It’s never fun getting sick, especially this year! Today, I’m sharing my tried and true, all-natural home remedies for cough. I recommend making these remedies in advance, so that they’re ready for cold and flu season. This ginger lemon honey tea actually works, and not just as a home remedy for a sore throat.
Designed to soothe + heal, these ingredients will actually shorten the life of your cold.
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Ginger Lemon Honey Tea Recipe
I made this concoction of fresh lemon, ginger, and raw local honey (best purchased seasonally) to prepare for when the germs start spreading. Now, I keep it in the fridge. At the first sign of a cold or flu, I just scoop out a few tablespoons, add hot water, and enjoy this delicious home remedy for cough.
This is hands down the best way I’ve ever found to treat a cold, cough or flu naturally. No joke. It tastes amazing, makes me feel great instantly and I quickly recover. Why is that?
Home Remedy Ingredients
Lemons are high in vitamin C (especially the pith, aka the white part we all usually avoid!). Vitamin C helps boost the immune system and neutralize the free radicals in the body. This reduces the inflammation and swelling in the body when fighting off a common cold. Lemon also has natural acidity that helps break down mucous as well as alleviate congestion
Ginger contains a bioactive compound called gingerol, which is known to be the strong medicinal part of ginger. Helps you sweat out the toxins in your body, which is helpful when you have a cold or flu. Ginger is also a helpful home remedy for cough, settling upset stomachs, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and cold sweats. First found in Southeast Asia, this powerful root not only helps fight the common cold, but also free radicals and inflammation, according to research by the US National Library of Medicine.
Interested in adding more ginger power to your diet? Check out all of our recipes featuring this amazing and powerful root in our member’s only meal planner. We have 50+ recipes in Rawk the Year that contain ginger – everything from smoothies to soups to cookies and more!
Honey is a natural cough suppressant (Which explains why the most effective cough drops use honey). It also improves the body’s ability to fight infection and decreases the risk of fevers. The natural sweetness of honey also balances the tartness of the lemon + ginger, giving this ginger lemon honey tea its soothing flavor. Raw honey is used to treat a whole host of ailments, including cancer.
Why I Believe in Natural Remedies
As the weather gets windier and colder, flu and cold season kicks into gear. I get a little obsessive; wiping down the shopping cart like crazy, washing my hands numerous times a day, as well as gulping down my immune boosting green smoothies.
Yet no matter what I do, I get one cold every year. That’s why I’ve come to rely on my home remedies for cough. I’ve used them for years, so I know that they work for me. Many store-bought treatments contain harmful food dyes, processed sugar, along with other chemicals.
If I’m not willing to eat those on the regular, then why would I turn to them when my immune system is down?! The whole food, plant-based ingredients used in these home remedies for sore throat and cough are often cheaper, and are definitely healthier than over the counter meds. They also have natural healing properties.
Home Remedies for Cold and Flu
In winters past, I hit the drugstore to load up on medicine and cough drops when my annual cold hit… yet I never felt better using them. They tasted gross and I woke up feeling even worse. That’s when I decided there had to be a better way—something that was natural and made to heal the body.
Seven years ago, I went on my own wellness warrior journey to discover the best home remedies for cough. Since I learned about so many incredible remedies, I created a whole medicine cabinet of plant based cures. Read on for a few of my tried and true favs:
- Elderberry syrup: can be taken daily, and taken multiple times a day when experiencing cold or flue symptoms. And when you can make a medicinal syrup into popsicles for sore throats, I’m 100% here for it.
- Rawkstar fire cider: while this tonic is not for the faint of heart, it does wonders in limiting the life of a cold or the flu, and helps to strengthen the immune system along the way. This is one home remedy that’ll scare the cough right out of ya!
- Homemade vapor rub: this is a perfect natural remedy for cough + decongestant. Use it on the chest, as well as the feet to soothe.
- Ginger lemon honey tea: The recipe below has a whole host of benefits, just like the others on this list. I love this recipe for allergies, when I feel any kind of sickness coming on, or if I’m in the middle of a full blown cold.
Practical Uses for Home Remedies
Typically, when I start to feel a tickle in my throat, a stuffy nose, or the body aches, I grab a shot of fire cider. My kids and I take homemade elderberry syrup on the daily throughout the winter.
I use the vapor rub if congestion is keeping me from sleeping, and my son Jackson also uses it to help with seasonal allergies. This ginger lemon honey tea recipe can be sipped throughout the day as a home remedy for cough, sore throat, or the flu.
Tried and True Storage Tips
Have you noticed I use an awful lot of mason jars? There’s a reason why Mr. John Mason’s jars have been a popular storage favorite for over a century! I love them not just for serving green smoothies, but for storing this healthful home remedy for cough recipe. These days you can find them anywhere from antique shops to grocery stores. I often buy mine at a local feed supply store.
Please let me know in the comments below if you’ve tried this natural remedies for cough recipe for ginger lemon honey tea, or any of the other home remedies for sore throats (and a whole host of other ailments!) I’ve created. I’d love to know how they work for your family.
