White clover is almost ubiquitous in lawns and backyards, but most people don’t know that it’s both edible and medicinal. Red clover is known for having amazing medicinal benefits, but white clover is more readily available and is useful in its own right. One of the most simple and delicious ways to use the sweet smelling blossoms is to make a white clover iced tea!
Wildcrafting Weeds
If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them, check out my eBook: Wildcrafting Weeds: 20 Easy to Forage Edible and Medicinal Plants (that might be growing in your backyard)! This white clover iced tea recipe is a sample from the book.
Harvesting White Clover
While white clover is easy to find and identify, it is often found in areas that can be questionable like parks, along roadsides, and in disturbed areas. These locations likely have pollutants such as herbicides, road runoff, and pet waste, so choose your foraging spots wisely!
Collecting white clover from your own or a friend’s yard is probably the safest bet, as long as you are certain that there aren’t any possible contaminants.
White Clover Benefits and Uses
White clover blossoms are rich in many vitamins and minerals, so this tea is good to drink as a general health tonic and for detoxifying.
A white clover infusion (a strong tea that is steeped for several hours) is also anti-inflammatory and beneficial for the immune system. Drink a cup to help relieve coughs and colds. It is also known for cleansing and purifying the blood.
Learn more about using white clover for food and medicine here.
White Clover Iced Tea Recipe
White clover blossoms make a wonderful refreshing iced tea that is also highly nutritious, as they are high in vitamins and minerals. Feel free to add in a few fresh mint or lemon balm leaves to make it extra delicious.
This is the perfect wild foraged summer drink!
Hope you enjoy this clover tea as much as I do!
Herbal Tea Recipes
Herbal tea is like giving your water a nutrition and flavor boost. Enjoy our other tea recipes!
White Clover Iced Tea
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh white clover blossoms or 1/2 cup dried blossoms
- 4 cups water
- honey or maple syrup optional to taste
- lemon wedge optional
Instructions
- Put the clover blossoms into a quart jar. Boil the water then pour over the blossoms.
- Let steep for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours, then strain out the clover blossoms with a fine mesh sieve and refrigerate.
- Serve cold over ice with honey or maple syrup and lemon if desired.
We have made rings n necklaces for as long as I can remember as a child, I’m 74 yrs young now. This is delightful news to me as I am an avid tea drinker. I Love flavored teas, n to know I can dry it is great!
Oh, the more I age, the more grateful to our Lord God I am for His mighty Creation.
I could not agree more! I believe God gave us everything we need and that’s why I have been trying to learn how to use it!
Amen ive got ms and im just starting to learn and use wild herbs.
Can I give this to my 3 year old boy?
Hi Brittany, yes that should be just fine!
It was so bitter. Am I supposed to only use the petals off the flower bud or is this just to flavor?
Did you use any of the optional honey to taste?
Is there any concern about using brown, aging clover the way there is with sweet clover? I love white clover and recently harvested some to tincture and put some in a jar with honey. Should I be concerned about toxicity if it ferments?
I am not a master gardener or doctor or anything like that, but I do have a fair amount of experience with herbs and fermenting. My mom was part of an herb guild when I was young and she passed on a lot of information to me. The brown clover shouldn’t be a problem. It just may not be as sweet. Dried clover still has many of the nutrients as fresh, but you can’t beat fresh. Not sure if it matters if it dried in the field (the brown clover) or if it was picked fresh and dried elsewhere. It shouldn’t make much difference. I would think your bigger concern would be if it was sprayed with something.
As for if it ferments, that usually just means it’s alive with good bacteria. There will be minuscule amounts of trace alcohol (it’s a natural byproduct of fermentation). If it does ferment, and you’re not used to fermented foods, go easy when you first drink it. It can freak out your digestive system because it can get overloaded with the new bacteria. Shouldn’t hurt you or anything, but it may be uncomfortable for a bit while your body gets rebalanced (think bloating, gas, possible diarrhea), but that’s only if you go way overboard.
Hello! I’m curious. Would this work using red clover as well?
I like it so well I’ll be making jelly with my white clover as well
yes,red clover works too! I tried to make red clover tea and it turned out great but,I advise that you drink it hot,not cold.I hope that helps
A family moved into our neighborhood back in the 70s, when I was probably around eight or nine years old. The mother and her older daughters would make gallon jars of white clover sun tea. That was my first experience of having it, but it stuck with me all my life! I liked it as a kid, but weirdly, I haven’t made it as an adult. I have a bunch of new clovers right now and I’m looking forward to picking them and making them into tea soon. I remember that the ladies would dry the flowers first, which would turn the tea brown. It seemed to have an old fashioned flavor that I really liked. I’m looking forward to trying both the fresh and dried versions to note the differences. One nice thing about drying it is that you can harvest and then store it for throughout the year. Thanks for the article!
This had a lovely taste and I really enjoyed it….until my throat closed. Apparently many people have severe allergies to white clover and I was one of the (un)lucky ones. You might want to add a warning to try this carefully and in small initial servings.
Hi Kelly, I’m so sorry to hear that, I hope you’re ok! In all of my research on using white clover for food and medicine that never came up. I will definitely update the post with that info though! Thanks for letting me know.
I would guess it might be toxic shock… pesticides?
Can you do an article about sweet clover?
Started researching some of the”weeds” in my yard today, discovered what the white clovers were and came across this recipe. I tried it and added some elderflower syrup my sister just made a couple days ago and it was AMAZING!
I made this today with fresh picked White Clover flowers. Testing it tonight. Not much taste, but tomorrow I will add some mint leaves to it, and go sit in the garden. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Can you just make sun tea and skip the boiling to steeping with the sun’s heat instead? With the white clover.
I love using chocolate mint with my dried clovers for tea. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes