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Moon Milk: A Soothing Way to Fall Asleep

If you’ve been enjoying tea for a while, you may have heard of the drink moon milk. This creamy, soothing concoction is a mixture of milk and herbal tea designed to help you have a good night’s sleep.

Moon milk is a tisane made of milk and ground spices that contain chemicals that have been shown to help induce sleep in people who drink it. Moon milk is part of Ayurvedic medicine, a holistic health concept involving consuming certain foods and drinks that complement your personality.

While the science behind Ayurvedic concepts is largely unproven, the scientific benefits of consuming the spices in moon milk are not. Read on to learn more about how drinking moon milk can help you sleep and improve your health in other ways. 

What Is Moon Milk?

Moon milk is a tradition drink that has been around for centuries, but it has had a revival online over the past decade or so. Through health food blogs and other digital news outlets, this ancient drink has gained newfound popularity. 

Moon milk is a mixture that usually contains four parts:

Moon Milk Ingredients

  • A creamy base of cow’s milk or other non-dairy milk
  • Warming spices like cinnamon
  • Sleep inducing ingredients like ashwagandha
  • Sweeteners like honey
moon milk chamomile
Moon milk usually contains sleep inducing ingredients like chamomile.

Along with its medicinal health benefits, moon milk is also popular because it’s pretty to look at and photograph. This creamy concoction is easy to dress up with rose petals, a dash of cinnamon, and many other garnishes. 

What Does Moon Milk Taste Like?

The main taste of moon milk is creamy since the drink’s foundation is usually cow’s milk, but the flavor of the moon milk differs depending on the adjuncts, or additional ingredients, added to the milk. Some common varieties of moon milk include traditional moon milk, lavender moon milk, and cherry moon milk. Each milk takes on the flavor of its adjuncts. 

Most moon milk also has a lightly spiced flavor from ground herbs such as cloves, ginger, turmeric, ashwagandha, or cinnamon. However, heating the spices in the milk helps temper their flavor and make them more subtle. 

rose cherry moon milk
Because of the bright ingredients like rose petals, moon milk is beautiful as well as healthy.

Types of Moon Milk

Most moon milk recipes consist of four major parts: the creamy milk base (animal or plant-based milk), the warming spices, the sleep support spices, and the sweetener. Within these categories, the ingredients of moon milk can vary wildly. 

Here are a few common variations on moon milk seen in recipes: 

  • Golden moon milk: Golden milk tea features turmeric as the main spice ingredient. Turmeric is the natural spice that gives golden moon milk it’s bright orange-yellow coloring, and it also has many other health benefits.
  • Blue moon milk: Blue moon milk is dyed with blue butterfly pea flower tea blossoms to give it a beautiful, smooth blue coloring. Other ingredients of blue moon milk typically include ashwagandha and vanilla extract.
  • Chai moon milk: Chai is a mixture of Eastern spices often used to flavor tea and desserts. Chai spice flavors combine well with the creamy base of a moon milk recipe. 

An advantage of making moon milk is adjusting the various spices, herbs, sweeteners, and milk products to your personal taste. 

Do you dislike ashwagandha’s bitterness in a moon milk recipe? No problem! Just replace the ashwagandha in your moon milk with another sleep support spice or herb you prefer instead, such as lavender. 

Try different combinations of milk bases, spices, and sweeteners until you hit a moon milk recipe you enjoy drinking consistently for best results with anxiety and sleep support. 

blue moon milk
Blue moon milk gets its color from the vibrant blue butterfly pea flower.

Where Does Moon Milk Come From?

Moon milk originated as a recipe within Ayurvedic medicine, a holistic health practice originating thousands of years ago in India. Even today, in the twenty-first century, Ayurvedic practices are followed by many people around the world in an effort to improve their health through preventative dietary measures. 

Health Benefits of Moon Milk

While many moon milk recipes are delicious in their own right, the main reason many people drink moon milk is due to its perceived health benefits. Several key ingredients of moon milk, such as cinnamon and turmeric, have been studied for their beneficial effects on the human body. 

Other herbs in moon milk, such as ashwagandha and lavender, are regarded as mild sedatives that can help you relax after a long day and get a better night’s sleep. 

Does Moon Milk Make You Sleepy?

Warm milk has been used as a nighttime beverage around the world as a way to wind down before sleep, and with good reason: the levels of melatonin in milk help induce drowsiness, and warm drinks can help you feel more relaxed if you’re stressed out. 

Ashwagandha, a common ingredient in moon milk, is an adaptogen that can help induce relaxation, so you’ll often find it as a sleep inducing moon milk ingredient.

lavender moon milk
Lavender is often added to moon milk for its relaxing properties.

Moon Milk Helps You Sleep and Relax

If you need some help getting to bed, but you don’t want to depend on sleeping pills or an alcoholic nightcap, moon milk is a practical solution to try. This creamy, delicious drink is a great way to drift off to dreamland while you improve your health at the same time. 

Want to remember this Moon Milk info for later? Check out this short Moon Milk Web Story or save it to your favorite Pinterest Board and pass it on!

moon milk tea graphic