Hops Sweet Flowers Whole

Hops are perhaps best known for the aroma and bitter, yet agreeable flavor they give to beer. Culinarily, hops flowers may also be used to flavor vinegars, oils, and salts; and in modern herbal medicine, hops flowers are valued as a calming, natural sedative and digestive aid.

Common hops is a climbing plant with rough, wrinkled leaves that uses twisting tendrils to grow upwards. In late summer, the plant produces cone-like fruiting bodies called strobiles. These yellow-green hops “flowers” are harvested and dried for brewing and herbal remedies.

As an herb, hops flowers are primarily used for their sedative effect. They may be steeped as a tea, with honey, or encapsulated in combination with other herbs like valerian, skullcap, chamomile, or lemon balm. The flowers are also used for tranquil bath infusions or sewn into sachets. (Both King George II and Abraham Lincoln are said to have slept on pillows stuffed with hops.) Used in myriad ways, hops flowers may ease anxiety and improve sleep.