Natural Cold Flu & Sore Throat Winter Remedy & Tonic

Before I start this recipe and before you glance down and think you are about to have a meltdown with all the weird sounding ingredients and all the faffing about…stop. This remedy is excellent. Yes, it requires a lot of unusual stuff and yes, it is a faff to make but it is better than a lot of over the counter ‘tonics’ you’ll get and it’s natural!

Ingredients
- 370g fresh rosehips
- 8g dried echinacea leaf
- 10g dried calendula petals
- 10g dried comfrey
- 20g dried coltsfoot
- 20 whole cloves
- 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 400g granulated sugar
- 5 teaspoons of freshly chopped ginger
- 2.2 litres of cold water
Method
- Give the rosehips a rinse through and make sure stalks are removed.
- Add everything to a large heavy based pan and stir to mix.
- Heat on a high heat and bring to a rapid boil.
- Rapid boil for 10 minutes then turn the heat down to a medium boil/simmer for about an hour.
- Turn off the heat and then with a masher, or the back of a slotted spoon, mash lightly all the ingredients together in the pan, this will get messy and be careful this is VERY hot.
- Turn the heat back up and rapid boil for another 20 minutes and then turn off the heat and mash again. By this time you should have a thick reduced syrupy herby fruity and slightly Christmassy smelling pan of syrup. If not, continue to boil, then remove from heat, mash and boil again until it thickens and reduces.
- Grab 2 bowls and a sieve. Add large spoonfuls of mixture to the sieve allowing the syrup to drain below into the bowl and continue to do so until the whole pan has been separated. As you can see this gets VERY MESSY!
8. Then discard the pulp and bottle the syrup in an airtight bottle, this will keep in the fridge for about 3 months. You can also freeze it!
9. Take one spoonful a day generally, if there is a cold in the household, take a spoonful morning and night. If you have a cold take 1 teaspoon 4 times a day. It should taste like a spiced fig/fruit syrup so perfect for soothing sore throats and coating the throat if you have a tickly cough. It is also packed with vitamin C and herbal healers so a fantastic natural remedy to keep on hand if you need it, or as a daily tonic!
A little disclosure: There maybe affiliate links on this page. That just means if you click on a link, find something you like and buy it, we’ll make a teeny bit of cash which helps to keep this blog running! Don’t worry, you won’t pay any extra AND sometimes you might even get a tasty discount. It’s a win for us and a win for you too!
This one I will make….boots on n rosehip collecting… Thankyou
Lol, can’t you do all the hard work and then sell it to lazy witches like myself? I bet you’d do a roaring trade in anti sneeze this winter! Go on….. *wheedles*…. put it in your online shop! Promise I will buy some!
Rose x