The magic potion with the best from your garden
The concentrated power of the herbs and their healing properties in sweet honey and sour vinegar. This is the basic ingredient for the drink, Oxymel, a herbal concentrate that packs a punch. It serves either as a targeted remedy or, depending on the type of herbs used, basically strengthens the immune system.
Even if the name of the extract seems modern, Oxymel has a centuries-old tradition from which we can still benefit today, perhaps more than ever. The name of the concentrate is made up of oxy for acid and mel for honey. This sour honey practically prepares itself and you can draw from the abundance of your herb garden to make it.
What is Oxymel and how do you drink Oxymel?
Honey, vinegar, and herbs
Refreshing mixed drinks made from water, vinegar and honey have been known since ancient times. Its popularity has endured in some Asian and Middle Eastern countries, despite the ubiquity of sugary sodas. The basis of these drinks is always honey and vinegar in a ratio of 3:1.
This sweet and sour extract becomes medicine if herbs are added to the honey and vinegar beforehand and the mixture is left to infuse for a few weeks. Its healing effect is determined by the selection of the added herbs. Poured with water, tea or juice, the result is a real magic drink, which in Russia is often drunk before breakfast. Because Oxymel does not contain alcohol as a solvent, it can also be given to children. The sweetness makes it pleasant and tasty.
How much does Oxymel cost?
You can buy Oxymel ready mixed and bottled. You can also make Oxymel yourself inexpensively, because you only need water, vinegar, honey and herbs, which you can also grow on your balcony or in your garden.
Make use of your herbal knowledge and create different herbal concentrates for different purposes. Our recipes should inspire you a little!
Basic recipe: Oxymel for immune boosting
Ingredients
One part apple cider vinegar
Three parts regional organic honey
A portion herbs of your choice
preparation
For an oxymel that has a positive influence on your intestinal flora and thus on your immune system, chop up one part of the herbs of your choice, add one part of apple cider vinegar and three parts of organic honey, preferably regional, and leave the mixture sealed in a boiled screw-top jar draw weeks.
During this time, the acid from the vinegar and the sugar from the honey release the ingredients from the herbs, making them more digestible for your body.
Apple cider vinegar has an antibacterial effect in your intestines and ensures the development of a healthy intestinal flora in which intestinal fungi have a bad hand. After four weeks, pour the mixture through a sieve. You have received a dark syrup that you can drink one tablespoon of daily in the morning after getting up or as needed in water, tea or juice.
The Oxymel has a shelf life of six to eight months.
Ginger oxymel with linden blossom to warm up
Ingredients
300 g organic ginger, grated or finely diced
3 organic lemons, cut into eighths with the peel
3 hands full of linden blossoms, just opened
1kg honey
preparation
Lemon juice replaces apple cider vinegar in this Oxymel recipe. Proceed with the ingredients in the same way as in the basic recipe.
This oxymel has a diaphoretic effect and promotes fever in colds. In winter, poured with cold or warm water, the extract mobilizes your own body heat and thus helps you to become healthy. A small catalyst for your inner heating, so to speak. Prepare it in stock in June during the linden blossom for the cold winter with colds. The vitamin C from lemons provides an extra dose of “healthy”.
Cough oxymel recipe
Ingredients
250 g mixture of spruce needles, thyme, buckhorn
600 g forest honey
a cup of apple cider vinegar
For this oxymel, collect the young, soft shoot tips of the spruce trees in spring. They have a sour, woody taste, have a cough-relieving, antibacterial and soothing effect on the respiratory tract.
Oxymel as an evening drink
Ingredients
Mixture of 250 g of rose petals, lavender, valerian root and chamomile in equal proportions
500 grams of honey
200 ml apple cider vinegar
Cut the valerian root into small pieces. After four weeks, strain everything well and drink the Oxymel in lukewarm water before going to bed. This oxymel has a calming effect and promotes deep, restful sleep.
