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Traditional elderberry syrup is made by cooking the berries, cooling, straining, and then adding natural sweetener of choice. What if you don’t have time to go through that whole regimen that takes an hour or two? Is it possible to whip up a batch more quickly?
Yes, it is. And, I would suggest trying this one-minute elderberry syrup recipe instead of settling for commercial elderberry syrups if you are schedule-challenged. Commercial syrups are quite expensive and contain undesirable additives and/or cheap sweeteners.
Bonus: Using the ultra-fast method for making elderberry syrup outlined below doesn’t sacrifice anything in effectiveness compared with the more time-intensive approach.
You will not only save time but also a lot of money too! A bottle of the leading brand of elderberry syrup costs about $25 for only 5.4 ounces. Making your own in a minute or two with this recipe will give you three times as much syrup for a few dollars less per batch!
Making Elderberry Syrup from Elderberry Juice
This new option for making elderberry syrup is simple…just use commercially pressed elderberry juice instead of cooking dried berries.
There are a couple of brands of 100% elderberry juice I’ve examined that look acceptable.
This brand is excellent and most cost-effective per dose.
This brand is acceptable as well, but slightly more expensive.
Read the label carefully and avoid brands that dilute the elderberry juice with water or blend in cheaper juices like apple and grape.
Bypass brands that add a cheap sweetener like agave.
One final word of warning. Don’t use the raw elderberry juice you squeeze yourself as it contains some potent and quite dangerous toxins.
If you have a source of fresh elderberries (that’s awesome!), bring the juice to a boil, cook for 2-3 minutes, and then cool to room temperature before making into syrup. Going this route is a bit quicker than using dried berries, but longer than using the method in the recipe below.
Which Sweetener is Best?
Once you have your source for pure elderberry juice, simply blend in sweetener to taste and you will have a batch of syrup in a matter of minutes instead of the hour or more required to cook/cool/strain the berries.
The best sweetener to use for elderberry syrup is raw honey.
It works as a synergistic natural antibiotic to boost effectiveness.
For children under the age of one, you can use another natural sweetener like dark maple syrup or date syrup.
If you’ve been buying commercial elderberry syrup because you are pressed for time, try this fast and easy method instead! Note that it is a bit more expensive than buying the dried berries and cooking them. However, it is a huge time saver and far less per dose compared to commercial syrup offerings.
Ultra-Fast DIY Elderberry Syrup (one minute!)
The fastest method for making a batch of elderberry syrup, which only takes a minute or two compared with the hour or more required when making traditionally from dried or fresh elderberries.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup elderberry juice pasteurized or boiled for 2 minutes if fresh
- .5 cup raw honey
Equipment
Instructions
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Mix elderberry juice and raw honey until thoroughly blended.
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Pour into small amber bottles with a tight-fitting lid.
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Refrigerate.
Recipe Notes
Substitute maple syrup or date syrup for the honey for children under age 1.
If using raw honey, the syrup will be good to use for several months refrigerated. The raw honey acts as a natural preservative.
If using maple or date syrup, the syrup will be good to use for about 1 month refrigerated.
Freeze what you will not use in that time.Â
does this have to be stored in amber bottles or will mason jar work?
Amber bottles are better to protect the elderberry active ingredients from degradation from light. If you are going to use up quickly, then a mason jar is probably fine.
Thanks for the recipe. I made mine today. How much should we take each day, a teaspoon, a tablespoon?
1-3 teaspoons per day is what we do in our home. 1 tsp per day as a preventative, and if illness strikes, we increase to 3 tsp per day (1 tsp, 3X per day).
Thank you for sharing! Just an FYI, there are much better brands than Gaia that do not add sugar.
Is elderberry syrup recommended for daily use? I am looking for a daily “something” to add to my son’s winter regime so that he’s fortified (as much as possible) against winter colds/bugs. Could this syrup be added to soda water?
Yes, I know many parents who use a teaspoon of elderberry syrup after breakfast or as a yummy chaser to cod liver oil every morning before school! One friend of mine says her children experienced less than half the sniffles once she started doing this.
You can try adding it to soda water. I haven’t tried it myself, but I think you would use too much. It’s best in small amounts as a immune booster via syrup.
That one-minute option is brilliant! I use your original recipe often 🙂 and recommend to friends. Question: last December I made some elderberry syrup (with raw honey) to give away as Christmas presents, some family/friends have yet to crack open the bottle… Do you think the raw honey would have preserved it well for 9-10 months??
What a great idea for gifts! Sadly, unless they refrigerated it, it’s probably no longer edible. If it was refrigerated, there is a pretty good chance it’s still ok as the raw honey is amazing as a preservative.
What are the properties that make elderberry anti cold/flu? Wouldn’t the boiling method destroy/reduce heat sensitive nutrients like Vitamin C?
Some of the Vitamin C is destroyed, but other potent properties are not …. here’s an overview of the research. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/simple-elderberry-syrup-to-boost-immunity/
I have literally made my syrup this way for 20 years! I use fresh pressed juice from berries on our property, boil and then add honey. Glad to see that pure elderberry juice is now available to make it quickly for those that don’t have access to fresh elderberries!
Hi Sarah, I have about an acre of Elderberry trees. They flower & fruit every year, but, until recently I didn’t know how valuable they are. What to do with the fresh berries to use your juice recipe ? Thanks, Julia
That’s awesome and yes, a very valuable resource you can gift to your family and community by putting it to good use. You can press the ripe berries (no green ones and no stems) into juice and then boil it for 2-3 minutes to ensure all the anti-nutrients (they can cause extreme gastric distress) are eliminated. Then, cool the juice and make into syrup as directed in the recipe above 🙂
I’ll be nipping out (when the rain stops) to see if there are ripe elderberries in my garden to make some of this to add to my stock of home remedies (I already do the Master Tonic, which is great). I have a question – would the same method work with rosehips from my garden to make rosehip syrup? (ie extract the juice and use the same recipe from there). Thanks for the great article, much appreciated.
Not sure about the rosehips syrup … I will have to look into that further.
hi. i noticed one of these is a concentrate & one is a juice. is one better than the other? thx.
Yes, that is true. Either one is fine and I’ve tried both without noticing any difference in effectiveness.
Hello,
Thank you for he great post! I was wondering if we could add things to this syrup like vitamin C powder, garlic, cinnamon etc.? Just interested in what you think about that. Thanks again for the great info!
Yes, you can add what you like. We just use it plain in our home.
Thank you for sharing this!