This elderberry tea is gorgeous, flavorful, and so good for you! We'll cover everything you need to know to brew the perfect cup, and share the benefits of elderberry tea. If you like your tea sweet, try it with this elderberry syrup!
I love tart teas like hibiscus, blackberry, and this incredible elderberry tea, especially during flu season. It's easy to make, loaded with antioxidants, and the only ingredients you really need are elderberries and water!
I like mine as-is, but you can sweeten yours with elderberry syrup, lavender simple syrup, honey, sugar, or your favorite sweetener.
As much as I love a cup of elderberry tea on its own, I recommend steeping lemon peel, ginger, cinnamon, orange peels, or any other aromatics you like with your tea! Or, add some elderflower syrup!
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🧐 Why This Recipe Works
- Elderberries can help boost immunity and relieve cold and flu symptoms!
- This tea is as easy to prepare as it gets!
- Elderberry tea is naturally caffeine-free.
- This tea's tart, fruity flavor tastes great on its own and even better with the addition of sweeteners and spices.
- Try making your own tea blend by adding dried rose hips, mullen leaves, St john's wort, and yarrow!
🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
🔖 Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions
- Elderberries: Use dried, dehydrated, or freeze-dried elderberries. If you can't forage elderberries where you live, you can buy elderberry tea on Amazon. If making tea by the pot, you can use ¼ cup fresh elderberries for 2 cups of fresh water. You'll want to simmer the tea for at least 20 minutes to neutralize the toxins.
- Water: If your water doesn't taste great as-is, it won't make a good cup of tea either. If necessary, use bottled water.
- Sweetener: Raw honey, sugar, elderberry syrup, whipped honey, or sweetener of choice, I prefer Truvia.
Optional Ingredients
- cinnamon stick
- cloves
- cardamom pods
- candied or fresh ginger
- fresh, freeze-dried, or dehydrated orange slices
- sugar cubes for tea
🔪 Helpful Tools
☕️ How to Make Elderberry Tea By The Cup
Step 1: Add dried or freeze-dried elderberries to a disposable tea bag or basket. Pour boiling water over the elderberries and steep for 5 minutes.
Pro Tip: Since we're using dried or frozen elderberries, the toxins have been eliminated in the drying process, so a shorter steeping time is just fine!
Step 2: Add a dehydrated orange slice, cinnamon stick or your favorite fall spices if you'd like. Remove tea basket and sweeten tea with your favorite sweetener, or enjoy as is if you prefer your tea tart!
If you prefer a stronger tea, you'll want to make a pot of tea and simmer it over low heat for 15 to 30 minutes. Just follow these simple steps...
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🫖 How to Brew A Pot of Elderberry Tea
Step 1: Add ¼ cup of dehydrated or freeze-dried elderberries to a teapot. You can also add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods, ginger etc. Pour boiling water over them. Bring to a boil then simmer, over low heat, for a minimum of 15 minutes.
Step 2: Strain elderberry tea into your cup. Stir elderberry syrup or a low-calorie sweetener into your tea and enjoy!
Pro Tip: One of the benefits of sweetening the tea with elderberry syrup is that you may not need to add additional spices since most of them are already used in my elderberry syrup recipe.
🩺 Elderberry Tea Benefits
Black elderberries (or Sambucus nigra) are believed to be an effective remedy for cold symptoms and upper-respiratory problems, although no large-scale studies have been done.
According to Pub Med, black elderberries may serve as "an alternative to antibiotic misuse for upper respiratory symptoms due to viral infections, and a potentially safer alternative to prescription drugs for routine cases of the common cold and influenza."
In addition to the boost they can offer your immune system, it is believed that elderberries may also aid with:
- reducing risk of tumors
- reducing inflammation levels
- aiding heart health
- lowering blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
Most people can enjoy a cup or two of elderberry tea a day without any issues. However, it's good to drink elderberry tea in moderation until you know how your body tolerates it.
While elderberry tea can sometimes provide a mild sedative effect, it is unlikely to work as a sleep aid. 
Most experts agree that eating raw elderberries should be avoided. That's because elderberries contain alkaloids and glycosides that can cause stomach upset in those with sensitive stomachs. Cooked black elderberries, on the other hand, are totally safe to enjoy!
American Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is native in the U.S. except for a handful of states. Elderberry is easy to grow in your own garden, but can be foraged in mountainous areas, forests, and roadways. Elderberries can also be purchased on Amazon and other market places like Etsy.
🌿 Other Foraged Recipes
If you like foraging as much as I do, check out these other foraging ideas!
- How to make balm of gilead
- How to forage and use rowanberries
- Foraging fried chicken mushrooms
- Simple elderberry jelly recipe
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips
- When foraging elderberries, be sure to pick only ripe elderberries and avoid any green or unripe berries which contain a higher amount of alkaloids and glycosides.
- Make sure you remove any elderberry stems or leaves that may have been dried with the berries before steeping. The elderberry stems and leaves actually contain higher concentrations of alkaloids and glycosides than the berries do.
- I really recommend trying this as a refreshing iced tea too!
- For an even more flavorful brew, try steeping elderberries alongside elderflower, chamomile, peppermint, or any other herbs or herbal tea you like.
- The more berries you add and the longer you steep the tea, the darker the tea will be!
🍊Related Recipes
If you enjoyed this elderberry tea recipe, be sure to try these other delicious recipes too!
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📖 Recipe
Elderberry Tea Recipe
Equipment
- 1 tea cup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon elderberries
- 1 cup hot water
- sweetener of choice
Optional Ingredients
- 1 dehydrated orange slice
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 whole cloves
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 1 piece crystalized ginger
Instructions
Tea By the Cup
- Add dried or freeze-dried elderberries to a disposable tea bag or tea basket. Pour boiling water over the elderberries and steep for 5 minutes.
- Add a dehydrated orange slice, cinnamon stick or your favorite fall spices if you'd like. Remove tea basket and sweeten tea with your favorite sweetener, or enjoy as is if you prefer your tea tart!
Tea By the Pot
- Add ¼ cup of dehydrated or freeze-dried elderberries to a teapot. You can also add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods, ginger etc. Pour boiling water over them. Bring to a boil then simmer, over low heat, for a minimum of 15 minutes.
- Strain elderberry tea into your tea cup. Stir elderberry syrup or a low-calorie sweetener into your tea and enjoy!
Notes
-
- When foraging elderberries, be sure to pick only ripe elderberries and avoid any green or unripe berries which contain a higher amount of alkaloids and glycosides.
- Since we're using dried or frozen elderberries, the toxins have been eliminated in the drying process, so a shorter steeping time is just fine!
- Make sure you remove any elderberry stems or leaves that may have been dried with the berries before steeping. The elderberry stems and leaves actually contain higher concentrations of alkaloids and glycosides than the berries do.
- I really recommend trying this as a refreshing iced tea too!
- For an even more flavorful brew, try steeping elderberries alongside elderflower, chamomile, peppermint, or any other herbs or herbal tea you like.
- One of the benefits of sweetening the tea with elderberry syrup is that you may not need to add additional spices since most of them are already used in my elderberry syrup recipe.
- The more berries you add and the longer you steep the tea, the darker the tea will be!
Kelly Methey says
I love your tea recipes! I can’t wait to try this one.
Hilda Sterner says
Let me know if you need some elderberries!Or, come over for a cup!