Artichoke leaf tea: how to make it, and what a cup actually provides

Artichoke leaf tea is dried artichoke leaves steeped in hot water — a much older, much weaker preparation than the standardized capsule extract almost all artichoke research has actually tested. It doesn't need a research claim to be worth drinking, but a cup delivers an unmeasured, low amount of the plant's compounds, well below any studied dose.

How it's made

Dried, cut artichoke leaves (sold as loose tea or in tea bags) are steeped in near-boiling water for 5-10 minutes, then strained. The result is notably bitter, the same bitterness that comes from cynarin in the fresh leaf, and some preparations add honey or lemon to offset it. That's a food-steeping process, not an extraction method designed to concentrate or standardize any particular compound.

What a cup actually delivers

Steeping leaves in water pulls out some of their water-soluble compounds, but not in a measured or standardized amount — unlike a capsule extract, which states a percentage of cynarin or chlorogenic acid on the label. Human trials that measured an effect used a standardized extract at 320-1,920 mg a day; see how much artichoke extract should you take a day? for those specific studies. A cup of tea hasn't been tested against that dose, and there's no way to state how it compares in milligram terms, because the tea itself was never analyzed for its content in any of the published trials.

Is artichoke tea the same as the extract used in research?

No. The research base for artichoke — digestive symptoms, cholesterol, liver-enzyme levels — was built on a standardized, concentrated leaf extract in capsule form, not a home-steeped tea. That doesn't make tea useless as a beverage, but it does mean nothing in that research can be attached to a cup of tea specifically. See artichoke extract benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what the extract studies actually found.

Questions people ask

How do you make artichoke leaf tea?

Steep dried artichoke leaves in near-boiling water for 5-10 minutes, then strain. It's bitter; some people add honey or lemon.

What are the benefits of artichoke tea?

No trial has tested artichoke tea as its own preparation, so this page can't attach a specific benefit to a cup of it. See artichoke extract benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what's actually been tested, using a standardized capsule extract at doses a cup of tea doesn't match.

Does artichoke tea taste good?

Most people describe it as bitter — the same bitterness compound, cynarin, that shows up in the fresh leaf and the capsule extract. It's an acquired taste more than a pleasant one for most first-time drinkers.

Related reading: how much artichoke extract should you take a day?, artichoke extract benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, and what is artichoke extract? A plain guide.