How to make bay leaf tea and soaked water: benefits and cautions

The tea is a leaf infusion: hot water draws out the leaf's aroma and the compounds that dissolve in water, and the leaf itself is strained out. Two leaves, five minutes of simmering and five of steeping make a light, herbal cup that many people drink plain; honey and lemon are optional additions.

The honest part of the answer is what the cup is not. No human study has tested bay leaf tea itself. The one published trial of bay leaf in people gave adults with type 2 diabetes ground-leaf capsules, 1 to 3 g a day for a month, which is a different thing from a cup of tea. Keep the tea as a flavoured drink, not as a measured dose of anything.

1. Measure the water. One cup, 240 ml, per serving.
2. Bring it to a boil. In a small pan or kettle.
3. Add two whole dried leaves. Rinse them first if they look dusty. Dried leaves are what Indian kitchens keep, and they work best here.
4. Simmer five minutes. Keep the flame low; a hard boil makes a harsher cup.
5. Cover and steep five more minutes. Take the pan off the heat so the water keeps drawing from the leaf without boiling away.
6. Strain and discard the leaves. The leaves stay tough; they are not meant to be eaten.
7. Drink it warm. Plain, or with a little honey or a squeeze of lemon if you like.

For the leaf in food rather than in a cup, see how to use bay leaf in cooking.

Bay leaf water is the same leaf in cold water given a whole night. Put two rinsed leaves in a glass or cup of drinking water, cover it, and leave it at room temperature for eight to ten hours. In the morning, strain out the leaves and drink the water as it is, or warm it gently.

The overnight soak is a gentler extraction than simmering: cold water draws less in a longer time. Pick whichever fits the day; there is no evidence that one form does more than the other, because neither form has been tested in people. One cup is a usual starting point, and you can see how it suits you from there.

Searches for bay leaf tea benefits deserve the honest answer. The evidence for bay leaf in people is one small trial, published in 2009: forty adults with type 2 diabetes took ground-leaf capsules every day for a month, and their blood sugar and cholesterol readings improved compared with a placebo. The trial was short, tested a powder rather than a tea, and used 1 to 3 g of ground leaf a day.

A 2014 review points out that culinary herbs and spices are eaten in small quantities and in combination with other foods, which makes their true health benefit hard to establish. For the tea, that caution applies twice: the amount in a cup is tiny, and no study has measured what two leaves in hot water do. There is no human study showing that bay leaf tea helps with weight loss either. If you have diabetes or high cholesterol and take medicines, the tea does not stand in for them; talk to your doctor before using spices or supplements in place of your medicines. The full reading of the trial, with the numbers, is on the is bay leaf good for diabetes page.

Everything in one place, for one cup.

For everything else about the leaf, its names, nutrition and storage, the bay leaf hub is the map.

How to make tej patta tea?

Simmer two whole tej patta leaves in one cup, 240 ml, of water for five minutes, cover and steep five more minutes off the heat, then strain and discard the leaves. Drink it plain or with a little honey and lemon. Tej patta is the Hindi name for bay leaf, so the method is identical.

How to make tej patta water?

Put two rinsed tej patta leaves in a cup of drinking water, cover the cup and leave it at room temperature for eight to ten hours, overnight being the usual choice. In the morning, strain out the leaves and drink the water plain or gently warmed. The leaves are discarded, not eaten.

Does tej patta helps in weight loss?

There is no human study that shows bay leaf, tej patta, helps with weight loss. The one published trial of bay leaf in people measured blood sugar and cholesterol over a month in adults with type 2 diabetes; weight was not its subject, and the test used ground-leaf capsules, not tea. Keep the tea as a flavoured drink.

What are bay leaf tea side effects?

No study has measured side effects of bay leaf tea, because the tea itself has not been tested in people. The practical cautions are small: strain out the leaves, which stay tough, and do not use the tea in place of diabetes or cholesterol medicines without talking to your doctor. The trial used 1 to 3 g of ground leaf a day, as powder, not a tea.

What is tej patta called in english?

Bay leaf. Tej patta is the Hindi word for the leaf sold as bay leaf, so tej patta in English is bay leaf. The name bay leaf in the food tables belongs to Laurus nobilis, the European bay leaf; the Indian tej patta comes from a different tree, and the two are compared on the difference between tej patta and bay leaf page.

Can bay leaf be eaten?

Not from the cup. The leaves in bay leaf tea or bay leaf water are strained out and thrown away, because the leaf stays tough even after simmering; the flavour is what moves into the water. The same is true in food: the leaf seasons the pot and comes out before serving.