Fit through the winter
This forgotten drink boosts your immune system
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You only need two to three ingredients for this tonic. The healing effects were already valued in the Middle Ages – today the drink is being rediscovered as a superfood.
Do you want to prevent the nasty cold season and fortify yourself with healthy drinks – but you’re tired of chamomile tea, ginger and the like? Then try Oxymel.
Oxy, what?! It sounds exotic, but it is actually a traditional remedy. Sour honey has been used in natural medicine for thousands of years. The The drink consists of apple cider vinegar – “oxy” means sour – and honey, “mel”. The third ingredient is not a must and is very variable; depending on which herbs you add, you can direct the effect in certain directions.
Oxymel was valued by the ancient Greeks and in the Middle Ages, for example by Hildegard von Bingen. Then he was forgotten. The healthy sour honey drink is currently experiencing a revival. Only recently did the startup “Kruut” – which enriches Oxymel with local wild herbs – make it onto the TV show “The Lions’ Den” and has already attracted attention and excitement.
Sour honey is so healthy
Just the basic ingredients of Oxymel, which you can easily make yourself, have an immune-boosting effect:
- The ingredients of the honey have an antibacterial, immune-boosting, nerve-strengthening and anti-inflammatory effect. The golden fuel also contains many minerals, trace elements, enzymes and vitamins that our body needs, especially in the cold season.
- Apple Cider Vinegar also has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects. It is traditionally used to strengthen the digestive and metabolic systems. Vinegar is practically a probiotic. The lactic acid bacteria contained strengthen the intestine – which is the most important organ of our immune system.
How to use Oxymel
Apple cider vinegar may sound unpleasant, but when combined with honey it is a refreshing and, above all, alcohol-free thirst quencher with a strengthening effect. To be honest: Oxymel even tastes delicious, pleasantly sweet and sour. It is drunk pure or diluted with water. If you don’t like the taste, you can mix the sour honey with juice and try what suits your palate.
The application is simple: Add 1 tablespoon of Oxymel to a glass of water or juice. You can do it Drink daily as a treatment for three to six weeksthen pause.
Immune booster made from three ingredients
The third ingredient is your magic weapon. The basic ingredients, apple cider vinegar and honey, have wonderful extracting and preservative properties. This means you can easily absorb and preserve the valuable ingredients of the added plants.
There are many different Oxymel products available to purchase. But you can also create your own individual mixture. There are no limits to your imagination – and your taste. You can use herbs like dandelion, lemon balm, ribwort plantain, thyme or sage. Flowers and fruits such as chamomile, rose hips or lavender. Or even healing spices like cinnamon and turmeric.
This is how you make Oxymel yourself
You can customize the production depending on whether you like the taste of vinegar or not. Just start with that Basic recipe of 3 parts honey to 1 part vinegar at. If you like vinegar, you can use 2 parts vinegar. There are also recipes in which the ratio of honey to vinegar is reversed.
Feel free to try out which type of vinegar you like and which honey you like. This also changes the taste. In addition to apple cider vinegar, other fruit vinegars, wine vinegar or rice vinegar are also possible. However, it is important that the vinegar is natural, unfiltered and not heated is so that it is full of probiotic cultures.
This is how you enrich Oxymel with plants
If you have more patience and want to increase the effect of your Oxymel, you can add plant extracts. It works like this:
- Chop up the plants and soak them in the honey-vinegar mixture for up to 4 weeks. You should use a sterilized mason jar and seal it airtight. It is advisable to place a piece of parchment paper under the metal lid so that the vinegar does not react with the metal.
- The storage location should be dark and as cool as possible, below 10 degrees. Shake the mixture daily to help distribute the ingredients better.
- At the end of this gentle ripening period, filter out the plant components using a sieve.
- Pour your finished Oxymel into a sterilized container for storage.
- Once opened, your Oxymel will last for around six months.
Sources used: br.de, gruenesmoothies.de, vox.de, kruut.de