Gotu Kola Tea

Gotu kola is the leaf of Centella asiatica, a creeping plant of South and Southeast Asia eaten as a vegetable and brewed as a tea. The cup is green and grassy, with a mild, earthy bitterness. Brewed in a covered mug at 95°C, five to seven minutes.

Origin & Story

Gotu kola is a leaf you eat before you drink. In Sri Lanka, where the name is Sinhala for cup-shaped leaf, it is chopped fine and mixed with grated coconut, shallots, lime juice and salt into gotu kola malluma, or sambol, a bright, slightly bitter side dish for rice and curries.

Across Southeast Asia the same plant turns up as a salad leaf and in soups, curries and stews. In Thailand, where it is called bua bok, a refreshing juice, nam bai bua bok, is made from the leaves.

The plant is Centella asiatica, a low, creeping herb of the carrot family, also known as Asiatic pennywort or Indian pennywort, with small round leaves. In Ayurveda it is called mandukaparni, and it has a long place in the herbal traditions of the region.

As a tea, the dried leaf makes a green, grassy cup with a slight bitterness and an earthy, herbaceous edge. It has no sweetness of its own, so a little honey or lime helps, and it is easy to blend with other herbs.

Steep 3 g of dried gotu kola in 240 ml of water at 95°C for five to seven minutes in a covered mug.

Reading the Flavor Profile

These values are comparative editorial positions within our own catalog, calibrated so entries can be ranked against each other. They are not laboratory measurements.