Make Your Own Root Beer Shine Cough Syrup: Appalachia Style

I live in the mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina where literally the hills tell stories. This area is rich in history, lore, and fantastic tales. Ever since I moved here over ten years ago, I have fallen in love with how things “used to be done.” Such in fact, that my husband and I have made it a mission to bring back the “good ol’ days” here in the county, starting with our new adventure New River Mills.

I could really get sidetracked telling you about all the fantastic things that I have learned here in the county but one thing that we use each and every cold season is our Homemade Cough Syrup. Living here in Ashe County, I can tell you that Moonshiners still run these roads, so when we typically make our syrup we tend to use the good ol’ stuff, but that is not always available, so let’s talk about the next best option, Sugarlands Shine.

Sugarland Shine offers a huge variety of different flavors as well as proofs, but for this recipe, I tried out their Root Beer Shine. I have been suffering from a terrible cough the past couple of days and honestly, even though it is 70 proof with a bit of added items this turned into a tasty syrup.

All you need are a couple of simple items including the shine, honey, a bit of lemon and if you have a really bad cough, you can use a touch of pepper flakes. You want to add everything into a little bowl so that you can mix everything really well.

• One Shot Root Beer Shine From Sugarland Shine
• 1 Tablespoon of Honey
• One tablespoon of Lemon

You can simply mix and drink but if you decide that you want to add the red pepper flakes or the candy you will need to warm this up. It works better if you warm it up a little anyways. I added one Root Beer Candy and put it in the microwave till the liquid became warm, I then would just stir till the candy dissolved.  If you are like me and really don’t like the taste of shine the root beer candies help to mask any shine flavor making is really easy to drink.

The Sugarlands Shine really does not need anything added to it, but I just prefer a sweeter drink even when I am sick. 🙂 Sugarlands Shine offers a ton of different recipes on their site including how to make a Root Beer Float using their Root Beer Shine. I might have to try this when I get to feeling better.