Herbal Syrups

Herbal syrups combine the power of infusions with sugar for a more palatable medicine.

How to prepare an Herbal Syrup:

Start with an infusion or decoction of your desired herb(s). Strain and mix with equal volume of sugar. You can use any form of sugar you have on hand, including maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, maple sugar, cane sugar, or processed white sugar. You can also use honey, but because honey is such a common ingredient in herbalism, and has properties of its own, we dedicated an entire page for herbal infused honeys.

For a more concentrated syrup, after straining your infusion/decoction, reduce volume by half, measure final volume, and mix with equal volume of sugar as above. In all cases, stir until well combined.

Note that using this method, you can adjust the amount of sugar you use based upon your own taste, or the viscosity of your sugar source. For example, a common syrup is made from yellow dock root and blackstrap molasses as a bioavailable and iron rich syrup. Due to the viscosity of blackstrap molasses, this combination is often two parts yellow dock root decoction to one part molasses (1 cup of decoction : ½ cup molasses).

You can also add honey or maple syrup to tinctures to make the tinctures more palatable. Note that adding sugar will effectively dilute the tincture and may decrease ABV of the tincture below 20% which would also decrease the shelf stability of the tinctures requiring them to be refrigerated. As long as you keep your tincture above 20% alcohol, they should stay shelf stable for years.

Most syrups can store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months, but keep an eye out for mold growth, and toss if you find any.