How to prepare Guayusa: 10 top Guayusa tea recipes

Introduction

In this article, we’ll give you a detailed look at how to prepare Guayusa tea. Since founding GUYA in 2016, we’ve tried all sorts of methods – some worked, others didn’t. Here we’re sharing our best ways to prepare Guayusa, so you can enjoy your favourite pick-me-up in plenty of different ways.

Unless stated otherwise, the methods below use our 100% Guayusa varieties PURE and DARK. At the end, you’ll also find recommendations for our other Guayusa varieties.

For an overview of recipe ideas, take a look at our free Community Recipe Book. You can add it to any order at no extra cost, or have it sent to you through our newsletter without placing an order.

Contents

1. What is Guayusa tea?
2. Does Guayusa steeping time matter?
3. 10 great ways to prepare Guayusa tea
   1. A standard Guayusa tea preparation using a tea strainer, teapot or flask
   2. Guayusa powder in a dripper
   3. Cold-brew Guayusa tea
   4. Ice-brew Guayusa tea
   5. Guayusa latte
   6. Guayusa espresso
   7. Guayusa in a coffee machine
   8. Bulletproof Guayusa tea
   9. Traditional Guayusa tea preparation
   10. Guayusa blends
4. Guayusa tea varieties and how their preparation differs
   
   1. ORANGE-MINT
   2. CHAI
   3. LEMONGRASS
5. Conclusion: preparing Guayusa

1. What is Guayusa tea?

We’ve written a detailed article on this topic. If you’d like to learn more about Guayusa tea, we recommend reading our article “What is Guayusa tea? Effects, preparation, benefits and buying guide”.

Just a short introduction here, then. Guayusa is the world’s most caffeinated drink and comes from the Amazon rainforest. Guayusa is grown in permaculture systems that help protect the rainforest from further deforestation and preserve biodiversity. Read our article on Guayusa cultivation to find out more. Despite its high caffeine content, Guayusa tea has different effects from coffee, guarana, yerba mate, green tea and the like, and has no known side effects. Find out why in our article about the effects of Guayusa tea.

2. Does Guayusa steeping time matter?

It depends on what you’re looking for! If you’re thinking about flavour and worried that Guayusa tea will turn bitter, we can put your mind at rest: even with a long steep, Guayusa tea doesn’t become bitter – just stronger, but nothing like black or green tea. You’ll find a guide to steeping green tea here.

If you’re interested in the compounds, steeping time can make a difference. We recommend steeping for 5 to 15 minutes to extract all the caffeine, provided you pour boiling water over the Guayusa. It takes a little longer to extract all the antioxidants and other active compounds, such as theobromine, theophylline and L-theanine. So, in general, we recommend making Guayusa tea with a strainer and leaving it in.

3. 10 great ways to prepare Guayusa tea

At GUYA, we offer a particularly wide choice, with 7 different Guayusa tea varieties. That’s why the preparations below include notes on which varieties work best for each method. Of course, every method can also be used – and is particularly well suited – with our 100% Guayusa varieties.

3.1. Standard Guayusa tea with a tea strainer, teapot or flask

The most common way to prepare Guayusa tea is just like a standard herbal tea, using a tea strainer, teapot or insulated flask. If you don’t have any of these, a reusable cloth tea bag or a disposable tea bag will work too.

One advantage of Guayusa tea is that it doesn’t turn bitter, so you can simply leave it in the strainer and cup or pot. Our teapot and insulated flask each have a removable stainless-steel strainer that filters out most of the tea. For almost 100% filtration, we recommend our dripper; more on that later.

1. Use about 1 large, heaped teaspoon of Guayusa tea per 400ml glass
   1. For a 1L teapot, use 3 teaspoons or about 9g
2. Use water at 100ºC and pour it over the Guayusa tea
3. Leave the Guayusa tea to steep for at least 5 minutes, preferably 15 minutes – you’ll find our recommendations for each variety here. 
   1. For the best effect, simply leave the tea strainer in the cup or pot.

