My child was up most of the night with a bad cough. I threw everything I could think of at it. Many different homeopathic remedies. Cell salts, tinctures, teas. I looked for cough drops locally online and couldn’t find anything within a half an hour drive that didn’t have something she couldn’t have in it. I decided to make some. I didn’t have much honey left but my husband just picked up our years supply of maple syrup. I don’t like to use honey in cooked recipes anyway. Seems like a waste to kill good raw honey. I will share with you my experiment. I am not a doctor. I am merely sharing my experience.
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I made an herbal tea. I added mullein, echinacea, chamomile, and ginger root to a tea infuser. You could just add it to a jar and strain it. Bring a cup of water to a boil, shut it off and pour over herb mixture. Let steep until cool.
Well steeping, prepare molds or surface for the cough drops by sprinkling some slippery elm powder. I used a tea strainer as a sifter. It worked great.
Add 1 cup of tea to a sauce pan with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of maple syrup. mix well and put on medium heat. Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 300 degrees. You will need a candy thermometer. It takes a while to get to that point but all of the sudden it moves quickly so don’t walk away!
Once it reaches temperature, remove from heat and stir it until the bubbling calms down. Pour into prepare molds. I needed a third mold which was not prepared ahead. If using these molds, prepare 3 ahead. You have to move quickly because the mixture with harden.
I sifted more slippery elm powder over them. These hardened so quickly that I was able to take them out of the molds shortly after pouring. Do be careful, they will be hot!
I popped them out directly into this cute chunky jar. They fit perfectly.
My daughter said they were good. She only tasted the maple syrup. It smelled heavenly as it bubbled away on the stove top. The combination I smelled most was of chamomile and maple syrup. Enjoy!