Dr. Archer’s Simple Cold & Cough Tea

I’ve been prescribing this tea for my patients and I recently tested it on myself.  It works, and it works well! I’m tempted to give you a disclaimer for it being so…simple. There are a whole bunch of other amazing herbs I could have put in this tea, but I love the idea of a two herb tea. Easy for you, right?

In fact, it’s even easy enough for the Wendy’s Eating Husband, who’s currently feeling a little under the weather. I convinced him to make and consume a whole serving (1.5 cups). And he did! When I asked him if he liked it he said, “not bad”. Now if only he would have made two more servings today…

One serving of tea a day will not do your cold any kind of justice. Sure, it will help, but if you want that cold gone ASAP, you have to drink a lot of it in frequent doses. One way around drinking a lot of tea is making your tea more concentrated. Before naturopathic medical school, I used to think that 2 daily cups of echinacea tea from Trader Joe’s would get rid of my cold. Hah! I was totally under dosed.

One serving of this tea makes 1.5 cups, and you need to drink one serving three times a day, for the entire duration of your cold. Start drinking it as soon as you think you might be getting sick. If you’re already sick and wanting to take this, good news! It will still help, and it may even prevent your cold from turning into a nasty cough.

This recipe uses loose, dried herbs. In order to brew the tea, you will need a stainless steel tea strainer. I like the one I used in the photo. I use it every single day, and it’s available here.

When it comes to kids, a general dose is 1/2 cup of the brewed tea three times a day. According to weight, age, and the severity of the illness, the dose may vary (which means that I may not dose it like this if I see you in my office). Since the recipe brews 1.5 cups at a time, you can brew a day’s worth of tea for your kid all at once. Make sure the tea is not burning hot prior to serving it to your child. You knew that, right? You can also chill the tea and serve it cold, iced, in a sippy cup, or in a water bottle.

I particularly like this tea because it has your back when it comes to both viruses and bacteria. The licorice is anti-viral and the thyme is antimicrobial.

This tea can be used to:

• shorten the duration of a cold
• decrease the symptoms of a cold
• prevent an upper head cold from progressing down into the lungs
• relieve coughs
• mitigate coughing spasms

Thyme tea by itself is like tasting vanilla extract off the teaspoon when you’re baking chocolate chip cookies. Brewing thyme leaves with licorice root is like you ate the chocolate chip cookie with the vanilla extract in it. Delicious. Okay, okay, so maybe drinking thyme & licorice root tea won’t be like eating a chocolate chip cookie. But you get it. The licorice root makes the thyme work in the tea.

Dr. Archer’s Simple Cold & Cough Tea

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups of boiling, filtered water
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 Tablespoon licorice root
• stainless steel tea strainer

Place tea in a stainless steel tea strainer. Pour 1.5 cups of filtered hot water over tea. Cover with a small plate and brew tea for 15 minutes. The plate helps to trap the essential oil from the thyme in the tea.  Serve hot or cold. Add honey if needed.

Kids: Drink 1/2 cup three times a day for the duration of cold and cough symptoms.
Adults: Drink 1.5 cups three times a day for the duration of cold and cough symptoms.

Daily use should be discontinued after 4 weeks.

Precautions:

• If you have hypertension or are on medications that alter your potassium levels, please check with your doctor prior to drinking this tea.
• Do not give honey to infants prior to 1 year of age.
• It is always best that you or your child see a naturopathic doctor for your cold and cough symptoms prior to self-treatment with any kind of herbal medicine.

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