National Relaxation Day: A Peruvian Cedron Ritual

August 11, 2026

August 15 is National Relaxation Day, a low-key American holiday invented by a nine-year-old in Michigan back in 1985. It doesn't come with fireworks or a sale at the mall. It's just a nudge to sit down and do less for a while, which, if you ask most Peruvians, is something we've been doing on purpose after dinner for a very long time.

In Peru that ritual has a name: cedrón. Lemon verbena, as it's called in English, is one of the most common after-meal teas in the country, and it's worth borrowing the habit for your own Relaxation Day, whether that's August 15 or just a random Tuesday that needs one.

National Relaxation Day tends to get marketed with bubble baths and spa gift cards, which is fine, but it also sets the bar oddly high. Not everyone has an hour for a bath on a Saturday. What Peru's cedrón habit offers instead is a much smaller, more repeatable version of the same idea: ten minutes, most days, built around something you're already doing anyway, which is eating dinner.

Sobremesa, not a supplement routine

Peruvian meals don't end when the plates are cleared. There's a stretch of time afterward, sobremesa, where people stay at the table, talk, and slowly work through a cup of something warm. Cedrón is a common choice for that stretch. It's not taken as medicine on a schedule the way you'd take a vitamin. It's poured because the meal is over and nobody's in a hurry to leave the table yet. That distinction matters. Half of what makes cedrón "relaxing" is probably the ten minutes of doing nothing else while you drink it.

What's actually in the cup

Cedrón is Aloysia citrodora, a small shrub from the Andes with leaves that smell sharply of lemon when crushed. It's been used across South America as a digestivo, something sipped after a meal to settle the stomach, for generations, and traditional use for calming and digestion continues in Peru, Argentina, and Chile today. One detail that surprises a lot of people: cedrón is also the flavor behind Inca Kola, Peru's bestselling soft drink. The same plant that ends up in a quiet after-dinner tea also flavors the country's most popular soda, which tells you something about how deeply it's woven into everyday Peruvian life.

We carry Lemon Verbena Tea (Cedrón) in tea bags, sourced from wild-grown plants in Peru, at 1,000 mg of dried leaf per bag. Steep one bag in hot water for 5 to 7 minutes. The result is light, citrusy, and nothing like the bitterness people sometimes expect from an herbal tea. It's also completely caffeine-free, which matters if the point is winding down rather than getting a second wind before bed.

Compared to other Peruvian evening teas, cedrón sits on the lighter end. Manzanilla (chamomile) leans more toward sleepiness, and nerviosan blends valerian root in for something stronger and more targeted at anxiety or insomnia. Cedrón is milder than either, closer to a palate cleanser with a calming side effect than a sedative. That makes it a reasonable starting point if you've never tried an herbal wind-down tea and don't want something that knocks you out.

An actual way to use Relaxation Day

You don't need a ceremony for this. Pick a time today, ideally after a meal, and make a cup of cedrón with no phone in hand for the ten minutes it takes to drink it. That's closer to how the tradition actually works in Peru than any spa-day version of "relaxation" you'll see marketed this week. If you want to build a slightly longer wind-down, our sleep and mood support collection has other calming options, including manzanilla and nerviosan, for evenings when ten minutes isn't enough.

Worth knowing before you make it a habit

Cedrón has a long history of everyday use and no major safety flags in the research that exists, but "long history" isn't the same as "clinically studied," so treat it as a mild traditional tea rather than a treatment for anything. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, talk to your doctor before adding any new herbal tea to your routine. Skip it if you have a known allergy to plants in the Verbenaceae family, and if you're on prescription medication, it's worth a quick check with your doctor or pharmacist, mainly out of general caution rather than any documented interaction. We're not doctors, and none of this replaces a real medical opinion.

For more everyday Peruvian teas worth keeping in the cupboard, browse our full herbal tea collection.