Clove and Cinnamon: Winter's Warming Chai Duo

Clove and cinnamon form one of the oldest spice duos in Indian cooking, brought together for generations in masala chai and winter stews. Both warming, they complement each other in the kitchen, but their level of scientific evidence differs sharply: cardamom/">cinnamon has far more solid clinical data behind it than clove, whose documented use remains mostly local and traditional.

For the details on each herb, see our dedicated articles on clove and cinnamon; this article compares what the pairing actually adds.

Why do these two spices go so well together?

• Clove brings a powerful, slightly numbing note (eugenol), traditionally used for the mouth and digestion, in very small amounts;
• Cinnamon brings a rounder, longer-lasting warmth, linked in recent research to effects on blood sugar and lipids.

In cooking, clove "bites" and nutmeg/">cinnamon "wraps around" — this aromatic complementarity, well before any question of physiological mechanism, explains why they appear side by side almost systematically in chai spice mixes and winter fruit compotes.

What do studies show about each spice?

The trial by Alqareer, Alyahya and Andersson, published in 2006 in the Journal of Dentistry, compared a clove gel to benzocaine (a reference local anesthetic) and to a placebo for reducing the pain of a dental injection: clove proved just as effective as benzocaine at reducing perceived pain, with both outperforming the placebo (see the study on Google Scholar). This finding backs up the traditional use of chewing clove for toothache, covered in more detail in our main clove article.

On the cinnamon side, the landmark trial by Khan, Safdar, Ali Khan, Khattak and Anderson, published in 2003 in Diabetes Care, followed 60 people with type 2 diabetes taking 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon per day for 40 days: all three doses significantly lowered fasting blood glucose (18 to 29%), triglycerides (23 to 30%), LDL cholesterol (7 to 27%), and total cholesterol (12 to 26%) compared with the placebo group (see the study on Google Scholar). This trial, one of the most cited on the subject, largely explains cinnamon's reputation as a "blood sugar" spice — a reputation considerably better supported than clove's on this specific front.

Aspect	Clove	Cinnamon
Best-documented use	Local dental anesthetic (eugenol)	Blood glucose and blood lipids
Typical culinary dose	1 to 3 cloves per day	1 to 6 g per day in clinical trials
Point of caution	Essential oil is very concentrated, never use it neat	Coumarin in Cassia (Chinese) cinnamon in excess and over time

How to use them together in practice

In masala chai, count 1 to 2 cloves and a small cinnamon stick (or half a teaspoon of powder) for two cups, simmered a few minutes with the milk and tea. In a winter decoction, this same duo, paired with ginger, forms the basis of traditional warming drinks. For regular use aimed at blood sugar, cinnamon carries most of the evidence — prefer Ceylon cinnamon, which is lower in coumarin than Cassia (Chinese) cinnamon, for prolonged daily use.

Precautions specific to this pairing

• Culinary doses only: both spices are potent and warming; beyond a few grams a day, they can irritate the stomach, particularly in Pitta profiles.
• Cassia (Chinese) cinnamon in excess: its coumarin content means ordinary food doses should not be exceeded over long periods, especially in cases of liver fragility.
• Clove essential oil: never neat, never in children, never during pregnancy without professional advice — the whole spice at culinary doses does not carry this problem.
• Ongoing diabetes treatment: concentrated cinnamon courses can strengthen the effect of treatment; monitoring and medical advice are recommended.

For precautions specific to each herb, see our clove and cinnamon articles. Our Ayurveda and diabetes guide puts cinnamon into a broader picture. General guidance is in the site's safety and precautions guide.