Made with only four ingredients, these Homemade Honey Lemon Cough Drops are a natural sore throat remedy. Honey-based and made with immune-boosting ingredients, these DIY throat lozenges are both healing and soothing, the perfect way to relieve a dry, scratchy throat.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- ⏲️Ready In: 40 Minutes
- 👪Serves: 8
- 🍽 Calories: 27kcals
- 📋 Main Ingredients: Honey, lemon, ginger, and coconut oil.
- 📖 Dietary Notes: Dairy-free, gluten-free, and paleo.
- ⭐ Why You'll Love It: The tastiest way to soothe a sore throat, these homemade cough drops are as simple as they are delicious.
SUMMARIZE & SAVE THIS CONTENT ON
As a mom of three living through seemingly endless Canadian winters, I’ve learned the hard way that waiting out a cough just doesn’t cut it. This honey lemon cough drops recipe is one of the natural remedies I reach for the moment someone in the house starts clearing their throat on repeat.
Made with just a handful of simple ingredients, they soothe scratchy throats and help fend off the ick. I like to keep a stash on hand right alongside our go-to elixir of honey and garlic for cough, and this elderberry cough syrup recipe. Bonus: They pair perfectly with a mug of coconut milk matcha latte when you’re bundled on the couch.
Sources used in this blog post: benefits of honey, benefits of ginger, health benefits of lemon.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Easy to make: With just 4 ingredients, these honey lemon cough drops whip up quickly enough.
Soothing: The cool honey with a light lemony taste is ultra soothing on a scratchy, painful throat.
Freezer-friendly: The DIY throat lozenges store well in the freezer for a couple of months, so you can keep some on hand for when you need them, just like this elderberry cough drops recipe.
Ingredients and Substitutions
The honey lemon combination has been used for what seems like eons to soothe sore throats! Probably because it just works so damn well.
- Raw honey: Even though you'll be heating this honey, I think it's always best to use raw, unpasteurized honey. Whenever possible, try to use local honey in the DIY cough drops, as local honey can help adjust your immune system.
- Fresh lemon juice: Ideally, you want lemon juice squeezed right from the lemon for these cough drops! The fresher it is, the more potent it will be.
- Ginger: If you don't have fresh ginger on hand, dried will work. But like most things, know that you're losing some of the ginger benefits from it.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Flavor Variations
Cinnamon: This is my kids' favorite way to enjoy the honey lemon cough drops recipe. Add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon into the mix for a warming taste.
Darker honey: Did you know that buckwheat honey is actually more likely to soothe a throat than regular honey? We try to use a darker honey whenever we can!
How To Make Homemade Honey Lemon Cough Drops
Step 1: Combine all ingredients in a small pot. Heat the pot slightly over medium heat and melt the ingredients together.
Step 2. The honey mixture will start to bubble, remove from heat, and whisk until bubbles/foam recedes slightly. Replace on heat.
Step 3: 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.
Sep 4: After three minutes-ish, pour the mixture into silicone molds but do not fill them all the way. Let them cool on the counter before freezing.
Expert Tips
The key to making these is keeping the honey bubbling, yes, it’ll look like it’s burning, but that’s what transforms it into a hard candy texture.
You’ll need to remove it from the heat briefly, stir, and repeat (follow the directions closely). Most recipes use a candy thermometer, but I prefer the color test: skip the gadgets and watch for the honey to darken, it’s simpler and just as effective.
When I don't have these homemade cough 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!
You can also check out DIY Elderberry cough drops, in which I provide a step-by-step video of how to boil the honey without burning it.
You'll need a set of silicone molds for these natural homemade cough drops. You can use any molds you like, but my advice is to keep the actual cough drops super thin. Thus, you want medium-sized candy molds, but you don't want to fill them the entire way.
How To Store Them
Store the homemade cough drops in the freezer right in the silicone molds. If you want to store them in a container, you'll need to separate them with sheets of parchment so that they don't stick together.
Do not store the cough drops in the fridge, as they lose their shape and become a sticky mess.
To use them: Eat them right out of the freezer; the cold is soothing on a sore throat. Know that the homemade cough drops have a hard candy/taffy-like consistency when in your mouth (which means that you shouldn't chew them.. especially with dentures). Seriously, taffy-like.
Homemade Cough Drops & Kids
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, swallow and choke. So these are adult-only DIY cough drops I'd say (though here's a great cough syrup recipe for kiddos if you need one!)
Homemade Honey Lemon Cough Drops FAQs
DIY cough drops are best stored in the freezer, and they're more soothing this way, too! 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!
Honey is super soothing for a scratchy, dry throat, which is normally the start of a cough. Use these homemade cough drops when you feel a scratchy throat coming on and before it gets too intense and turns into a cough.
If you find that the cough drops are still pretty sticky and you're having trouble getting them out of the mold, then two things went wrong. The first is that you didn't freeze them long enough to harden. If they're a bit melty and you froze them for 1-2 hours, then you didn't boil them down enough to make the honey tacky. They still work, but if you really want to, you can reboil them. Just scoop them all out from the mold, reheat, and boil down further, getting that deep golden brown before repeating the remaining steps.
Honey lemon cough drops are made with three basic ingredients: honey, lemon, and coconut oil. However, you can add ingredients like ginger or cinnamon to vary the taste.
