Chickweed: Benefits, Taste, Caffeine, and How to Steep It
A tiny star-flowered herb that makes a light, leafy, grass-green cup. Naturally caffeine-free and gentle enough for any hour of the day.
Meet the ingredient
What is Chickweed ?
Chickweed is a small, sprawling annual herb, Stellaria media, with soft oval leaves and tiny white flowers whose five deeply split petals look like ten. It is native to Europe but has followed people to every continent, and it is one of the most common wild plants on Earth. It grows in gardens, fields and sidewalk cracks, sprouts in cool weather, and can flower in the middle of winter. The name comes from its long use as feed for chickens and caged birds, which pick out the seeds and tender tips.
People have eaten chickweed for just as long. The fresh greens go into salads and soups across Europe and Asia, and dried chickweed has been a folk remedy in European herbalism for centuries, taken as a tea and applied as a poultice. Steeped in an infuser or tea bag, the dried herb gives a pale green-gold cup that tastes fresh, leafy and faintly sweet, with no caffeine at all.
- OriginEurope, now worldwide
- FlavorFresh & Grassy
- CaffeineNone
Botanical origins
The Chickweed family tree
Chickweed belongs to the Caryophyllaceae, the carnation or pink family, which also gives us carnations, baby's breath, soapwort and the campions. Its genus, Stellaria, takes its name from the Latin stella, star, for the shape of the flowers. The species name media means middle, marking it as the mid-sized chickweed between its larger and smaller relatives. The plant is easy to recognise up close: a single line of fine hairs runs up one side of each stem and switches sides at every leaf joint.
Chickweed is an annual that grows in low, spreading mats a few inches tall, with weak branching stems, oval pointed leaves and flowers only a few millimeters across that open in the morning and close before rain. It sets seed within weeks, several generations a year, which is how a European native became a worldwide weed. The leaves and stems are cut and dried for tea; the herb is richest in spring, before the plant runs to seed.
Health benefits
Chickweed tea benefits
Is chickweed tea good for you? Chickweed is one of the oldest soothing herbs in European folk medicine, and steeping it draws its mucilage, minerals and flavonoids into a gentle, caffeine-free cup.
Tap a card to read more.
-
Chickweed is best known in herbalism as a skin herb. Cooled chickweed tea has been used for centuries as a wash or compress for itchy, dry or irritated skin, and the herb goes into salves for the same reason. Its reputation rests on saponins and mucilage that leave a soothing, cooling feel on the skin.
-
Chickweed contains mucilage, the same slippery, soothing fiber found in marshmallow root and slippery elm. Herbalists have long used a cup of chickweed tea as a mild digestive tonic that coats and calms the stomach, and the herb has a traditional reputation for keeping things moving gently.
-
Chickweed has a long folk reputation as a gentle diuretic, which is why it turns up in traditional weight-management and "spring cleanse" blends. Any effect is mild and mostly about shedding excess water rather than fat, so think of it as a light, refreshing cup on days you feel puffy.
-
In European folk medicine chickweed tea was a go-to for dry coughs and chest congestion. Its mucilage soothes an irritated throat, and herbalists describe it as a mild expectorant that helps loosen mucus, which makes it a comforting caffeine-free cup during the cold season.
-
Chickweed is a "cooling" herb in the traditional sense, used to calm heat and irritation inside and out. It contains saponins and flavonoids, including rutin and apigenin, which are studied for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, and it has been used traditionally to ease sore joints and minor aches.
-
Fresh chickweed is a nutritious wild green, with vitamin C, beta-carotene, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. Some of those water-soluble nutrients pass into the cup when the dried herb is steeped, along with the chlorophyll that gives the tea its fresh, green character.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
History
History of Chickweed
Chickweed's history is the history of a hardy weed that people learned to use rather than fight. It is native to Europe, where it was gathered for thousands of years as one of the first fresh greens of spring, cooked like spinach and pressed onto the skin as a cooling poultice. Country households fed it to chickens and songbirds, which is how it earned its name, and steeped it as a tea for coughs and itchy skin. In European folk medicine it was known as a soft, cooling herb, reached for whenever something was hot, sore or inflamed.
The plant crossed the Atlantic with the first European settlers, tucked into seed grain and hay, and it had spread across North America by the 1800s, where it was taken up for coughs, skin conditions and swelling. Chickweed now grows on every continent, including the sub-Antarctic islands, and it remains a staple of Western herbalism, still steeped for the same soothing, cooling cup it has given for centuries.
- Herbal tea Caffeine free
- White tea Low caffeine
- Green tea Low caffeine
- Black tea Medium caffeine
- Matcha High caffeine
Levels are typical; steep time and leaf amount change them.
Caffeine
Does chickweed tea have caffeine?
No. Chickweed tea is naturally caffeine-free. It contains no stimulants at all, so you can drink it in the evening or all day long without any effect on sleep.
Taste
What does chickweed tea taste like?
Chickweed tea tastes fresh, leafy and grassy, like the smell of a garden after rain. The cup is pale green-gold and light in body, with a clean vegetal flavor, a faint natural sweetness and almost no bitterness or astringency. It is close in spirit to a very mild green tea or a light spring vegetable broth, and it takes well to a squeeze of lemon or a little honey. Because it is so gentle, chickweed also blends easily with nettle, peppermint or lemon balm without crowding them.
Tap a note to explore it
Making the tea
How to make chickweed tea
Heat
Bring fresh, filtered water to a boil.
- Heat
- Measure
- Steep
- Remove
- Enjoy
Where to buy
Where can I buy Organic Chickweed ?
You can find Organic Chickweed on our website! We are USDA certified organic, and our products are vegan and free of GMOs. Try it out today!
Keep exploring
