Everyone, or nearly so, in our small village has a terrible hacking, icky cold. All of us here at the Sanctuary have been a bit run down and short on sleep so it was no surprise when Loba woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat, low grade fever, muscle aches and copious phlegm and other face fluids…. She was miserable and overtired and begging for something to make it go away. First, I assigned her to extra sleep, instructed her to pour Fire Cider on everything she ate and drink lots of Ginger tea to enhance the body’s own virus fighting techniques of fever and sweating. She also ate easy to digest foods in small amounts in order to not further tax her system. AND, I dosed her up good with Elderberry Elixir, not that I don’t love Elderberry syrup, but I have found time after time that Elderberry is MUCH more effective when not heated in any way… my two favorite ways of preparing are the Elixir (see recipe below) and a honey paste with whole dried berries ground into raw local honey. I also had everyone else in the household start sucking down Elderberry Elixir.
And sure enough, after a good solid nap, and six or so doses of Elderberry she started to feel much much better. By the time she went to bed last night, she mostly just had some bodyaches and extra face fluid. By this morning, she just felt a bit run down and tired with just a little extra phlegm. I expect she’ll be all better by tomorrow morning. I want to point out that the average run time of this particular virus on other people in the village is at least a week, often with bronchial complications. And, none of the rest of us caught it. I started to feel a little bit off with a sore throat yesterday morning, but by the afternoon, I was fine.
To top it all off, Elderberry does not simply stimulate the immune system, which would make it somewhat dangerous to those with autoimmune disorders or certain other chronic diseases. Rather it modulates the immune system to more appropriately respond to environs and circumstance. It also disarms the virus and helps it flush through body quicker, while strengthening the mucus membranes, supporting the body’s natural fever mechanism without overheating, improves energy and stress handling AND last but certainly not least, it tastes great too.
I have tons of the Elderberry stories, I like this most recent one especially though because she was already sick, most of the time we just prevent the virus and never see many symptoms of it. Here, Loba was clearly manifesting signs of the same virus that was running around town.
If I had a snake bite, you bet I’d reach for the Echinacea. But for viral afflictions and general immune support, there’s no better herbal ally than the bounteous and lovely Elder!
As an aside, I don’t think that averting a virus is always the best course of action, sometimes we just need to get sick so we can spend a day in bed. Even so, I think Elderberry is a wonderful supportive therapy. Listen to your body and act accordingly.
Elderberry Elixir
Ingredients
For your elixir, it’s helpful to have on hand:
▪ A pint canning jar (or other glass jar that seals well)
▪ Fresh elderberries (dried can be used as well, simply use about a third of the amount, or about 2.5 oz to follow the 1:5 proportion method for dried plants).
▪ About a pint of high quality brandy (the better the brandy, the better your elixir will taste), depending on whether you’re using fresh or dried berries.
▪ Appr. 1/3 pint of raw honey (or to taste, as you prefer)
▪ A good stirring spoon
Step by Step Instructions
• First, fill your jar all the way to the top with fresh elderberries.
• Now, pour the honey in slowly, stirring as necessary, until the berries are well coated.
• Next, fill jar with brandy, stirring as you go, until all air bubbles are released.
• Now cover the jar with a tight fitting lid, and shake carefully to finish the mixing process.
• Let macerate in a cool, dark place for four to six weeks (or as long as you can stand to wait.
• Strain, reserving liquid. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.
Take 1/4 – 1/2 dropperfull of Elixir every two to three hours at the first sign of illness. You MUST take the Elixir frequently rather than having a bigger dose further apart, it just won’t work that way. Use the same dosage if you are actively ill. For a general preventative dose, I suggest 1/3 dropperfull every four hours or so.
Be sure to rest extra as well, the Elderberry has a much harder time with your immune system if you’re really worn down. A little extra sleep will increase its benefits tenfold.
Thanks for your recipie! I might try that this year instead of syrup, which is so loaded with sugar, but still mighty tasty. the elixir sounds lovely!
now just to find me some ripe berries!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ll make up a batch and see if it works for me my family. That’s strange, I’m in the phoenix area and I’ve had a sore throat for for about four days, but nothing else yet. I guess something’s going around…
This sounds delightful–how long do you let it sit for the extract? Six weeks?
Thanks!
Michelle
Kiva, do you mean 50% of the volume of the jar eg for a 200 ml jar you use a minimum of 100mls brandy?
kate, sorry I missed your question before! But yes, that would work fine. I put the berries in, fill it at least to the halfway mark with brandy (without measuring) and then add glycerin or honey.
