I love Elderberry fizz and cordial often buy this in the Supermarket but due to the lockdown and with us only purchasing the essential items, I have been missing drinking my favourite drink. My cousin from Germany shared this recipe with me as I mentioned that there are lots of Elderberry Trees along the paths when we go for our daily walks around Staffordshire and Cheshire.
My kids love the Elderberry cordial and the method I have made it slightly different as I have also not used citric acid as the cordial does not last long in our home and we drink this within 3 to 4 weeks. If you are storing this for a long period then do add in the citric acid to help preserve the syrup. I realised that many of my friends who are local to the area did not know how to spot the tree or make the syrup, so I have decided to share the recipe on the blog so that you can make this. Surprisingly this summer, my kids and I have made three batches of this cordial. We are on our last bottle of Elderflower cordial as I type this but alas, the Elderflowers are all gone now, making way for the berries. Nevertheless, here is the recipe, remember to print it, pin it or save it for next year. Feel free to leave questions if you need more clarifications. Here’s a youtube video of how I made the Elderflower Cordial.
Feel free to Pin this image on your Pinterest Account so you can remember to try this recipe  
Ingredients
- 12-15 Sprigs/heads of elderberry flower
- 1-2 Lemons
- 500ml Water (rough estimation)
- 1kg Sugar (I only used 500g)
Instructions
1. Pick 12-15 heads/sprigs of elderberry flowers (best to pick them after the rain as they do have less insects in them). The insects are black in colour and small so hard to spot them. Add these sprigs into a large bowl, add a 1 tsp of baking soda and soak them in water for half an hour to remove the insects (they will rise to the top). After half an hour, rinse the springs a few time till you are certain there are no more insects. If you pick the sprigs after it rains, you would hardly find any insects.
2. Pick only the flowers and add them into a deep pot. Try not to add the green stumps as these will make the juice bitter.
3. Then slice 1 to 2 lemon and place them flat on the top of the petals. Pour in hot water to cover the sprigs, place a plate on the top of the lemon and add a heavy object like a cup or pestel (from the pestle and mortar) on top of it for weight. Cover the pot and leave it aside in a cool spot for 3 days. The smell will be amazing, I wish I could share that with you in this post.
4. After 3 days, sieve the juice into a fresh pot and add sugar into it. 
5. Give it a quick boil to help the sugar dissolve and turn off the flame. This should be syrupy. You can at this point add lemon/orange juice or citric acid if you plan to store this longer. I did not. Sterilize a bottle in hot water and pour the hot juice into the bottle, seal. This should keep for a few months easily. If you break the seal, keep it in the fridge and should last you 3 to 4 weeks. You can serve this cold with ice or warm with honey and lemon. The syrup is also fabulous to be added to soda water, sparkling wine or in baking recipes. 
Notes
Elderberry Flowers
Now the Elderberry Tree yearns flowers (mid May to late June) and berries (August to September). The Elderberry flowers and berries are packed with antioxidants and vitamins that can boost your immune system to help you fight cold. Now the elderflower extract is used to make medicine especially for sinuses, colds and influenza (flu), so if you can make the juice and store them for winter, you could have the cordial warm with lemon and honey.
Hope you have enjoyed reading this recipe and if you do try this, please leave a comment on the blog, youtube channel or social media pages.
Tip: It is important to know which is the Elderberry Tree, ask your friends if you are unsure. These flowers grow on a tree and not on the ground, as you will find a lot of weeds looking similar
8 comments
I have elderflower trees in my garden and have yet to make cordial. It has been interesting to read about the benefits. I agree that some shrubs from the ground look very similar
You are so lucky Mary, you must make the cordial next year then when they start flowering as now the berries will be ready
This is something different but nice for me to come across with. Thank you for sharing 🙂
These are more common in the UK and Europe
I’ve been wanting to get some elderberry syrup for cocktail hour! Now I just need to find a tree. 😉
These are perfect in cocktails and you can make Gin with the Elderflowers as well
Isn’t it so amazing what we can do with plants sometimes? I love how you gave a detailed step by step guide on how to achieve this. Hopefully mine turns out as great as yours when I try it out.
Hope you do try it out Mary and let me know how it goes