Homemade Honey Ginger Throat Drops

Fall is the time of year when I am most prone to allergies, and one symptom I always have is a dry, scratchy throat.  Not to mention, winter is nearing – the season of colds and sore throats.  I wanted to be prepared going into this season and had done some reading online about how to make your own cough drops.  It didn’t seem too difficult, so this weekend I set out to make my own honey ginger throat drops. I am thrilled with how they came out and I can’t wait to make more, and experiment with different flavors!

What you need: To make the throat drops, I used fresh ginger root and honey.  For this project you will also need a large pot, a baking tray, powdered sugar, corn starch, and a cooking thermometer that goes up to at least 300 degrees.

Dice the ginger into pieces and put into a pot with about 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, infusing the water with the ginger flavor.

You’ll need the powdered sugar and corn starch to make a “mold” for the throat drops.  Prepare this now so that it’s ready. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch (1:1 ratio) and spread evenly on a baking tray.  Use a small, cylindrical object to make impressions in the powder – these are your molds. I used the top of a tube of chapstick!

Once the ginger is finished steeping (I just let it simmer until the water had a strong, gingery flavor).  At this point you could also add some lemon or other flavoring of your choice! Strain the pieces of ginger out of the water. Next, add one cup of honey to the ginger water.  Many of the recipes for throat drops that I found online used raw sugar, but you could also use agave nectar, or honey. I chose honey because of its soothing properties, making it the perfect ingredient for throat drops.

Bring the honey and ginger mixture to a boil. Let it boil until it reaches the temperature of 300 degrees.  Once it reaches that temperature, it is ready to be poured into the mold.  Be extremely careful doing this – the mixture is extremely hot, and once you remove it from the heat it hardens quickly.  I used a baster and transferred the mixture a little bit at a time into the molds.  I found that a lot of the liquid had burned off, so I was left with only about 10-15 drops.  Next time I would definitely make a larger batch!

It’s so cool to watch the liquid solidify in the sugar molds.

Let the drops sit for a couple of hours until they harden and cool.  As you remove them from the molds you can brush the powdered sugar off of them.

These honey ginger throat drops are like little bits of heaven..they taste so good I’d eat them even if I didn’t have a sore throat!  I can’t wait to experiment with some different flavors…what would you put in yours?

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