How can I know which elderberries are safe? I have purplish black ones in my field. Are they safe to use? Should I heat them?
Hi Angela, you might want to look up my other posts on Elderberry as well. All blue black Elderberries are edible and medicinal as far as I know. Some people like to heat their Elderberries. Personally, I think that’s a great way to lessen or destroy the medicine. If you’re worried about them upsetting your belly or something then just dry them first.
Hi Kiva, I’ve got tons of fresh elderberries in the garden right now. How much fresh should I substitute for the dried berries?
Kimberly, just do a proportion of 1:2 instead of 1:5, or if it’s easier, just fill the jar with fresh elderberries then add your menstruum til the jar’s full.
Hello Kiva, I am a novice. I happen to have some elderberry juice. Someone said I could make an “elderberry rob”, but I was wondering if I could make an elixir with a substitue for brandy? Suggestions or ideas welcome. Much appreciation.
Mary Beth,
Are you asking if you can use something besides alcohol to preserve it? Because if you didn’t want to use brandy, vodka would work fine…. If you mean non-alcohol, you could just make a honey, although I don’t know what the proportions for juice to honey would be.
Hi Kiva Rose – Can I use Ginger flavored brandy and still add some organic powdered ginger – also can you add tinctures such as lemon balm or echinacea and if so what would be a proper amount? Thanks a bunch!
Kathy, do you mean a commercially produced ginger flavored brandy? Or a homemade ginger brandy tincture? If you mean the former, then no, I wouldn’t use that (additives and all kinds of nasties that aren’t medicinal in the least), if you mean the latter, that could be fine, depending on how spicy you’re aiming for.
You could add lemon balm and echinacea tinctures if you wanted, amounts would depend on what you were wanting to do. Do yourself a favor though, and don’t just make up a formula by throwing in every anti-viral thing you’ve ever heard of, herbs don’t work very well that way.
Why use glycerine or honey ? Why not just make a straight tincture ? I am supposing 80%alcohol extracts the properties since you are using brandy ?
Because then it would tincture, not elixir
Do you mean 80 proof? Because that’s what most brandy is: 80 proof, thus 40% alcohol.
The point is to make something tasty and effective, and while Elderberry is plenty effective, it’s not that tasty to children and picky adults. Elderberry syrup is sweet and tasty and what most people want, but it doesn’t work as well as tincture due to the heating process so I came up with something that could replace the syrup taste wise without sacrificing effectiveness.
thank you so much for sharing your insights! i am trying to come up with a recipe that would be an elixir thin enough to pump…. any ideas on how to thin it down? or will your proportions be sufficiently thin?
thank you!
Yes, esp made with glycerine it should be thin enough… but having never pumped any tincture whatsoever, I can’t be completely sure.
Hi Kiva,
So, I had so many elderberries (I know a nice problem to have) that I froze some. Do you think I could replace the dried for these frozen ones in the elixir?
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Yes, see above comments for using fresh berries (essentially the same as frozen).
Thank you for your wonderful website. I’m curious if you have ever experienced side effects from elderberry? I’ve been taking it the past few days and have been feeling tired and groggy… not sure if it’s a coincidence or not. I’d be interested to hear of your experience with this. Blessings!
Nope, and in over a hundred clients, I’ve never heard of that particular side effect either. In fact, many feel extra energy from elderberry.
What else did you put in your elixir and how much are you taking?
Hi Kiva. I have about a full pint of elderberries in the freezer because I ran out of Vodka and would have to drive an hour round trip to get more. I want to make something for my little nephew (3years old) and niece (10 years old) with the remaining elderberries.
I love this recipe here and want to make the drive to town to get the brandy and Glycerine, though I do have a ton of honey I could use.
I don’t want to heat the elderberries as many sites say to do for the kids to remove the alcohol. But I don’t know about them taking something with brandy. Do you give it to your little one? What would the dosage reduction be?
Jamie, just use the honey instead of glycerine
Heating the elixir won’t remove the alcohol anyway, unless you boil it hard for a long time. Besides, a dropper of tincture has less alcohol than a ripe banana, it’s really not a problem in almost any case. For medium sized kids (usually between the ages of six and twelve), I usually give 1/3-12 dropper every 1-2 hours for acute symptoms coming on, or every 3 hours or so if the bug already settled in.
Elderberry is pretty harmless and very nourishing in any kind of reasonable dose (I’m pretty sure you’d have to drink several ounces of elixir to feel funny, and even then, it’s probably just the brandy getting you
)
I’ve given Elderberry elixir to lots and lots and lots of children now, it works very well and I’ve never seen any issues whatsoever. In fact, part of the point of the elixir is to make it so picky little kids will take it.
