Clove Tea Benefits: What the Evidence Shows

Clove tea has three potential benefits: hydration, a flavorful alternative to sugary drinks, and clove plant compounds whose health effects in tea are unproven. Try the ai detox recipe generator for a personalized drink idea, or see the broader guide to clove tea.

What are 3 possible benefits of clove tea?

The most dependable benefits come from the water in clove tea and what an unsweetened cup might replace. A third possibility is that the drink supplies plant compounds from cloves, but there is no good evidence that the amounts in clove tea produce a particular health benefit.

These are not three proven medicinal effects. The last item describes what cloves contain, not a demonstrated clinical outcome from drinking clove tea.

Can clove tea help with hydration?

1. It contributes to fluid intake

Mechanism: Clove tea is mostly water. Drinking it contributes to the fluid your body needs for normal functions, including temperature regulation and transporting substances through the body. The clove flavor may make water more appealing if you find plain water difficult to drink.

How to use it: Have clove tea as one of the fluids you enjoy during the day. It can be served cold or warmed, and it does not need to be strong to contribute water. Choose a comfortable drinking temperature rather than drinking it very hot.

The amount that is useful depends on your overall fluid intake and individual needs. If a clinician has told you to limit fluids, follow that advice rather than adding extra drinks.

Strength of evidence: The role of water in hydration is well established. That is a benefit of the water in clove tea, however, not evidence that cloves hydrate better than plain water. No clove tea trial is needed to show that a water-based drink contributes fluid, and the clove studies we found did not test hydration.

Can clove tea be an alternative to a sugary drink?

2. It offers flavor without needing added sugar

Mechanism: Whole cloves give water a distinctive spicy flavor. If you drink unsweetened clove tea instead of a sugar-sweetened drink, you can reduce the added sugar you would otherwise consume. The difference comes from the substitution, not from cloves canceling out sugar or calories.

How to use it: Make clove tea without a sweetener first and taste it before adding anything. A mild infusion can be easier to drink regularly than a heavily spiced one. If you add sugar, honey or another sweetener, the amount added changes the drink’s nutritional value.

This benefit is most relevant when clove tea actually replaces a sweetened drink. Adding it on top of your usual drinks may increase your fluid intake, but it does not automatically reduce the sugar in the rest of your diet.

Strength of evidence: This is a practical food substitution, not a result established by a clove tea clinical trial. The studies we found do not show that clove tea causes weight loss or improves blood sugar. What you add to the tea and what it replaces matter more to this particular benefit than a claim about the spice itself.

Do clove compounds make the tea beneficial?

3. It may provide clove plant compounds

Mechanism: Cloves contain plant compounds, including eugenol. Some clove compounds can pass into water during preparation, although the amount in a cup will vary with the cloves and how the drink is made. The presence of a compound does not establish that the finished tea contains enough to have a measurable health effect.

How to use it: Treat clove tea as a flavored drink rather than a way to obtain a specific dose of eugenol. Use whole culinary cloves and strain them out before drinking. There is no established amount of clove tea to drink for an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or other medicinal effect.

Strength of evidence: Evidence for health effects of clove tea is unproven. Research on clove extracts or concentrated oils cannot tell you what a cup of infused water will do: the preparations, amounts and ways they are used differ. Even when a study finds an effect from a clove product, that finding does not establish the same effect from tea.

For this reason, plant compounds are best considered a possible feature of the drink, not a reason to expect a specific change in your health. A stronger-tasting cup is not necessarily a more effective or safer one.

What does clove tea not do?

Clove tea does not flush toxins from the body or cleanse the blood. The liver and kidneys do most of the body’s detoxification, while the lungs and gut help eliminate waste; sweat removes only trace amounts. Fluids support normal body functions, but clove tea has not been shown to perform a special detox.

It is also not a proven treatment for infections, dental problems, diabetes or other medical conditions. A study of clove extract mouthwash and a study of an inhaled essential-oil blend are described below, but neither tested drinking clove tea. Their results should not be used to choose tea in place of medical or dental care.

Clove tea does not burn fat. An unsweetened cup may help someone replace a sugary drink, but that is different from proving that cloves cause weight loss. There is likewise no established medicinal dose or reason to make the tea increasingly concentrated in pursuit of a benefit.

How should you drink clove tea?

A mild refrigerated infusion is a simple way to use whole culinary cloves. You can drink it cold or warm an individual serving after straining. This recipe is for flavor and hydration, not a tested treatment or clinical dose.

Ingredients

• 1 liter of drinking water, about 4¼ US cups
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves, about 5 mL by volume

Method

1. Wash your hands and use a clean covered pitcher or container.
2. Add the whole cloves to the water, cover and refrigerate for 2–4 hours.
3. Strain out the cloves and serve the tea cold, or warm a serving before drinking.
4. Refrigerate the remaining tea and drink it within 24 hours for the best flavor. Discard it after 2–3 days, or sooner if it becomes cloudy, slimy or sour-smelling. Do not leave it at room temperature for more than a few hours.

Start with the mild preparation rather than adding extra cloves. The recipe makes more than one serving; it is not a recommendation to drink the whole batch at once. Its flavor can vary with the cloves, so adjust a future batch for taste rather than assuming a particular strength has a medical advantage.

Who should be careful?

Avoid clove tea if you are allergic to cloves. Do not add clove essential oil to the drink: concentrated oil can be toxic if swallowed, particularly for children. Keep essential oils away from children.

If you take a blood-thinning medicine, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are considering giving clove tea to a child regularly, ask a clinician about use beyond ordinary food amounts. This is especially important before using concentrated clove products. Seek urgent medical help for trouble breathing or swelling of the throat after consuming cloves.

Sources

The available studies concern different clove preparations, not clove tea:

• A randomized trial of clove extract mouthwash in intensive care patients compared the mouthwash with chlorhexidine. It did not test drinking clove tea.
• A randomized trial of an inhaled essential-oil blend studied fatigue after COVID-19. The blend included several oils, so it cannot establish an effect of clove alone or of clove tea.