Ingredients
- 8 cups fresh, ripe elderberries, stems removed
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- 16–24 oz honey
Method
- Cook the berries.
Add the elderberries and water to a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Add the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Let everything simmer together for at least 30 minutes, stirring and mashing the berries occasionally with a wooden spoon or potato masher. You want the berries nice and soft and all those juices released. - Strain the juice.
Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl and line it with cheesecloth. Pour in the hot berry mixture, working in batches if needed, and press the berries really well with the back of a wooden spoon to squeeze out as much juice as you can. Then gather up the cheesecloth and squeeze the heck out of it. - Reduce and sweeten.
Pour the strained juice back into your saucepan and simmer until it has reduced by about half. Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly, then measure your juice. Add roughly an equal volume of honey to the concentrated elderberry juice—so if you end up with 3 cups of juice, add about 3 cups of honey. Stir until completely combined. You don’t want to boil the honey, so make sure the juice has come off the heat first. - Bottle it up.
Pour the syrup into clean glass jars or bottles and refrigerate. It should keep for about three months in the fridge.
