or additives are used to keep manufacturing cost down.

With the considerations above in mind, here are our favorite Chamomile tea brands.

What Chamomile Types Are the Best?

Egyptian Chamomile is generally considered one of the best chamomile teas. Native to the Nile River valley, it has the most balanced and widely-appealing flavor of all types. Egyptian chamomile has a unique taste because the environmental conditions of the region—the rich soil of the Nile—produces a fuller flavor and encourages exceptional smoothness.

German Chamomile, sometimes called Italian chamomile, wild chamomile, or Hungarian chamomile, is a widely-used annual plant grown across Eurasia but can be found in many parts of the world. The reason German chamomile is sought-after is for its high concentration of bisabolol and chamazulene. These compounds produce the tea’s calming effects, generally making it the second best after the scarcer Egyptian chamomile (and thus one of the most widely used).

Roman Chamomile is sometimes simply called by its botanical name, which is Chamaemelum nobile. Roman chamomile has a bolder and more bitter taste, and so it often appears in tea blends to help smooth out the taste. While it still has chamomile’s classic health benefits, the relaxation is a bit less pronounced. Given its unique flavor, Roman chamomile is generally enjoyed more as a matter of preference by those with sophisticated palettes, and probably shouldn’t be chosen by those explicitly looking for health benefits.

How Do I Choose Chamomile Tea?

If you’re interested in trying out chamomile tea for its lovely taste or myriad health benefits, and you have an idea of what type of chamomile would be best for you, it can still be hard to determine how to go about picking out your tea. While you can grow chamomile in your own garden and enjoy a fresh cup of brewed chamomile anytime this way, it will require a lot of work for a relatively small yield.

Skip the teabags and look for loose flowers that are certified USDA organic, as these tend to be grown in more rural areas away from industrial pollutants, and generally include the best parts of the plants whereas tea bags include dust and less helpful parts of the plant. If you must use a tea bag for lack of options, try to find larger tea bags, and let your chamomile steep for a long period of time—this helps to allow the flowers to expand and release all their health benefits!

If you love Chamomile tea, check out our latest post on the best Green Tea brands!

Is Chamomile Tea good for sleep?

Yes. Chamomile tea is a popular herbal remedy for sleep. It’s also commonly used to treat anxiety, stress, and insomnia. Research shows that chamomile helps to reduce cortisol levels and improve quality of sleep in people with anxiety. How much you need to drink will depend on what kind of tea you’re drinking, how concentrated the active ingredients are, and how much of it you drink.

What does Chamomile taste like?

The taste of chamomile is slightly bitter, but it’s not as bad as you might think! In fact, many people say that it tastes like apples or hay.

It also has a really nice aroma that some people find relaxing.
If you’re trying chamomile for the first time, I recommend drinking it plain and mixing with hot water. This will help you get used to the flavor and make it easier to drink in larger amounts if needed.

Does Chamomile Have Caffeine?

Chamomile is a great herb with a lot of health benefits, but does it have caffeine?

The short answer is no. Chamomile has no caffeine and therefore can’t cause any of the side effects that come with caffeine.

There are two types of chamomile: German and Roman chamomile. Both types are believed to be effective for calming nerves, relieving sore muscles, soothing stomach issues, and easing menstrual cramps. However, they work differently. German chamomile works as a sedative while Roman chamomile works as an anti-inflammatory.

So if you’re looking for relaxation or pain relief, choose whichever type you think will work for you best!

How long to steep Chamomile Tea?

As with most herbal teas, you want to steep your chamomile for about 3–5 minutes.

Which Chamomile Plant is best for Tea?

There are two types of chamomile plants: Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) and German chamomile (Matricaria recutita).
Roman chamomile is a perennial that grows well in zones 4–8 and produces small, daisy-like, white flowers with yellow centers.
German chamomile is an annual that grows well in zones 3–9 and produces small, white flowers with yellow centers.
Roman chamomile is more common and has more research behind it than German chamomile. However, both are considered safe to consume.

What is the best chamomile tea?

Based on our research, we think Traditional Medicinals Organic Chamomile Tea is the best general purpose Chamomile tea. Obviously, if you are looking for a more specific use, then the best chamomile tea for that could be different.

When is the best time to drink chamomile tea to sleep?

Chamomile is known for its calming effects. It’s a mild sedative and can be used before bed, but it can also be used throughout the day if you’re feeling stressed out or anxious.

According to a few different sources, the best time to drink chamomile tea to sleep is 30 to 45 minutes before your bedtime. This will give your body time to start digesting it and feel the calming effects.