The Greeks called it khamaimēlon — earth apple — for the scent of the flowers when you crush them between your fingers. The Spanish still call it manzanilla, little apple. Once you know that, the apple note in the cup stops being a tasting-note flourish and becomes the most obvious thing about the plant.

The plant: Matricaria chamomilla

• A modest annual — a metre tall at best, hollow-stemmed, feathery-leaved, with flower heads no wider than a fingernail.
• Wild roots — native across Europe and western Asia, usually on disturbed ground: field margins, roadsides, the edges of things.

From field to cup

• Harvested in passes — the flowers open in succession rather than all at once, so the crop is picked over several weeks rather than in a single cut.
• Picked at full bloom — only the flower head is used, taken when the white petals have begun to fold back from the yellow centre.
• Shade-dried, slowly — heat drives off the volatile oils that carry the scent, so drying happens out of the sun.
• Graded before packing — the heads are sorted by size and condition.