Ginger Lemon Honey Tea
Ingredients
- 2 lemons organic
- 2 inch ginger root
- 1 cup honey
- 12-oz mason jar
Instructions
- Slice lemons and ginger.
- Place the lemon and ginger slices in the mason jar, alternating layers of each.
- Slowly, pour honey over the lemon and ginger. Allow the honey to sink down and around the lemon and ginger slices. Fill jar to the top with honey and seal tightly.
- Store in the refrigerator. Over time, the mixture will start to turn into a loose jelly.
- When you are in need of some soothing tea, scoop 2-3 tablespoons into a mug full of hot water—be sure to scoop whole pieces of ginger and lemon. Allow to steep for 3-4 minutes and sip away.
Video
Notes
- Since lemons are going into this concentrate, make sure to wash them well before slicing.
- Use a jar with a tight-fitting lid to ensure this mixture stays protected.
- For best personal results, use raw, local honey that was made within the season you are using it.
Can you take the lemon peel off or should you keep it on?
Hey Marlene!
We leave the peel on, but if you prefer the peel off, go for it. (The peel does have health enzymes in it.)
I have been getting organic Meyer lemons and leave the peel on it. Once the tea is gone, I chew on the lemon (and peel). It tastes delicious!
Would it be ok to use turmeric instead of ginger? Or aside from the ginger can i add turmeric to the recipe?
YES! Please do, if you prefer turmeric over ginger! 🙂
Are lemon and honey important for sore throat ? If it really useful for sore throat i’m happy to follow this ideas in this post. Thanks for your advice!
Hello Celestine!
Lemon: High in vitamin C, which is an antioxidant vital to a strong immune system and neutralize the activity of free radicals in the body, reducing the inflammation and swelling caused by free radicals in the body.
Ginger: Promotes a healthy sweating that aids in the detoxification of the body, which is often helpful when you have a cold or flu. Ginger is also helpful for settling upset stomachs, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and cold sweating.
Honey: Soothes a sore throats, making it an effective and natural cough suppressant. Honey may also boost the body’s immune system by aiding in the production of white blood cells. This improves the body’s ability to fight infection and decreases the risk of fevers. The natural sweetness of honey also balances the tartness of the lemon and the ginger’s spice, giving honey, lemon and ginger tea its soothing flavor.
Hope that helps. 🙂
Can I take a slice of lemon and ginger and a tbsp of the liquid to make a hot drink? I read somewhere that leaving the lemon inside the jar will have a bitter taste. is it true? do I have to use raw honey? or jus normal honey from the supermarket?
Hi Alice,
You make take a slice of lemon and ginger if you’d like. We prefer raw honey because it is unprocessed. Many honeys that aren’t classified as “raw” are usually processed.
I just made the recipe, except I used the regular honey we had around the house: it’s all natural but it’s not labelled raw. Will it still work?
Thanks for the recipe, can’t wait to try it!
Seems like it should work fine, Fiona!
Good morning, I purchased raw honey from the Vitamin Shop. My question is its solid and almost creamy white not the golden liquid that is pictured on your site..Is there something I should do to get it to that form?
That’s totally how it’s supposed to be, Filomena! 🙂
I need more remedies for my roomI need more remedies for my flu?
I need more feeling properties
Is it necessary to store this in a glass container or would another container be ok?
Another container would work, Cheryl 🙂
Hello! This looks wonderful and I just made a batch! Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
I have a few questions:
Is it okay to use a larger jar and only fill up halfway? Not sure if there is a reason why it should be filled up all the way.
Also, do you think using this as a “tea” on a regular basis is okay and will help prevent colds?
And finally, is there an ideal amount of time this should sit before using?
Thanks again!
I would at least let it sit overnight, Natalie 🙂 You don’t need to fill it to the top, and you can drink on a regular basis if you’d like!
I’m wondering if you need to scrub the ginger? It’s not peeled, right?
You should scrub it like you would a potato when the skin is still on 🙂
As this starts to deplete, can I just add more honey? Or should I make another batch?
Add more honey if the batch is relatively fresh. If you’ve had it in your fridge for a couple of months, then you may just want to make a whole new jar 🙂
I’m vegan. What could I use instead of honey with the same benefits and plantbased? Would Agave syrup be a good alternative? Thanks for your great posts, recipes and website 😉 Namaste 🙂
It could be, Thomas… We don’t have an answer for this at the moment, though 🙁
Just made a batch of this and it tastes great! I didn’t have any fresh ginger handy though; I hope it’s okay that I subbed ground ginger because I could really use the relief.
Yay, Jessica! Try fresh ginger next time because the healing properties are incredibly more when fresh. 🙂
Great post. I definitely will try. Can you please post sources for your information on the properties of lemon, ginger and honey? Thanks!
Thanks a lot, I will try that.
I am grateful for the recipe because I have been looking for something more natural for my family as I am tired of using all those chemicals found in pharmaceutical drugs. Is it fine if I give a teaspoon (w/o hot water) to my daughter every morning? Is it safe to drink without adding hot water as my daughter doesn’t like hot drinks, or should I rather add hot water, let it cool off, then let her drink it?
Hi Wendy, I would warm it with the hot water and let it cool off a bit until she can drink it. 🙂