Cough, cough, cough...
There are so many people being sick in this fall and winter. They cough a lot, days and nights. Cold or flu? Nobody can tell. It is so hard to recover. The cough lasts for months.
My family got that too. It was stressful to watch or hear someone coughing over nights. I tried different herbal medicines but finally found this cough drops worked well.
It is not hard to make your own cough drops. The good thing about making your own is to avoid the ingredients you don't want, such as sugar and additives, and add more effective herbs in it. I learned it from Necole Apelian, PhD. The whole process is just like making medicinal herb candies. It is not a simple recipe only with lemon, licorice, and honey. Several powerful medicinal herbs are added. They not only taste so good but also sooth the throats and relieve coughing. Juniper berry, licorice, thyme, oregano, peppermint, rosemary and ginger are antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory; fenugreek and peppermint breaks up mucus, sooths throat, relieves sinus congestion.
It is worth of trying. I'm showing the recipe below.
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup honey
1 tsp dried fenugreek
1 tsp juniper berry (crushed with mortar)
1 tsp licorice root
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves
3 tsp dried peppermint leaves
2 tsp dried lemon peel
Tools:
Tea ball or cloth to seep herbs
Saucepan
Wooden spoon
Parchment paper or non-stick mat
Bowl for ice water or candy thermometer
Paper wrapping
Arrowroot powder or tapioca starch to keep drops from sticking together
Processing
Put the kettle on to heat up 1 cup of water.
Measure all the ingredients and place them in a tea ball, cloth, or infuser pot. Measure the honey into a saucepan.
3. Add the herbs to a glass container. Once the water is hot enough pour it over the herbs and let them seep for 10 minutes.
4. Add the herbal tea mixture to the honey in the saucepan.
5. Turn the heat on to medium-low. Cook the mixture while stirring often until it reaches about 300 degree Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer or until it turns completely hard when dropped into a bowl of ice water. It takes about 35-40 minutes to reach the desired texture. It'll be very frothy right before it's ready.
6. Let the mixture to cool for about 5 minutes. In the meanwhile, lay out a piece of parchment paper on a plate or a non-stick mat. Pour the mixture into the middle of the paper and let it sit until I am able to mold it by hand.
7. Start by pulling little chunks of the mixture from the outside edge of the mass where it cools down faster. Roll them into little balls or chunks and lay them out on the paper to cool. Then duct them with a little arrowroot powder or tapioca starch.
8. Wrap them with small pieces of parchment paper or candy paper for storage. They can be kept in the refrigerator.
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