3.2. Guayusa powder in a dripper

Our dripper is designed especially for our powdered products PURE-POWDER and GUAYUSA-COFFEE, but you can use it for our teas too. Its double-walled, extra-fine stainless-steel filter keeps tea particles out of your drink.

Preparing our Guayusa powders

1. Use about 2 teaspoons for one pot
2. Pour water at 100ºC over the powder 
   1. first, slowly until all the powder is wet
   2. then pour until it reaches the rim of the filter
3. Wait until the water has run through the filter
4. Repeat the process until the pot is full.

The powder particles have a large surface area, so the active compounds are extracted quickly. You can make a second infusion, but it will be more diluted.

Preparing our Guayusa teas

1. Use 2 tablespoons for one dripper pot
2. Pour water at 100ºC over the tea
   
   1. until the tea is floating in the filter
   2. As with the first Guayusa tea method, leave it to steep for 5-15 minutes
      

3.3. How to make cold-brew Guayusa tea

You can make cold brew with Guayusa too. You’ll also find a detailed recipe with lemon and panela sugar in this article.

For cold brew, we recommend using a strainer rather than a tea bag. 

1. Use 1 heaped tablespoon per 400ml glass – about 3g
2. Use 3 heaped tablespoons per 1L pot – about 9g
3. Pour tap water over the Guayusa tea 
4. Put it in the fridge for 4 to 12 hours, depending on the variety
5. Enjoy your cold brew

Guayusa cold brew tastes quite different from hot-brewed Guayusa tea: a little milder and sweeter. A cold brew also works with all our varieties. We personally like it least with CHAI. However, CHAI is better suited to another preparation – more on that below.

3.4. How to make ice-brew Guayusa

Our powder is best for Guayusa ice brew: its larger surface area helps release the active compounds more effectively. Find an ice-brew recipe in our article “Ice-brew Guayusa tea – a summer recipe”.

1. Use our dripper or a coffee filter. It should be cone-shaped and fine-meshed.
2. Fill the filter as usual with powder
3. Pile ice cubes or crushed ice on top of the powder
4. Wait until the ice cubes have melted
5. Repeat the process if necessary
6. Enjoy your ice-cold Guayusa!

3.5. Guayusa latte

Coffee latte, matcha latte, beetroot latte – you can make a Guayusa latte too! The best varieties for this are PURE, DARK, CHAI, PURE-POWDER and, of course, GUAYUSA-COFFEE.

1. Make a regular Guayusa tea,
   1. or use a moka pot or coffee machine with the powder to make a strong espresso
2. Boil some oat milk, almond milk, soya milk or cow’s milk
3. Froth the milk until foamy or use a tool to do so
4. Pour the milk into a glass and mix it with the Guayusa.

For a Guayusa latte that looks as good as it tastes, we recommend using a moka pot to prepare the tea. You’ll get a smaller serving of Guayusa tea, but it will be particularly strong.

3.6. Guayusa espresso

We hinted at this already in the Guayusa latte instructions.

The best way to make a Guayusa espresso is with a moka pot or espresso machine. Use our powder.

1. Fill your moka pot with water.
2. Fill the moka pot with our Guayusa powder.
   1. Use a little less than you would for coffee – the leaves expand.
3. Boil the Guayusa.
4. Enjoy an extremely strong, bitter Guayusa.

Guayusa espresso is the only Guayusa preparation that tastes bitter. That’s because the high steam temperature extracts all the polyphenols present. There aren’t many, but they’re enough to give it a flavour closer to coffee.

3.7. Guayusa in a coffee machine

If you have a coffee machine at home, you can easily use it to prepare our Guayusa powder too. Use a little less Guayusa powder or Guayusa coffee powder than you would for pure coffee. The leaves absorb water and expand, so using too much can clog the machine’s pores.

3.8. Bulletproof Guayusa tea

We also have a detailed Bulletproof Guayusa recipe. Read the article if you’d like to learn more about Bulletproof tea and coffee. There are two ways to prepare it. 