Hi,
Just found your website. I am interested in making my own elderberry tincture, but wondered if you could recommend a good place to buy the dried elderberry. Thanks!
mountainroseherbs.com or pacificbotanicals.com are good places to start…
Mountain Rose Herbs or Pacific Botanicals are both good sources.
I was wondering I have a full bag of driend elderberries in my fridge I have had for some time do they go bad??? HOw long are they good when dried and whats the best way to store them
than you
blessings
amy
Dried last for at least several years if they’ve been kept in an airtight container out of the sun. I just keep mine in jars with airtight lids and kept in a cool, dark place.
how would i know if they are bad? They smell good and look fine they were in a zipped bad in my fridge. They are probably 2-3 yrs old I forgot about them.
Also can I use elderberry wine instead of brandy or vodka its what I have on hand???
thank you for your time
amy
You could try making a tea with them, and if it comes out deeply colored and strong tasting, they they’re probably just fine.
You could use wine, but it won’t be anywhere near as strong as it would if you used vodka or brandy because of the alcohol percentage difference and thus extraction strength.
Thank you so much for your help. I will boil some up and see how it taste.
I am so HAppy i came across your site!! I have been reading here all morning…
Your a blessing
WHen making elixer and you pour berries and honey and alcohol in jar and let sit shake for 4-6 weeks can you start taking in and do you just leave the berries in there?
thank you so much
amy
Sure, you can if you want…. you have to strain and squeeze the berries if you want the last bit out though.
Hello Kiva!
Been getting a lot of pressure from the “in-laws” [whom I live with] to get the H1N1 vaccine…for th ebaby’s sake as they put it. Not going to happen. But, I am looking for some good preventative measures and planning on going the elderberry route. I found a source for some dried berries [wasn't able to find the real live thing this year, hopefully soon though..I know they're near!].
I am wondering if I should forgo the alcohol and just go with a honey for a couple of reasons…
Osro is 16 months old, and I don’t know anything about the risks of giving toddlers alcohol.
I am pretty certain that I am dealing with adrenal fatigue and am prone to UTI’s and yeast infections, which leads me to believe the alcohol may not be good for me.
Is the elixir more effective than a simple honey [which I would end up mixing or just taking along with ginger honey]?
Hi Kristina,
The truth is, in a dropperful of regular tincture there’s less alcohol than in an a very ripe banana. In elixir, there’s significantly less than that. I certainly don’t view it as an issue unless there’s clear reaction to alcohol (and even then, I tend to think this is often a problem with what the alcohol is made from, not alcohol itself), a history of severe alcoholism or something like that.
I have had adrenal fatigue as well as chronic utis and yeast infections in the past, and did not find that herbal tinctures caused me any difficulty.
The honey is fairly effective, but no, I don’t find it to be as effective as the elixir, and you need a significantly larger dose. Personally, I worry more about frequent doses of sugar (which honey is) than I do of alcohol….
If you eat fermented foods or beverages, you likely get small doses of alcohol frequently anyhow, and I don’t think small doses of tincture are really any more significant than that but everyone should follow their own instincts about these kind of things…
Thank you Kiva. Yeah, I was wondering if the honey dosage would have to be higher, and as you said, frequent doses of sugar is defintitely a concern.
I have had a history of alcoholism, although I am not worried now about falling back into that. After doing some testing, I found myself with almost instantanious headaches and stomach cramping after only one sip each time of a white wine, a red wine and then a whisky.
I have been drinking Kombucha lately with no ill side effects.
I feel like I would prefer to make an actual elixir. I think I will do that, and if I find myself with a bad reaction, it will just be designated to the boys I suppose!
Thank you again Kiva.
Hi Kiva,
I made this a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I book marked this page but it looks like it’s changed since I was last here. The recipe looks like it’s changed too. The one I followed had 1/2 pint of berries, cover berries with honey and then fill rest of jar with brandy. With the new recipe, 1/2 oz of berries only gives me about 2 tbls instead of filling the pint half full. I was curious as to why the change.
Thanks!
I haven’t changed it recently that I recall(although I might have at some point in its history), but the 1/2 oz is a typo, it should 2 1/2 oz for dried berries, follow an appr 1:5 proportion for dried berries. Either way, I’ve updated the post to more easily usable for dried or fresh berries, and to correct the typo. Thank for reading!
Thanks for clearing that up, Kiva. My notes were probably wrong.