Devil's Claw: Benefits, Taste, Caffeine, and How to Steep It

A Kalahari desert root with a fearsome name and a long reputation for easing aching joints. Naturally caffeine-free, dry and bitter, and best with a little honey.

A black marble-patterned teapot with a wooden handle and two matching teacups on a gray surface, with a small succulent plant and a teaspoon of devil’s claw root beside them.

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Meet the ingredient

What is Devil's Claw ?

Devil's claw is a low, sprawling desert plant, Harpagophytum procumbens, that creeps across the red sands of the Kalahari in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. It gets its name from its fruit: a woody seed pod ringed with curved, barbed hooks that latch onto the hooves and fur of passing animals to hitch a ride. Above ground it is a modest thing with pink trumpet flowers, but below the surface it stores water in secondary tubers the size of a fist, and those tubers are what go into the cup.

The tubers are dug, sliced and sun-dried into the small tan chips you see in the bag, and they contain harpagoside, the bitter compound behind the plant's reputation as a joint and muscle herb. Steeped in an infuser or tea bag, devil's claw gives a pale straw-colored cup that is dry, earthy and distinctly bitter with a faint sweetness underneath. It has no caffeine, and most people blend it with peppermint, ginger or cinnamon, or stir in a little honey, to take the edge off.

OriginSouthern Africa
FlavorDry & Bitter
CaffeineNone

Botanical origins

The Devil's Claw family tree

Devil's claw belongs to the Pedaliaceae, the sesame family, a small group of mostly African plants whose best-known member is the sesame seed. Its genus name, Harpagophytum, means grapple plant in Greek, after the hooked fruit, and procumbens describes the way the stems lie flat along the ground. Two species are harvested for tea and sold under the same name: H. procumbens, the more widespread, and H. zeyheri from further north. Not to be confused with the American devil's claw, an unrelated plant with a similar hooked pod.

The plant is a perennial that dies back to its root each dry season and sends out creeping stems up to five feet long after the rains, with grey-green lobed leaves and pink to purple flowers. Its main taproot can reach six feet down, and from it grow the secondary storage tubers that are harvested. Careful gatherers take only some of the side tubers and leave the taproot, so the plant regrows. Sliced and dried, the tubers keep for years, which is what made them a trade good.

FamilyPedaliaceaeThe sesame family

Sesame

Black sesame

GenusHarpagophytumThe grapple plants

H. procumbensDevil's claw

H. zeyheriDevil's claw

An infographic description for Organic Devil's Claw.

Health benefits

Devil's claw tea benefits

Is devil's claw tea good for you? Devil's claw is southern Africa's great joint herb, dug from the Kalahari for centuries and now one of the most studied roots for stiffness and everyday aches.

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*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 Devil's Claw

Devil's claw grows only in the Kalahari and the dry savannas around it, and for as long as anyone knows, the San and Khoi peoples of that desert have dug its tubers. They sliced and dried them in the sun and took them for pain, fever, stomach trouble and difficult pregnancies, and used them as a wash for sores and wounds. The knowledge stayed local for centuries because the plant did: it will not grow well anywhere else.

Early in the twentieth century, a German settler in what is now Namibia learned about the root from local healers and began sending dried tubers to Germany. By the 1950s it was being sold there as a remedy for rheumatism, and Germany remains the largest market for it today. Demand grew so fast that wild plants were stripped from the sand, and the harvest is now managed under permits, with rural communities in Namibia and Botswana gathering the side tubers by hand and leaving the taproot to regrow. Hundreds of tons still leave the Kalahari every year, most bound for Europe, some of it, sliced and dried, for cups of tea.

Caffeine by the cupHow our teas compare

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.

Devil's Claw: caffeine free.

Caffeine

Does devil's claw tea have caffeine?

No. Devil's claw is naturally caffeine-free. It contains no stimulants at all, so it is a safe cup for the evening and for anyone who takes it daily for their joints.

When to enjoy it Any time of day, on its own or in a joint blend.

Taste

What does devil's claw tea taste like?

Devil's claw tea tastes dry, earthy and bitter, with a faint sweetness that shows up at the very end. The cup is pale straw-gold and light in body, and the bitterness is clean rather than harsh, closer to a tonic than a tea. It is not a flavor most people drink for pleasure on its own, which is why we suggest steeping it with peppermint, cinnamon or ginger, or adding a spoon of raw wildflower honey: the bitterness drops away and the earthy depth stays. A short steep makes a gentler cup; a long one is for people who like their bitters bracing.

Wooden spoon of Organic Devil's Claw on a white background.

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Bitter

Bitter teas have backbone. That firm, clean edge comes from the same compounds that make tea worth drinking, and in the right cup it reads as depth and structure rather than harshness. Bracing, complex, and deeply refreshing once you're tuned to it. These are the cups that reward a slower palate.

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