How to Make Catnip Tea
Catnip tea is traditionally believed to have a number of health benefits. It’s used as a home remedy to soothe anxiety, upper respiratory infections, and sinusitis. There is a chemical within catnip called nepatalactone—similar to valepotriates found in the herbal sedative valerian. This is considered to act as a muscle relaxant and lends to catnip tea also being used to relieve symptoms of headaches and a number of stomach complaints, and insomnia. Like many herbs, catnip is also an effective insect repellent.
Making catnip tea is only one way to get the benefits of this tasty herb—but it is a useful and easy one. Follow the steps below to make catnip tea.
Step 1 – Prepare Catnip
Catnip tea can be made from fresh catnip or dried catnip. Home grown, organic catnip is the best option, though there are places where you can buy dried catnip for your tea. If grown at home, be sure to avoid spraying chemicals on your plant.
- To dry catnip, cut stems from your plant and hang them in bunches in a cool, dark area.
- When the leaves are fully dried, separate them from the stems and crumple them into a bag.
- Dispose of the stems.
- Seal the bag and store it in a cool, dark place.
- Fresh catnip leaves can be used whole to make tea, or cut to release more of the oils into the water.
Step 2 – Mix Tea
Place 3 teaspoons of fresh catnip or 1 teaspoon of dried catnip in a mug. Take the water off the heat and add it only after it has stopped boiling. Boiling water is believed to destroy some of the positive effects of catnip.
Step 3 – Let Steep
How long you should let catnip tea steep varies depending on who you ask. Steep longer if you are trying to get the most out of your catnip, shorter if you are just after the flavor. Steeping time should range between 5 to 20 minutes.
Step 4 – Add Flavors
You can add other herbs to your catnip tea, such as other mint varieties or lemon grass. Also, you can add honey, sugar, or lemon juice. Just add a bit to make the flavor to fit your tastes.
Alternate Ways to Drink Catnip Tea
If hot liquids are not appealing to you, try making your tea double strength then putting it over ice. You can place cool tea in an ice cube tray or popsicle mold and place it in the freezer. Catnip tea is safe for children and babies, and frozen is a great way to feed it to them.
Alternate Ways to Use Catnip Tea
Catnip is good for soothing irritation, outside as well as within. Some people create a compress from catnip and apply it directly to the skin for swelling ailments and hemorrhoids. It can be used as an eye wash for allergy irritation, red eyes caused by hangovers, and as a scalp rinse for irritated scalps.
Other Ways to Eat Catnip
Catnip can be used as a flavoring for various foods. Try cutting up leaves and adding them to your salads. Also, you can sprinkle dried leaves into soups or over meats.
Warning: These health statements haven’t been evaluated by the FDA.
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![Heather Coman]()
Heather is a contributing writer for DoItYourself.com. She is an experienced gardener, with a special place in her heart for herbs, flowers, and bonsai trees.![Stephini Candella]()
Stephini Candella is a Nutritionist, and attended the University of Texas for a B.S. in Nutrition and Didactics. She was a manager for a small gourmet restaurant, and has spent over 15 years cooking as a hobby for health. She has extensive knowledge of food science, micro-nutrition, history of the classic foods from across cultures, modern commercial and home cooking processes, disease restricted diet meal planning (cardiovascular, GAPS, diabetes), and popular diet trend (Paleo, Keto, Vegan) diets. Stephini most enjoys meal planning that focuses on simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and she strongly believes these are the foundations for delicious and healthy meals—the basis for a happy life. She is addicted to reading food labels, and uncovering the nutritional benefits of traditional cooking techniques of the classical foods across cultures. If you let her, she will talk your ear off over her fascination for how traditional fermentation cultivates the metabolic byproduct of certain bacteria into nutritional gold for human health. Stephini is also a CRLA (Certified Reading and Writing English Tutor) and has professionally tutored college students as well as K-12 students for an accumulated 15 years expanding to private school curriculum development and teaching in STEM and STEAM. She has been a professional researcher for multiple private and non-profit companies and organizations including the University of Texas Food and Housing Division. There, she researched and wrote recommendations for the University’s campus wide composting and food waste reduction initiatives, design and management of campus wide food waste studies, and the procurement of technologies best suited for large scale composting and food waste reduction. As a former Red Cross shelter manager, she has worked with her National Guard, and the US Army and Marines in search and rescue, procuring, and deploying multiple shelters serving thousands of evacuees. She has overseen the management of over 25 shelters in the state emergency operation center, and was held responsible for procurement of meals, medical supplies, and basic necessities. She also assisted in local county natural disaster rescues, providing insurance evaluations and recommendations for approving families affected by natural disasters to receive financial aid, housing, and food assistance. In addition, she volunteered for her local food pantry and domestic violence shelter where she prepared food. These discovered passions for emergency aid volunteer work led her to pursue national and state EMS licensures. She has traveled from Houston to New York to Seattle on a Leadership Scholarship, listening to world renowned scholars on the values of great leadership. Her favorite being the opportunity to sit and connect with the grandsons of Gandhi, listening to their first hand childhood experiences growing up alongside their grandfather organizing and executing his activism. Presently, Stephini conducts research and assistance on customer relationship management campaigns for 30 year veteran executives and business owners as an operations manager for a small, boutique executive assistance CRM firm. She has retired into a quiet, family-centric life, and can be found living between her home and college towns where she is raising her children. There, she is imparting her love for DIY learning and food on to them in the hopes that self-directed creativity and production will bring to them the same sense of holistic wellness that she’s experienced for herself.
