What extras do you add to Elderberry Syrup?

bcabrobin
bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭
edited October 2020 in Herbal Medicine-Making

Getting ready to make the Elderberries syrup. Looking at some of the recipes and am now over whelmed.

Many people are adding all kinds of extra stuff. Blueberries, cherries, pears, cinnamon, ginger, cloves the list goes on and on. One lady even added kale.

I'm think maybe less is better than more. I know the syrup can be over powering but if I add all the extras is it more of a juice and would that be wrong? Please share your ideas cause I'm totally downing in all the recipes.

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @bcabrobin Great question! There are a lot of suggestions out there for elderberry syrup. I like to add a few immune boosting or antiviral herbs/spices to the syrup. Star anise, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, etc. Rosalee de la Foret adds dried rose hips along with some spices to one of her recipes. I don't think I would add kale. Not sure what that might do to the flavour. I think kale is better left to being a vegetable rather than in a flu syrup but who knows. I think you are right with the idea that adding a lot of extra fruit will just dilute the elderberry and make it, as you say, more of a juice. But adding spices can just kick it up a notch.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @bcabrobin I agree with @torey. Choose a few herbs/spices for immune support and keep it simple. Kale in the elderberry syrup???? I could be wrong, but I think whoever was suggesting that probably sees kale as a panacea and puts it in everything!

  • Jaylene
    Jaylene Posts: 53 ✭✭✭

    I think at first, keeping it simple is best and I agree with the others that adding other fruits is going to dilute the properties you are looking for. I use an unsweetened cherry juice as the liquid portion and make a decoction using elderberries, echinacea root, and licorice root as per one of Rosalee de la Foret’s recipes but if you don’t have those other ingredients you don’t need them. Just make it basic😊

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have always stuck to the fairly basic recipe I first found at Mountain Rose Herbs. It called for sweet cinnamon and ginger. Now when I make fire cider that is a whole different story. I add all kinds of things to that.

  • MelissaLynne
    MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭

    So far I’ve been happiest with a little lemon and ginger and some raw local honey to sweeten it up, but I am still trying out recipe variations.

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for each of your ideas, I love that we all seem to be on the same page - No kale!

    And I like basic is better, also.

  • stephanie447
    stephanie447 Posts: 404 ✭✭✭

    I don't make my own elderberry juice - so it's all simple for me. I take unsweetened syrup and a tablespoon in with some pineapple coconut water once a day. :-)

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Rosalee has just come out with a new article called "Beyond Elderberry Syrup" with suggestions for use of the flowers and how to make an elderberry vinegar. I have made an elderberry vinegar and it is very good as a base for salad dressings or add some honey to make a shrub base for a beverage with club soda.

    https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/beyond-elderberry-syrup.html

    She is also promoting a book called "Everything Elderberry" with 62 recipes using elder, but its not free.

  • Ethereal Earth
    Ethereal Earth Posts: 142 ✭✭✭

    I add in ginger, cinnamon and clove to mine with a bit of honey at the end. Going to experiment with honey brandy this year and see how that goes.

  • Melissa Swartz
    Melissa Swartz Posts: 270 ✭✭✭

    I'm with @Ethereal Earth --I add ginger, cinnamon and clove. This year I also made a batch where I added echinnacea as well.

    @torey We have made elderberry vinegar and it is excellent! We were trying to make mead, but ended up with vinegar instead. So even though it was a "fail" (no mead) it was still a win.

  • lmrebert
    lmrebert Posts: 363 ✭✭✭✭

    @bcabrobin my favorite thing to add is cinnamon and ginger💕

  • Ethereal Earth
    Ethereal Earth Posts: 142 ✭✭✭

    @Melissa Swartz There are a couple new things I want to do with my elderberries this year, mead, tincture and fermented elderberry honey. How did the vinegar turn out?

  • ltwickey
    ltwickey Posts: 369 ✭✭✭

    Concur with everyone here my favorite is cinnamon and ginger. But I'm a ginger fanatic....

  • Melissa Swartz
    Melissa Swartz Posts: 270 ✭✭✭

    @Ethereal Earth The vinegar is outstanding! Really great flavor; in fact we gave some away as gifts it was so good.

  • nicksamanda11
    nicksamanda11 Posts: 755 ✭✭✭✭

    Astragalus

  • Hassena
    Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭

    We keep it super simple. Our fresh elderberries honey. Then we add a splash of this to other things. Like tea or kombucha. Or we will take spoonfulls.

    I like to make some extracts then mix it up, depending on what we need