Manzanilla tea is chamomile: one flower, two names

Manzanilla tea is chamomile tea. Manzanilla is simply the Spanish name for the same daisy-like flower, so a box labeled manzanilla in a Latin grocery, a tin marked chamomile in an English one and a cup of camomila in Spain all hold the same infusion. In our catalog it lives as manzanilla: a caffeine-free herbal infusion, not a true tea, brewed at 203°F (95°C) for 5 minutes with 2 grams of dried flowers per cup.

Why two names, and why both of them mean apple

The names are older than the confusion. Chamomile reached English from the Greek khamaimelon, earth apple, for the scent the flowers give off when they are crushed. Manzanilla is the diminutive of manzana, so it means little apple. Two languages looked at the same plant, noticed the same thing and named it after the same fruit. Spanish also has camomila, which the Real Academia lists as a synonym and which you will hear mostly in Spain; across Latin America, manzanilla is the word in nearly every kitchen. Whether the label says chamomile, camomile, camomila or manzanilla, it is the same flower answering to two names.

One name, two plants

Chamomile is not a single species. The two grown commercially are German chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, an annual with a sweet, apple-like taste and the one behind nearly every tea bag and every loose flower sold as manzanilla; and Roman chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile, a low perennial that turns up more often in gardens and in essential oil than in the cup. Egypt's Nile Valley and Central Europe grow most of the German chamomile that ends up in tea, and Egyptian flowers are sold as a premium origin for their large heads and sweeter, smoother taste. Unless a package says otherwise, what you are buying is German chamomile, and that is the plant our catalog page describes.

What manzanilla is not

Two other Spanish things share the name, and neither of them goes in the teapot. Manzanilla is a pale, dry wine in the fino family, aged in the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the coast of Cádiz under its own protected designation of origin, and it is said to have taken its name from the infusion because its aroma reminded people of it. Manzanilla is also a green table olive, a variety from the Seville area and the one most often sold pitted and stuffed. If you are searching for the flower, add the word tea; if you land on a bottle or a jar, you have found the other manzanillas.

Is manzanilla tea actually tea?

No, and the same is true of chamomile, because neither word grows on the tea bush. Tea in the strict sense is Camellia sinensis, and everything from sencha to Assam is a leaf of that one plant. Chamomile is a flower from the daisy family, so it never contained caffeine to begin with: it sits at level 0 on our caffeine ladder, next to rooibos and peppermint. That is the practical reason it became the cup that closes a meal in Spanish-speaking homes and the after-dinner cup across much of Europe. Tisane, herbal infusion and herbal tea all describe it correctly; tea is simply the word everyone uses.

How to brew it, by the catalog numbers

Our catalog gives manzanilla the standard herbal treatment: water at 203°F (95°C), 5 minutes, 2 grams of dried flowers per cup, which is a rounded teaspoon of whole flower heads or a level one of the broken flowers most bags contain. Keep the cup covered while it steeps, because the apple note lives in the steam. It does not turn bitter the way green tea does if you forget it, although past ten minutes the flavor drifts from apple and honey toward hay. Whole flower heads, sold loose, hold that sweetness better than the dust in a bag, and they are what to look for if manzanilla has only ever tasted flat to you.

What it tastes like, and what to try if it feels too gentle

Expect a pale gold cup that is floral, faintly sweet and soft, with a slight bitter edge if it steeps too long. Honey and a slice of lemon are the usual additions in Spain and Latin America, and it takes both well. If the flavor is too quiet for you, our comparison with valerian sets it next to the strongest-tasting evening herb, and our bedtime cup guide covers rooibos and lemon balm for people who want no floral note at all. For a cold version, iced manzanilla is the same flower brewed strong and poured over ice.