Other Cold & Flu Remedies
Want to stay ahead of cold and flu season? Stock up on staples like homemade super tonic and easy-to-use bone broth powder. Easy ways to keep your immune system strong without extra stress.
If you tried this Homemade Cough Drop Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes!
Homemade Honey Lemon Cough Drops
Video
Equipment
- Silicone candy molds
Ingredients
- 2.5 tablespoons Honey
- 1.5 teaspoon Coconut Oil
- ½ teaspoon Lemon juice fresh
- ¼ - ½ inch Ginger peeled and finely grated.
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
Disclaimer:
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data"
durgawati says
Very useful Article in Lemon Cough Drops Good Sharing Information . Thanks .
fitasamamabear says
Thanks bunches! Glad you enjoyed it!
Kenzy says
I have a question, I tried it but it never turned hard when I froze it.. can you tell me why that would be?
fitasamamabear says
This one is honestly a tricky one and took me forever. It's in the way you boil it and remove from the heat that makes the honey "taffy" like. I may try to make a video for this soon. You need to bring it to a bubble, remove it from the heat until the bubble starts to recede and then make it bubble again. You do it about 8 times and when it changes to super dark is when it will freeze. The other thing to note is how much you pour in the molds. You need them SUPER THIN. If they're thick they won't freeze as well.
I hope that helps (keep me posted!) I'll try to do a video in a few weeks to hopefully give a better visual 🙂
Raia Todd says
So glad I found these! My kids are currently all hacking like crazy. 🙁
Daniela says
I’m pinning these as I dislike most conventional cough drops! These sounds amazing!
fitasamamabear says
Yay! I also dislike the the conventional ones too 🙁 I could suck on these all day haha
sunrita says
Love this recipe. Wondering if could replace coconut oil with anything else maybe ghee or ollive oil? not a great fan of coconut.
fitasamamabear says
Hrm, I would try avocado oil because it has a higher heat point! I'm not entirely sure how they would firm up though (fyi) but think it would be okay because the honey gets sticky and hard 🙂
Catherine Baez Sholl says
Great recipe! I want to make this the next time we need them at home.
fitasamamabear says
Do it! Keep them in the freezer- so perfect when chilled 🙂
STACEY CRAWFORD says
I never thought of making my own cough drops. Such a good idea! 🙂
fitasamamabear says
Thank you! I just got really sick of all the random ingredients in store bought lol
Lexi says
Tastes delish, but mine never “set” so I can’t really suck on them. What could I have done wrong? They have been in the freezer over night.
fitasamamabear says
I had this problem on my first batch too. What I learned was that I wasn't heating the honey properly! I have a video on my elderberry cough drops that shows it a bit better but you want to heat until it bubbles excessively, remove and store and do that for about six minutes. The honey needs to change color. If it doesn't bubble off, in my experience, it was because I didn't do it long enough (only 203 minutes) or with high enough heat. I hope that helps but let me know and we can troubleshoot together!
https://fitasamamabear.com/homemade-elderberry-sore-throat-lozenges/
Lindsey Dietz says
So creative and I love that mold you have! These are really special and could probably suffice as "candy" for a little one, too!
fitasamamabear says
Thank you! I love them- oh they are definitely candy like tasting 😀
Carol Little R.H. @studiobotanica says
Thanks for sharing your great project! I do make my own version ~ with horehound herb, which I grow at home.
Let me know if you ever want to 'kick' it up-- with the horehound..(you had mentioned you wanted to add a little herb in... here and there.. (I'll send you some!)
fitasamamabear says
Woah... what is horehound?! I'm so intrigued by your knowledge!!!
Tina says
This recipe is amazing. I love it! I've never thought about my own cough drops, but looks like this is what I will be doing all winter long 🙂
fitasamamabear says
They're soooo much better than store bought!
ChihYu says
Oh i love this recipe! Never thought I can make it myself. This will come in handy in colder months!
fitasamamabear says
I love having some in stock! They taste great out of the freezer!
Jean says
What a great idea! I'm honestly not a fan of all the preservatives and sugars in store bought cough drops but I love that this is actually good for you!
fitasamamabear says
Right?! They stuff so much random stuff into the store bought kinds. It's silly.
Hope says
These look like they would be so soothing - love all of the healthy ingredients!
fitasamamabear says
Thanks! Might as well keep it simple 🙂
jennifer says
I seriously NEED one of these right now as I have one of those icky little tickle coughs! Going to try in the morning!
fitasamamabear says
Oh I hate those! These definitely come in handy when you have some on hand!
Renee D Kohley says
I'm sure these are so soothing on a dry scratchy throat!
fitasamamabear says
And they taste delicious!
Holley Ewell Augello says
Just made these for hubby and I was super eager to taste them- tried still warm, and they are delicious!! Nevermind having a sore throat- I could eat these as straight up candy!! Thank you for sharing!
fitasamamabear says
Haha I totally use them as candy too lol so yummy!
Christina Shoemaker says
I absolutely love this idea! So creative and easy! And because they're homemade there's no chance of any ingredients I want to avoid!!!
fitasamamabear says
Yes! They throw so much random crap into cough drops it's silly!
Greta says
This is what I need right now, and I am so glad I can do this by myself with these easy steps! Thanks for sharing.
fitasamamabear says
Happy to help!