If you are looking for a creative way to keep with your herbal regimen, consider the easy solution of blending herbs and raw honey. Honey has long been called the food of the gods, or the elixir of life, and as herbalists, we understand why--there's nothing quite like the sweetness of honey, miraculously synthesized from the pollen and nectar of flowering plants.
While many of our herbal DIY recipes include raw honey for a sweetener, we also use it in our entire line of seasonal wellness products: Immune Zoom, Throat Spray, Aller-Blast and Clear Chest all feature, raw honey! Using honey from local beekeepers is a great holistic way to acquaint yourself with the diversity of the ecosystem around you, and to support a local business. It can contain local tree pollens and nectar from the medicinal summer plants, like echinacea or elder flowers that help support a healthy immune system.*
Blending herbs and honey is a lovely way to take herbal medicine. The natural sweetness of honey helps to make even the least tasty herbs easy to take. Honey has a way of brightening the flavor of a plant-even just a touch enhances an herbal tea, and the flavors of many herbs steep easily into it. A simple herbal honey can be made by infusing it with herbs for a few weeks and then straining them out. It will take on a subtle flavor of whatever plant you used, and is a delicious treat to enjoy throughout the year, especially in the winter, when we miss the abundance of the summery blooms like tulsi, linden, plum, and rose.
Another way to use herbs and raw honey is to make an electuary. Herbal electuaries combine powdered herbs and raw honey and blend easily into a paste that can then be used as is, or for tonic drinks. This concept has been used for centuries to make herbs more portable, palatable, and to last longer.
DIY Golden Milk Electuary
Ingredients:
-2 tbsp powdered herb, or powder blend (see recipe below)
-¼ cup raw honey--Use a high-quality honey (raw honey is best)
Directions:
Mix well. It will take a little time mixing for the honey to blend with all the herbal powder.
Feel free to add a bit more honey to create a thinner paste if a sweeter blend is preferred.
Store the paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Consume within 2–3 weeks.
To use: Use 1 tsp of the paste in a cup (8oz) hot water. Add in a little coconut cream, or half and half for a soothing herbal golden milk.
GOLDEN MILK POWDER BLEND
Ingredients:
-3 tsp turmeric-1 tsp. ginger
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-¼ tsp black pepper
-¼ tsp cardamom
-¼ tsp coriander
-pinch cloves
-pinch nutmeg
( This blend can be doubled, or tripled to have more on hand--it’s up to you how much to make.)
Mix all powders together and store in an airtight container.
