Making the tea on the stove
Add the dry mix to 64 oz. of water, and bring to a low boil, holding there with the lid on for 60 minutes. Turn off the heat, and strain out all the solids from the tea.
You can freeze some of the tea, or make all of it into syrup. Add up to equal parts honey to the tea, and you have an immune boosting syrup!
Instant Pot instructions
Place elderberry mix and 64 oz. of water in the insert, turn on high for 15 minutes, with the lid on and the valve closed. When it finishes, you can let it cool on its own, or open the valve to release the pressure. Once the lid can be opened, proceed the same as with the on the stove method, starting from strain out all the solids from the tea.
Elderberry syrup with sugar instead of honey
For children under 1, or those who cannot/prefer not to use honey, you can use 2 parts tea and 1 part simple syrup made with sugar. For the 32 oz tea, you would add 16 oz (1 pint) of simple syrup.
How much do I take?
Most adults take approximately 1 tablespoon of elderberry syrup 1-2x/day.
Ingredients
Elderberry Syrup Mix contains dried elderberries, ginger, rose hips, echinacea, black peppercorns, orange peel, cinnamon, star anise, and clove.
What is the benefit of each ingredient? (*Info from Mountain Rose Herbs)
Elderberry is a plant native to most of Europe, North America, and southwest Asia. Its flowers and berries have a long history of use in traditional European medicine. Elder berries have also been used for making preserves, wines, winter cordials, and for adding flavor and color to other wines. Most commonly, the flowers or berries of elder are employed for their healthful benefits.
Echinacea is one of the most widely known herbs in American folk herbalism. One of its main uses is to support healthy immune function. It is now one of the most available dietary supplements in health food stores and continues to be a subject of many scientific studies investigating its immune support properties.
Rose hips develop on wild roses as the flowers drop off. The rose hip, also called the rose haw, is actually the fruit of the rose. These fruits are one of the most concentrated sources of vitamin C available.
Cinnamon was utilized extensively thousands of years ago and is still popular today. Enjoyed since ancient times, cinnamon was mentioned in ancient Egyptian texts, the Bible, and was widely traded thousands of years ago in Europe and in Asia by Arab spice traders. Its scent is uniquely warming, uplifting, and stimulating, and its flavor sweet and delicious, hence the flavor and aroma have been utilized in countless confectionaries, baked goods, perfumes, cosmetics, beverages, and cordials.
Ginger has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and is believed to affect lung, spleen, heart, and stomach meridians.
In Ayurveda (system of traditional healing in India), clove, referred to as ‘lavanga,’ has not only been used in the kitchen, but has been employed as a medicinal herb to support digestion, soothe nausea, to support lung health, and is thought to be a highly effective carminative.
It’s easy to recognize anise star pods; they usually look like an eight-pointed star. This fruit of a tree in magnolia family native to China and Vietnam produces tough-skinned, rust-colored fruits that are picked and dried before ripening. Anise star pods are hotter, more pungent, more bitter, and much more “licorice-like” than the European anise.
Black pepper is one of the most commonly used spices in the world, adding warmth and zest to savory dishes. It has been popular in India for thousands of years and is now easy to find almost anywhere on the planet. It has been employed medicinally in both Ayurveda and TCM and more recently in herbal folk healing practices. Several derivatives of black pepper, such as piperine, have shown promise in supporting the health of the digestive system.
Peels from any member of the Sweet Orange family have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine at least since the writing of the Divine Husbandman’s Classic of the Materia Medica, written in the second century BC. The little known fact is that there are substantially more enzymes, flavonoids, and phyto-nutrients in the peel of the Orange rather than the fruit. The peel is where all the essential components accumulate and they may be found in three main sections of the peel; the flavedo, albedo, and oil sacs.