Method 1

1. Make a traditional Guayusa brew. See section 3.9.
2. Follow the steps in method 2

Method 2

1. Make Guayusa tea using a strainer, dripper or moka pot
2. Stir in one teaspoon of MCT or coconut oil
3. Enjoy your Bulletproof Guayusa tea

Bulletproof coffee and tea became well known through the ketogenic diet and author Tim Ferriss. Tea with oil – or, traditionally, with butter or fresh cow’s milk – is intended to keep the body in ketosis after waking in the morning, before eating around midday.

3.9. Traditional Guayusa tea preparation

You can find out how the Kichwa people of Ecuador use and prepare Guayusa in our article on the traditional use of Guayusa.

A truly traditional Guayusa brew would call for a campfire and plenty of fresh leaves. Most people won’t have those to hand ;) . Alternatively, you can of course use our Guayusa PURE or DARK and a saucepan.

1. Use about 10g (3 to 4 tablespoons) of Guayusa tea per litre
2. Boil the leaves directly in a saucepan of water
3. Turn the heat right down and leave the tea to simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes
4. Strain the leaves out and drink the Guayusa tea

This method doesn’t make for a particularly tasty Guayusa. The tea is extremely bitter, but also particularly strong in its effects.

In laboratory tests, we found that the caffeine had fully dissolved after about 15 minutes. The other plant compounds take longer, however. If you want to use Guayusa for lucid dreaming or want all the antioxidants in your tea, you can use this method.

3.10. Guayusa tea blends

Just as we offer different Guayusa varieties at GUYA, you can create your own blend too. Here are some tasty combinations that we at GUYA enjoy drinking ourselves.

1. Guayusa with hibiscus
2. Guayusa with mint
3. Guayusa with green tea
4. Guayusa with lemon leaves
5. Guayusa with dried apple pieces and cinnamon
6. Guayusa powder with cocoa powder
7. Guayusa with ginger
8. Guayusa with ginger and lemon
9. Guayusa with moringa

4. Guayusa tea varieties and how their preparation differs

You can prepare the 100% Guayusa varieties PURE and DARK as described in the instructions. Our other varieties have a few special features, unless we’ve already mentioned them above; we’ll list them here.

4.1. ORANGE-MINT

As well as Guayusa, ORANGE-MINT contains orange peel, mint and liquorice. Unlike orange juice, orange peel is famously bitter. That bitter note comes through when brewed as tea too, so steeping it too long can make the flavour bitter.

We recommend:

1. 1 tablespoon, about 3g per 400ml
2. 100ºC water 
3. Steep for 5 to 10 minutes

4.2. CHAI

CHAI is our mildest variety. Cinnamon is the main ingredient, followed by Guayusa, cloves, cardamom and liquorice. With a long steep of 15 minutes or more, the cinnamon and liquorice flavours come to the fore. Many customers love that about this variety. If you’d prefer a less intense flavour, we recommend preparing Guayusa CHAI as follows:

1. 1 tablespoon, about 3g per 400ml
2. 100ºC water 
3. Steep for 5 to 10 minutes

4.3. LEMONGRASS

Along with ORANGE-MINT, this is one of our medium-strength varieties; it contains equal amounts of Guayusa and lemongrass. Steeping time doesn’t matter for this variety, as neither Guayusa nor lemongrass turns bitter.

1. 1 tablespoon, about 3g per 400ml
2. 100ºC water 
3. Steep for 10 minutes or longer

5. Conclusion

Guayusa is very easy to prepare, yet offers plenty of scope to experiment and suit different tastes. One big advantage is that Guayusa hardly turns bitter, even with a long steep. Only boiling it for a long time or brewing it with hot steam under pressure produces a bitter tea, which is also particularly strong.

We hope this detailed article on preparing Guayusa tea has given you some great ideas. For Guayusa recipes, follow the links in this article for inspiration, or download our free Community Recipe Book.

If you’ve acquired a taste for it, you’ll find all our varieties in the Guayusa shop, where you can buy our delicious, energising Guayusa teas. Our own shop is especially useful for larger orders, as you can save quite a bit on each pack. At Amazon, on the other hand, you can place a small order for just one pack with free delivery.