In this post, we will learn how to make corn silk tea and why you should drink it. It is super easy to make, it’s another way to use corn, and it’s very healthy for our body. We’ll go over the health benefits and how to dry the silk and how to make corn silk tea.
We pretty much live in corn country here in central NC. Local farmers sell 12 ears of corn at the market for $4. It’s so affordable it almost doesn’t make sense to grow it yourself (the benefit of growing it yourself, of course, is the fun of watching it grow and the fact that you know for sure that it’s organic).
We eat so much of it every summer, and every summer I dry the silk and use it for corn silk tea.
It’s really cool how useful corn is. We use the husk for art (the kids make dolls and such), the silk for “corn hair tea” (as my kids call it), the corn as food, we give the cob to the chickens as a snack., and I leave the plant in the garden as mulch. We use every bit of it!
How to Make Corn Silk Tea…
What is Corn Silk?
Corn silk is the “hair” that you find under the husk of the corn. The stringy stuff can be used fresh or dried (I’ll show you how I dry it in a minute). It will change its color and darken a little bit if you decide to dry it but it will hold for a long long time.
Corn Silk Tea Benefits…
Corn silk is high in potassium, therefore, has a diuretic effect on the urinary system. In other words, it promotes the production of urine which means it makes you pee, a lot.
Corn silk will also help prevent kidney stones and is useful with other urinary problems like nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), cystitis (urinary tract infection), and prostatitis (swelling and inflammation of the prostate gland).
Corn silk is also known to reduce water retention in the body and may be beneficial in treating high blood pressure and gouty arthritis (uric acid builds up in the blood and causes inflammation in the joints).
HERE is a good research for further learning.
Another research shows that corn silk tea can be used to treat metabolic syndrome and assist is weight loss…
“Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a very common medical problem worldwide. It includes obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and abnormal levels of triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. It is closely associated with insulin resistance and may lead to diabetes mellitus, liver diseases, or cardiovascular diseases. Corn silk (CS), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been reported to have multiple beneficial effects, including hypotensive, anti-diabetic, and hypolipidemic properties. This suggests that corn silk could be used to treat or prevent metabolic syndrome.”
You can read the research HERE.
A Simple Corn Silk Tea Recipe…
The first thing to do would be to remove the husk…
Then, I gently remove the silk from the corn.
In the picture of the corn silk tea above, you can see the dry brown part that wasn’t covered by the husk, go ahead and cut that off.
Place the silk on a paper towel on the kitchen counter. You want to keep it at room temperature. This amount of silk is from five or six ears of corn.
Within a few days, it will dry. During those days, if you remember, turn it a couple of times.
That’s it! It is now ready for tea. Someone asked me why not using it fresh… You probably can but I think that it’s nicer to handle it when it’s dry. Also, by drying it you preserve it for later too. I place my dry silk in a jar or in a zip-lock bag and it lasts all the way to next summer.
When you are ready to make a cup of tea, grab a little bit of the silk…
Add it to your mug…
Add some honey or sugar…
Then add boiling water and let it sit in the hot water for a few minutes.
If you chose, you can leave the silk in the mug or remove it before you drink your tea. I usually leave it.
So, of course, it tastes like… Corn. It’s not bad, the taste is very mild but still… If you find that you don’t like it much you can simply add a tea bag like one of those berry tea bags or orange or whatever. I usually add a few mint leaves to my tea.
Five minutes after you drink it you’ll be visiting the potty. Then you’ll feel like you didn’t have a drink in two weeks so you’ll run to your kitchen and gulp down a big glass of water. It works fast!
Share your thoughts with me in the comments below! If you’ve had corn silk tea, did you like it?
For more homemade remedies, check out these posts…
47 Ways to Prevent and Treat Chigger Bites
Licorice Tea, What Is It, How to Make it, and Why Drink It
How to Get Rid of UTI Without Antibiotics
Hi! I’m Lady Lee. I help homesteaders simplify their homesteading journey while still producing a ton of food! I am a single mother of four, I was born in Israel and raised in an agricultural commune called a Kibbutz. Now I homestead in central NC.
