Cloves tea: benefits and how to make laung tea at home

Laung tea is the simple version of masala chai: tea leaves and whole clove buds, simmered together and strained. The usual cup uses two lightly crushed cloves and half a teaspoon of tea leaves to one cup of water, simmered for 3 to 4 minutes. Some homes add milk after straining, and some add a small piece of cinnamon or a green cardamom; the two-ingredient cup is the one this page measures. A fuller spiced brew with cloves among several spices is the masala chai recipe, and the same bud steeped cold overnight is cloves water benefits page's laung ka pani.

Every cloves tea benefit worth repeating traces back to two reviews. The 2014 review, in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, reports antioxidant and antimicrobial activity in clove higher than in many fruits, vegetables and other spices, and records the spice's centuries of use in food preservation and many medicinal roles. The 2020 review in Biomolecules reports antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity for eugenol, documented across studies, and pain-relieving reports for the same compound. Both reviews cover studies of the buds, the oil and the compounds, and neither abstract reports a trial of cloves tea in people.

What follows for a cup of tea is modest. Cloves tea is a kitchen way to take cloves, and kitchen amounts are all that the evidence can speak for: one 2014 review of culinary herbs and spices notes that spices are normally eaten in small quantities with other foods, so their true health benefit stays hard to pin down. So the honest cloves tea benefits list is short: a warm cup with the clove taste, the antioxidants and antimicrobials of the bud in laboratory terms, and nothing beyond that. The fuller benefit list, with its limits spelled out, is on cloves benefits.

Two whole buds weigh about 0.2 g, and that is the entire clove content of one cup. From that, the cup carries about 0.4 kcal, about 0.04 g of carbohydrate, about 0.07 g of fibre, about 1.1 mg of calcium and about 0.02 mg of iron, by the IFCT 2017 figures for cloves per 100 g. These are garnish-sized numbers, which is exactly the honest point: laung tea is a drink for the flavour and the warmth, not a nutrient source. Whatever calories the cup holds come from the tea's milk and sugar, not from the cloves, which is why the method below skips the sugar. The full per-100 g table is on cloves nutrition facts 100g.

The method below makes one cup and uses the amounts from the clove pages: two lightly crushed cloves and half a teaspoon of tea leaves.

1. Lightly crush two whole cloves under a spoon, just enough to crack them, and put them in a small pan with one cup of water.
2. Bring the water to a boil on medium heat.
3. Add half a teaspoon of tea leaves, lower the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.
4. Pour the tea through a strainer into a cup and skip the sugar.
5. If you like milk tea, add a splash of warm milk after straining; the cloves are already in the cup.

The two buds stay behind with the leaves, so there is no bud to bite into. If you want more clove, crack a third bud rather than simmering longer, since a longer boil usually draws more bitterness from the tea leaves. This is the same cup described on the diabetes page, where the point of skipping sugar matters most: can diabetic eat cloves.

The two clove reviews give no daily amount for cloves, in tea or out of it. A cup or two a day, two buds each, is a kitchen habit, not a researched amount: four buds weigh about 0.4 g, against about a gram for ten whole buds. After meals is the common time, the same place people chew a bud, and it works on an empty stomach too; the clove review abstracts say nothing about timing. If you take medicines for any condition, or a daily clove habit is part of how you manage one, talk to your doctor before making laung tea part of the routine.

Three habits, one spice, different forms. Laung tea heats two buds in water for 3 to 4 minutes and drinks the strained cup warm; it is the quickest way to take cloves. Clove water, laung ka pani, soaks two buds in water for 6 to 8 hours and drinks it plain; the method and its own numbers are on the cloves water benefits page. Chewing a bud holds it in the mouth for a minute or two, the after-meal habit covered on cloves how to use. All three stay in the same kitchen scale, a few buds, and none of them is shown to do more in people than taste good; pick the one that suits the moment, or the weather.

Whole buds are the right form for tea, and the fresher the bud, the stronger the cup. Buy a small jar of whole cloves, keep it sealed away from heat and steam, and the smell test tells you when it has faded: a bud that smells sharp and woody as the jar opens is usually still potent, and faint, dusty-smelling buds usually make a faint tea. COWBERRY's whole cloves are Kerala-grown organic buds, and one jar covers months of two-bud cups. Names, storage and buying sit on the cloves hub.

Does laung help in cough?

No study of laung tea and cough exists in the two clove reviews, and nothing in them turns a clove into cough medicine. A hot cup usually feels warm going down, which is about the drink, not the clove; a cough that hangs on needs a doctor.

Does laung cause acidity?

The clove research has no answer to this either. The published clove reviews, from 2014 and 2020, describe laboratory and animal work and no acidity from food amounts of the spice, and in tea that means two buds a cup. If acidity is a regular problem for you, ask your doctor rather than cutting a drink on a guess.

Is laung good for health?

As a spice in food and tea it is an ordinary part of Indian cooking; as a medicine, the human evidence is missing from the reviews. Laboratory studies behind the clove reviews report antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, and 100 g of cloves holds 9.41 mg of iron, 567 mg of calcium and 34.52 g of fibre. In the two buds a tea cup uses, all of that shrinks to garnish size.

Is eating laung good for health?

Chewing a bud after a meal is an old home habit, and cloves carry a centuries-long record of medicinal use. The clove reviews describe no human trial of the habit, and a 2014 review of culinary spices explains that tiny culinary doses make a true benefit hard to show. Eat laung for taste, in kitchen quantities.

What are the benefits of laung?

Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity in the clove reviews, a centuries-old record as a food preservative, laboratory pain-relieving reports for eugenol, and per 100 g, 9.41 mg of iron, 567 mg of calcium and 34.52 g of fibre. The reviews describe laboratory work and composition, not a human trial showing a benefit from kitchen amounts of the spice.

Which cloves are best?

Whole buds are the usual choice for tea, since you can crush only what a cup needs. Buds that smell sharp when the jar opens are usually the fresher ones, and a pack that states how they were grown and dried is easier to trust. For tea, two lightly crushed buds is the measure, not a spoonful.