Homemade Elderberry Sore Throat Lozenges
Ease a sore throat and prevent a cough with these sore throat lozenges! These DIY cough drops are made with only four ingredients to help soothe and reduce a sore throat. While I love honey and lemon homemade cough drops these elderberry-based, homemade throat lozenges are an amazing variation!
While I do my best to keep my immune system high and prevent a cough or cold, sometimes that scratchy throat simply comes on despite my best efforts.
When that happens, I have a variety of “systems” in place and one of those is making use of DIY cough drops!
Made with minimal ingredients and sweet to suck on these sore throat lozenges are a staple during cold season.
Don’t want to read? JUMP to the recipe.
Why You’ll Love These Homemade Throat Lozenges
- All-natural
- Minimal ingredients
- Immune boosting
- Helps to relieve cold symptoms like scratchy throats.
- May reduce the duration of colds
- Delicious
Why Use Elderberries For DIY Cough Drops
There are a lot of ways to boost your immune system but elderberries are one of them! These little berries are an awesome superfood that are really just very nutrient-dense.
Elderberries have been touted to have a lot of great qualities however my favorites are that they are antibacterial, anti-infectious, and help to boost your overall immune system.
Elderberries have been shown to help ease respiratory colds, reduce cold symptoms, and lessen the duration of colds.
I try to work them in frequently during cough and cold season with treats like elderberry gummy bears for the kids.
I also make a wicked elderberry homemade cough syrup.
How Do You use The Sore Throat Lozenges
Just like any other DIY cough drop you simply pop them into your mouth and suck away. However, unlike mass-produced varieties, this one will melt slightly.
Meaning, it is almost taffy-like in nature as it melts which is why I don’t recommend homemade cough drops for kids.
The last thing you want to do with these is to chew the homemade throat lozenges. Just suck on them until it fully melts and the honey gloriously coats your throat.
Notes On Making The Homemade Cough Remedy
If you’ve never boiled honey before.. read this! These homemade throat lozenges require that you heat the honey until boiling which constantly and let the moisture come out of the honey but not allow it to burn.
In other words, it’s delicate.
While many people use a candy thermometer |I’ve never been able to have luck with them. Instead, I set the timer for 6 minutes after the honey is bubbling and alternate between whisking and removing it from heat to settle. You want the mixture to turn darker and after six minutes it should be much stickier.
You want to keep these sore throat lozenges in the freezer until you pop them in your mouth. They do melt slightly.
Other Cough & Cold Remedies I Use
And as a mom, being sick is even worse! It’s not like you can laze around and watch Netflix all day (or at least not the shows you want!) and if your throat hurts you can’t exactly stop speaking with a toddler ????
Which means I do everything in my power to keep myself healthy. I’m a huge supporter of:
- Fire cider tonic (my full fire cider recipe)
- Homemade elderberry cough syrup
- good old fashioned, super healthy eating
- Homemade honey and garlic elixir for coughs and colds
Kicking Up Your Immune System
I also use a lot of bone broth to both fight colds and prevent them! It’s actually one of my most recommended foods for toddlers because it’s so healing. However, making homemade broth takes TIME (a lot of it!) which I’m slightly limited on.
So while I do strive to make my own I also make use of two-time savers: I use bone broth powder from perfect supplements (use code mamabear10) normally whisked into something (or even snuck into a chocolate smoothie!).
Or I use Kettle & Fire pre-made bone broth (I like straight-up chicken or the turmeric one!) because it’s pre-made and they’re quality is so high (simmered for ten hours!).
But sometimes, I still get sick (you can’t be perfect right??).
And when I feel that sore, scratchy throat coming on, these elderberry DIY cough drops are my best friend.
Don’t get small molds
I used basic silicone molds in a variety of shapes and sometimes grab a gummy bear one if I see it at the dollar store. Warning though, do not ever get the mini gummy bear molds with an eyedropper. They’re cute but horrendous and you won’t be able to make anything. You’ll just cry ???? (said from the experience of course!).
Instead, get candy molds and keep the cough drops small in size.
Ingredients In The Sore Throat Lozenges
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Only four ingredients in this potent homemade cough drop recipe! These throat lozenges help soothe a scratchy throat, boost the immune system and prevent a cold getting worse. In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the elderberries, and cover. Let sit 10 minutes to steep. Strain the elderberries, and press out all the juice. In a small pot, combine the elderberry juice, honey, and coconut oil and heat over medium to high heat. Bring the mixture to a bubbling boil (it will foam), remove from heat, and whisk until the bubbles go down. Place back on the heat. Repeat this for 6 minutes or until the mixture sits at 300 degrees. The mixture should darken slightly and become a bit more sticky as the honey thickens up. Pour the mixture into individual candy molds, keep them fairly small. Please in the freezer to set (and store there).
Homemade Throat Lozenges
Ingredients
Instructions
Keep your cough and cold symptoms at bay and rock these sore throat lozenges. They’re simple to make and the healthiest way to ease a sore throat coming on!
Oh that’s a good trick about letting the honey bubble for 6 minutes. I will definitely need to try that because I’ve also had some struggles with the candy thermometer and getting everything just right. This recipe looks great! Thank you for sharing!
Yes! It took a lot of batches of burned honey with a candy thermometer to quit haha I cannot for the life of me get it to work. I find it SO much easier to just stay on top of it and remove it from heat back and forth.