Oxymels and Honey Infusions

 Oxymels

If you are sensitive to alcohol or do not like the taste, oxymels are a great alternative to alcohol based tinctures! Oxymels actually contain a tincture diluted with honey although typically vinegar tinctures are used in this case. Adding honey not only cuts any bitterness in the tincture it also has many healing qualities itself! Apart from improving the taste, honey thickens your formula making it particularly soothing to the throat. Use this to your benefit by adding herbs that soothe and nourish and you have a powerful sore throat remedy!

How to…

  1. Obtain the tincture you want to dilute, typically an apple cider vinegar tincture is used. To create one see my page on tinctures!

  2. Gather you honey and warm it if necessary, sometimes honey crystalizes and requires a small amount of heat to handle. Always heat honey minimally, keep its core temperature around 100-110F or 37 to 43C. 

  3. Add your honey to the tincture to your own preference. 20% honey is good for stronger oxymels while 60-80% honey is good for more soothing, sweeter formulations. Try a couple out and find out what works for you!

  4. Thoroughly mix the honey and tincture until they are completely combined. This may take several minutes, a hand held mixer really helps!

  5. Store for up to several years. Honey is naturally preserving so the more honey you use, the longer it can last, but it tastes so good I’m sure you’ll use it quickly!


Honey as a Menstruum

Alternatively honey may be used as a solvent for extraction. Because it is quite thick, infusions tend to take a long time to fully extract. Fresh plants, fruits, vegetables and a variety of dried herbs are extracted wonderfully in honey due to its unique composition. Its nutritional value and antimicrobial nature make it a truly powerful menstruum value through the ages.

Plant Parts: 

Fresh and dried plants, fruits, and vegetables work well, although fresh extracts tend to have a shorter shelf life. Store these in the refrigerator and use them within a couple weeks. Due to the nature of the extract you will not be abel to filter the honey after infusing so keep that in mind when choosing your herbs. Fine powders work well like cinnamon and ginger, or even turmeric!

How to…

  1. Obtain your plant material and place it in a jar.

  2. Pour your honey over the plant matter and stir well.

  3. Seal the container very well as you will be inverting every day. Using a jar with a flat lid is preferred as you can simply flip the jar upside down and let the honey slowly settle. The next day flip it again and repeat daily for 7-30 days.