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Homemade Honey Lemon Cough Drops

Cold season is no one’s favorite. And being that I live in Canada, cold season pretty much encompasses half the year 😛 So it`s a bit of a no brainer that I have protocols and tricks in place to help us survive (read about how I help my girls sleep through winter nights!). And these tricks definitely include a lot of homemade options- like these honey lemon cough drops!

Is there anything worse than a scratchy throat? That niggling feeling of having to cough every four minutes. I. Hate. Being. Sick.

Seriously.

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 elderberry syrup, fire and ice tonic, bone broth and good old fashioned, super healthy eating and this magic elixir to help kick a cold fast! .

But sometimes, I still get sick (you can’t be perfect right??).

And when I feel that sore, scratchy throat coming on, these honey lemon cough drops are my best friend.

The honey lemon combination has been used for what seems like eons to sooth sore throats! Probably because it just works so damn well.

Honey helps coat your throat to prevent the scratchy cough feeling and lemon helps prevent and eliminate bacteria and infection as well as keep the ph of your stomach in a healthy range.

In particular, I like to use raw local honey when I can. The reason I use local honey is because I believe it helps adjust your immune system towards any pollen in the air thus reducing allergies. As for raw honey- no processed billy bee sugar honey for me here! Especially when sick, I like to keep it as close to nature as possible.

And these cough drops also have the benefit of added ginger and coconut oil! Ginger is an amazingly healing root and helps elminate any nausea as well as boost your immune system. And coconut oil aside from being almost a miracle oil is very anti-bacterial. So again, helping to reduce the cold from progressing further.

When I don’t have these honey lemon drops on hand I usually just steep all of these ingredients into boiling water and sip on it throughout the day- seriously, they work well!

A few notes about these homemade cough drops though…

They took me FOREVER to figure out. Truly, before I got the recipe to work I made about four others. We had lemon honey absolutely everywhere 😛 and so many of them didn’t take shape that I just had goop. I made probably three dozen honey lemon based muffins 😛

But finally, FINALLY, I figure out the trick (and ratios!).

The trick is that you have to keep the honey bubbling (seems like burning) on the stove. You also have to keep removing briefly, stirring and redoing this (read the directions). I’m no chemist so I’ve no idea the technical reason but it’s almost like it burns off the goopy aspect and makes the honey into something that resembles hard candy.

So follow the directions.

You can use any silicone molds you like but my advice is to keep the actual drops super thin. They have a hard candy/taffy like consistency in your mouth (which means that you shouldn’t chew them.. especially with dentures. Seriously, taffy like). Because of this consistency, having them super thick isn’t fun, keep them ultra thin. Like disks.

These honey lemon cough drops taste amazing and sucking on them is moderately addictive. However, because they are taffy like once they honey firms up and melts in your mouth, my advice would be to not give them to kids. I worry with kids, especially very little ones, that they would chew them and swallow and choke. So these are adult only drops I’d say (though here’s a great cough syrup recipe if you need one!)

Lastly-keep the honey lemon drops in the freezer! You can pop them into your mouth straight from the freezer, the cold feels great on a sore throat and this way you can make a bunch and always have some on hand!

Seriously, these honey lemon cough drops rival any halls you may want.

Ingredients In The Honey lemon Drops

2.5 tablespoons Honey
1.2 teaspoon Coconut Oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 – 1/2 inch ginger peeled and finely grated.

Kitchen Tools You Need

Silicone molds

How To Make Homemade Cough Drops

Combine all ingredients in a small pot.

Heat the pot slightly over medium heat and melt the ingredients together.

The honey mixture will start to bubble, remove from heat and whisk until bubbles/foam recedes slightly. Replace on heat.

Do this for 2.5-3 minutes, whisking every 15 seconds or so. You want the mixture to get HOT but not to outright burn.

The mixture will start to change color (dark honey color).

After three minutes ish, pour the mixture into silicone molds but do not fill them all the way. You want the drops to be very small and thin.

Let cool on the counter for twenty minutes then place in the freezer to set.

Pop the disks out when you need them. They are chilled and soothing but they’re also sticky once melted (almond like a taffy) so try not to chew them too much!

Makes 8 drops depending on mold.

Don’t forget to pin these homemade honey lemon drops!

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