Thanks so much for impacting us with your knowledge and time you spend to do research we appreciate.
You are welcome!
Lee,
I have always thought of corn silk as a nuisance, as it gets all over the sink and sometimes on the floor. After reading your blog, I am going to start saving it and making tea. Thanks so much.
Steve
Happy this was healpful. It’s a healthy, easy resource that most people don’t know about.
Hi,
I read on a comment, if one wanted to lose weight, start drinking cornsilk tea, so I started looking, I know about fresh corn, and silks, but had never heard of such. Now I’ve found out the benefits, will it really help take off pounds, of course knowing a good diet goes along with it!
I’m happy that this was helpful! It’s a simple tea to make and it has a lot of benefits for sure! Thanks for stopping by.
This is a very nicely written article! Do you ever use the water leftover from boiling corn on the cob? If so, what for? We use it in our garden but would love to hear about other effective uses and the potential benefits…as a tea? as broth for soup? other? Any downsides to consuming the leftover corn on the cob water?
I’ve never thought about using the water but it’s a good idea. I guess you can use it in any recipe that calls for water as long as a little bit of corn flavor is something that will fit with the recipe. I don’t know if I’ll use it as tea, though… Even with the corn silk tea I usually have to add other leaves and some honey to make it taste better.
I tasted it by itself and it was actually quite pleasant! I think it would be delicious in making rice or as the liquid for corn chowder or other soup. I wonder if the health benefits are the same/similar as the corn silk. I’m having a hard time finding any direct pro’s and con’s along with nutritional information and am surprised it isn’t more widely discussed. Thanks for your reply!
I heard the proven benefits of boiling corn hair from my elders when I was growing up. I love drinking tea but with the convenience of tea bags now I go for them.
I have to try making this corn silk tea again. Thanks you made it simple.
BTW do you store dry corn silk in fridge?
You can but it stores really well in a kitchen cabinet too. I heard about it from an older womnan too.
How often do you drink the cornsilk tea? Also, do you know of any teas that help cleanse the liver?
Maybe a couple of times a week. Not every day. I don’t know of any tea that helps cleanse the liver. I am using a blend of essential oils called Zendocrine from doTERRA to do that but I’m sure that there is something…
I bought cornsilk capsuls
.they are large, i have trouble swallowing. Can u break them open and make tea?
I really don’t know… I’ve never tried the pills and I have no clue what other things they are putting in there.
Thanks soo much for this education, i and my family will defiantly try it and i shall be back with my feedback. Be blessed.
You are welcome! Thanks for stopping by.
Can I boil the tea and put in the fridge and drink. I want to be boiling it every weekend
Yes, you sure can!
Can you have the corn silk tea with any kind of other medications, because I take 24 meds a day. Don’t want any reactions Thank you
I am not a doctor but I don’t think it should be a problem.
Hi!
Good to know corn silk can take care of many medical conditions, but what if an anindividual is suffering from hypotention and want to treat bladder infection, cardiovascular issue and obesity? Is it advisable to use corn silk whilst it’s also used for hypertension?
Regards
Uyi
I am not a doctor so I can’t tell you exactly. However, I can’t see how using corn silk tea will be an issue in the cases you mentioned. Again, I am not a doctor, though. You’ll have to do some more research and maybe consult a doctor.
This is great. It helped dissolve my small kidney stone so that it could pass. I kept drinking it for a couple days and really helped with my water retention too. Since we consume a lot of fresh corn here in Texas too, keeping this in a ziploc bag made perfect sense. I suffer from MS so I can’t wait to see my lab results.
Wow, this is great! Thanks for sharing.
I am a lover of corn silk tea.
I drink mine without any additions and it taste great just exactly like corn.
I encourage us to form the habit of living, eating and drinking healthy.
Your health is your responsibility.
Enjoy a cup today and testify of its beautiful goodness.
Yes, I like it too! It’s an easy way to add a healthy drink to your day.
Hi
Can U Take it with greentea, Ginger, lemon or/and cinnamon
Definitely! You can add it to any kind of tea.