Clove Tea: How to Make It and What It Does

Clove tea is a spiced water infusion that takes about 2 hours and 5 minutes to make and yields 1 cup (240 mL).

This cold-steeped version can be enjoyed chilled or warmed. It is one simple option among recipes for herbal detox tea.

What is clove tea?

Clove tea is water infused with cloves, the dried flower buds used as a spice. It has a warm, aromatic flavor that can become strong as the cloves steep.

This recipe uses ground cloves because they are easy to measure. The drink is strained before serving, so most of the spice stays out of the cup. What passes into the water is not the same as eating the measured amount of ground cloves.

How do you make clove tea?

Yield: 1 cup (240 mL)
Total time: About 2 hours and 5 minutes, including 2 hours of refrigerated steeping

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 mL) drinking water
• 1/4 teaspoon (about 0.5 g) ground cloves

Instructions

1. Combine the water and ground cloves in a clean, covered jar or container.
2. Refrigerate for 2 hours to let the cloves infuse.
3. Strain through a coffee filter or clean, fine cloth into a cup. Discard the solids.
4. Serve cold, or warm gently in a saucepan before drinking.

For another personalized recipe, try the ai detox recipe generator.

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Keep prepared clove tea covered in the refrigerator and drink it within 24 hours for best flavor. Discard it sooner if it becomes cloudy, slimy or sour-smelling.

What does clove tea do for detox?

Clove tea provides water, which helps you stay hydrated. The liver and kidneys do most of the body’s detoxification; the lungs and gut also help eliminate waste, while sweat removes only trace amounts.

Cloves contain plant compounds, including eugenol, but that does not establish a detox effect from drinking clove tea. There is no established evidence that clove tea flushes toxins or works better than plain water for detoxification. Read more about the possible clove tea benefits.

How much clove tea should you drink, and when?

There is no established medical dose or best time of day for clove tea. The recipe makes one 1-cup (240 mL) serving; enjoy it when it suits you rather than treating it as a detox schedule.

Start with the recipe’s small amount of cloves and adjust future batches to taste. A stronger infusion is not necessarily more beneficial and may be irritating. Clove tea can contribute to your fluid intake, but you do not need to drink it to support your body’s normal detoxification processes.

What are the side effects of clove tea?

Clove tea may cause mouth or stomach irritation, especially if it is strong or consumed in large amounts. Stop drinking it if it makes you uncomfortable. Concentrated clove oil is different from the culinary spice and can be toxic if swallowed; do not add it to this recipe.

If you have a bleeding disorder, take a blood thinner such as warfarin, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are considering giving clove tea to a child, ask a healthcare professional before using it regularly. This is especially important with concentrated clove products, whose effects may differ from food-sized amounts.

Seek urgent medical help for severe symptoms, such as trouble breathing or unusual bleeding. If a child swallows clove oil, contact a poison control center or emergency service promptly. For more detail, see clove tea side effects.

Clove tea FAQs

Does clove tea contain nutrients?

Ground cloves contain minerals, but the amount transferred into strained clove tea is not established for this recipe. Do not count the nutrients in the full amount of ground cloves as nutrients in the finished drink.