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    Home » Crafts

    Homemade Echinacea Lemon and Ginger Cough Drops

    by Patti Estep · Nov 26, 2015

    Jump to Recipe

    This recipe for echinacea and ginger homemade cough drops is easy to make with many ingredients you already have on hand.

    This recipe for homemade Echinacea Lemon and Ginger Cough Drops is easy to make with many ingredients you already have on hand. Makes a great gift.

    When my sister and I owned the herbal gift shop, echinacea was a very popular herbal supplement, reputed for boosting your immune system.

    Though I have no medical training and make no claims to the benefits of echinacea, I thought it would be nice to make some cough drops with echinacea for my family.

    Homemade cough drop ingredients

    How to Make Homemade Cough Drops

    Basically you are making candy by boiling water and sugar in a 1 to 1 ratio.

    The first time I tried this I used 1/4 c honey with 3/4 cup sugar. This did not work.  The honey kept the cough drop from hardening.

    Pot with cough drop mixture boiling

    First I made some echinacea and lemon herbal tea and added some fresh ginger.  After it steeped I strained it and used the liquid combined with a cup of regular white sugar to make the cough drops. Make sure you do this on a tall pot so that there is plenty of room for the mixture to boil. It took about 10 minutes for the tea and sugar to reach the 300 mark.

    Dropping cough drop mixture into powdered sugar

    Using a plastic ladle I poured them into a pan of powdered sugar with little divots I made with the handle of a spatula. The hot mixture looked like mercury as it slid into place.

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    Homemade cough drop mix in pan with powdered sugar

    At first they smelled a little funny, and they were brown from the tea so I was worried that wouldn't be any good.

    However, they tasted great.  Though the second batch did not have any honey, it still tasted like honey with a hint of ginger.

    Homemade cough drops

    You can experiment with different teas or just use water. If you want to add other flavorings you can do this just after your remove the pot from the heat.

    I used teabags but you could easily make your own tea from herbs in the garden.

    So many possibilities. And, wouldn't these make a nice gift?

    Patti signature

    Homemade Echinacea Lemon & Ginger Cough Drops

    Patti Estep
    Create your own homemade cough drop with echinacea, lemon and ginger for a tasty, soothing treat.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 10 minutes mins
    Cook Time 20 minutes mins
    Additional Time 10 minutes mins
    Total Time 40 minutes mins
    Course Candy
    Cuisine American
    Servings 24
    Calories 53 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 cup Herbal Tea or Water
    • 1 cup Sugar
    • powdered sugar
    • peeled and chopped ginger about 1/4 cup

    Instructions
     

    • Steep tea bags and ginger for about 10 minutes and strain.
    • Combine 1 cup of herbal tea with 1 cup of sugar. Make sure you do this on a tall pot so that there is plenty of room for the mixture to boil. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pot.
    • Heat on high heat stirring until the sugar dissolved and then don't touch it.
    • In the meantime, place a layer of powdered sugar in a shallow pan and make divots to pour the mixture into. I use the handle of a large spatula but anything will do.
    • Once the mixture reaches 300 remove the pot from the heat, and let it settle so that the foam from boiling subsided.
    • Then using a small plastic ladle to pour the mixture into the powered sugar.
    • Allow to cool until firm.
    • Toss in the powdered sugar to coat and place in an air tight jar.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1gCalories: 53kcalCarbohydrates: 14gSodium: 1mgSugar: 13g
    Keyword cough drops, homemade cough drops
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
    This recipe for homemade Echinacea Lemon and Ginger Cough Drops is easy to make with many ingredients you already have on hand. Makes a great gift.
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    About Patti Estep

    Patti is the creator of Hearth and Vine, a home and garden blog filled with projects to inspire your creative side. She loves crafting, gardening, decorating and entertaining at her home in Pennsylvania. When she is not working on a project at home or searching for treasures at nurseries and thrift stores with her girlfriends, you’ll probably find her with family and friends, at a restaurant, or home party enjoying new and different food adventures.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Rachel

      February 12, 2018 at 8:03 pm

      How long is the shelf/fridge life for these?

      Reply
      • Patti Estep

        February 13, 2018 at 6:22 am

        Hi Rachel,

        I'm not totally sure about the shelf life as we used them up quickly. However, several other sites on the web are suggesting 6 mos to 1 year considering how basic the ingredients are. Hope that helps.

        Reply
    2. Marie-Jo

      October 13, 2016 at 7:06 am

      I love this recipe! So simple! I get sore throats every season and I am tired of commercial cough drops that just try to coat the symptoms instead of working them out and making them go away. I'll be trying this one for sure!

      Reply
      • Patti Estep

        October 13, 2016 at 7:24 am

        Hi Marie-Jo,

        I hope you like them.
        Thanks for stopping by,
        Patti

        Reply
    3. Sherron Schaefer

      July 31, 2016 at 3:00 pm

      Maybe you could substitute some of the sugar with honey powder to get more of a honey flavor.

      Reply
      • Patti Estep

        July 31, 2016 at 3:11 pm

        Hi Sherron,

        That's a wonderful idea. In fact, I just recently heard of honey powder. I can't believe after all these years I never knew it existed.
        Learn something new.
        Thanks for stopping by,
        Patti

        Reply
    4. KIm

      December 28, 2015 at 7:48 pm

      HI Patti,
      I just stumbled across your blog and I have to say it is WONDERFUL...
      I am only new to the MAKE AT HOME so trying a few new things every now and then.....
      I found this recipe and it sounded really interesting.....

      But my one question is..... looking at the items in the list for the recipe......Can you please tell me where the Echinacea comes into it???

      Thanks in advance

      Cheers

      Reply
      • Patti

        December 29, 2015 at 6:47 am

        Hi Kim,

        So glad you found the blog. The echinacea for the cough drops is in the tea. I let it steep for a good while before using it.
        Have a great week and thanks for stopping by,
        Patti

        Reply

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    I'm Patti

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