When the air becomes crisp and cool, whip up a batch of these delightful Honey Lemon Throat Drops. The delicious sweetness of honey and the mild tartness of Lemon Vitality essential oil come together to help ease your discomfort.
I reach for these throat drops for calming my throat if it’s mildly irritated. These drops are soothing and delicious.
We perfected this recipe after some pretty awful attempts where I basically ruined it. That’s why I came up with these tips so you can make the perfect batch of Honey Lemon Throat Drops on your first try!
Ingredient Tips:
- The tea we use is not in my local health food store but you can order it here [1]. You can use other teas that you like. We reached for this one because of the soothing herbs that it includes. The tea features licorice, cinnamon, and marshmallow root.
This combination is great for coating the throat while you recover.
- I would generally use this anti-bacterial and antioxidant bio-active manuka honey [2] for my recipes. We switched to another delicious honey [3] for this recipe since we were cooking it and we are using the honey to help soothe the throat.
I reserve the manuka honey for raw consumption to get all the amazing benefits.
- We used coconut sugar [4] in this recipe and I love the richness of flavor and color that it brings. It reminds me of molasses cookies. If you’d prefer to use white sugar, you certainly can. The throat drops made with white sugar will be lighter in color and milder in flavor.
You’ll want to use the right equipment for this throat drop making fun.
- Make sure you have this perfect-sized, heart-shaped silicone pan [5]. The little heart-shaped drops are completely perfect sized for throat drops. When they’re cool, the throat drops pop right out of the pan. And they’re darling, too!
- You’ll also want a silicone spatula. It will withstand the high heat of the throat drop mixture without melting. I like this set [6] because the silicone is solid and the head doesn’t pop off (or give a place for yucky bacteria to hide). I need to upgrade my spatula for that very reason. Mine is silicone, but it is harder to clean because of the detachable head.
- A large saucepan for cooking the mixture is necessary. This stuff grows and bubbles and expands like crazy and you most certainly don’t want it overflowing onto your stovetop! I used a 3-quart pan and it was perfect.
- Make sure you have the right thermometer. Candy thermometers are different than regular thermometers. They measure up to 400 degrees usually. I used this one [7] and it worked great. Make sure it’s calibrated with the Pro Tip below.
Throat Drop Pro Tips:
The success of this recipe rests almost entirely on the accuracy of your thermometer. If your thermometer is off you could end up with sticky throat drops or burnt ones or something else equally depressing.
Here’s an easy way to calibrate even an inexpensive candy thermometer [8].
Bring a pot of water to a full rolling boil. This water will be 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your candy thermometer in the water without touching the bottom of the pan. If the thermometer reads 212 degrees then you’re good to go. Since the mixture has to reach 300 degrees for this recipe…
- If your thermometer reads 200 degrees in boiling water, then it’s 12 degrees TOO LOW and you’ll need to cook your sugar mixture in this recipe to 288 degrees (on your thermometer).
- If when you place the thermometer in the boiling water it reads 220 degrees then it’s 8 degrees TOO HIGH. You’ll need to cook the sugar mixture until your thermometer reads 308 degrees.
Please be aware that it takes quite a while for the throat drops to reach the right temperature. You cannot rush this process and you should never walk away once you’ve started.
Safety Note: Make sure to keep kids out of the kitchen during this process. Boiling sugar is extremely dangerous.
New to essential oils? Learn more about how we use them and why you should use them as well. [9]
Ingredients
- 3 bags Dr. Stuart's Throat Relief Tea [13]
- 2/3 cup water
- 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar [14]
- 1/4 cup honey [15]
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil [16]
- 12 drops Lemon Vitality essential oil
Instructions
- Place the tea bags in a tea cup. Bring the water to a rolling boil on the stove. Pour the water over the tea bags and cover the tea cup with a saucer. Let the tea steep for 5 minutes. Remove the saucer lid and dispose of the tea bags.
- You need to use a pan that is much larger than the initial amount of liquid that you're mixing. The sugar mixture will expand and bubble and so you need to use a bigger pan than you think. In a large saucepan, stir together the brewed tea, coconut palm sugar, honey, and coconut oil. Heat over low heat, scraping the bottom of the pan continually. DO NOT scrape the sides of the pan as this will mix in cooled sugar crystals and mess up the structure of the sugar that is still cooking. Bring the mixture to 300 degrees as measured by a candy thermometer.
- Remove from the heat, quickly stir in the Lemon Vitality essential oil, and pour into the silicone mold immediately. Scrape the top of the mold to spread the throat drop mixture into all the compartments. The drops will cool and start to harden very quickly, so make sure to scrape immediately into all the hearts so you don't miss any.
- Allow to cool completely. This can take several hours for them to cool before you should remove them from the mold.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
More essential oil recipes you might enjoy:
- 10 NingXia Red Shots Recipes [17]
- Chest Rub with Essential Oils [18]
- Shower Bombs [19]
- Vitamin Gummies [20]
- Vitality Essential Oil Recipes [21]