Herbal Tonics and Immunity Shots for Optimum Health (+ Recipes) (2024)

Author Farnoosh Brock introduces an assortment of spicy, colorful, and healing elixirs to elevate your mood and detoxify your body in thefollowing excerpt adapted from her book, “The Big Book of Healing Drinks: Juices, Smoothies, Teas, Tonics, and Elixirs to Cleanse and Detoxify.”

Healing Cool Tonics and Shots

The way we define health tonics—sometimes also called immunity tonics or herbal tonics—is simple: concentrated caffeine-free, nutrient-rich drinks made through the steeping of any combination of herbs, spices, select fruits, oils, vinegar, and vegetable roots. You consume these health tonics chilled and in quantities of one or two shots. You would usually want to accompany a shot with a small snack if your tonic is strong. I like to drink my tonic after a workout or yoga and follow with some water and maybe a few salty nuts.

Health tonics have tons of benefits. They can help reduce inflammation, improve digestion, calm the nervous system, act as an energizing boost, and enhance your immune system. Because the nutritional information of these tonics is nearly negligible as far as calories are concerned, we have notincluded that information in this section. But rest assured, they are packed with nutrition!

The quantity produced by all of these recipes is only slightly more than the liquid base you use. Some tonic recipes you’ll find online or in other books ask that you let the drinks sit in a cold, dark cabinet for a month before they are ready to consume. We did not have the patience to wait that long, and we are guessing that you don’t either. So the “marinating” time for the tonics in this book is between one to two hours. Please take note of steep time in each recipe and consume it within a week.

Lemongrass, which is mainly used in Thai cooking, has a most energizing scent. It makes a fabulous tonic in this recipe along with fresh herbs, orange slices, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of peppermint.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups filtered water
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, crushed
• ⅛ cup chopped fresh dill, crushed
• ⅛ cup turmeric, thinly sliced
• ⅛ cup chopped cilantro, crushed
• ⅛ cup lemongrass, chopped
• ½ orange, thinly sliced
• 7–8 drops peppermint oil
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Instructions:

Slice up the unpeeled orange. Add all ingredients into your glass container. Steep it in the fridge for an hour, or at the most, 75 minutes. After the timer goes off, strain it all out into another container and either serve it or place back in the fridge to consume at a later time. Be sure to keep it either in amason jar with a tight lid or any other glass container that is airtight. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

For hot summer days, make yourself this delicious healing tonic with fresh berries, ginger, sage, and cucumber. It will help you cool down, hydrate, and consume some healing nutrients.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup blueberries, crushed
• 4 strawberries, crushed
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 5 leaves of sage, stems removed, crushed
• 20 Thai basil leaves, crushed
• 1 Persian cucumber, diced
• 4 cups filtered water
• Optional: 1 tablespoon raw honey dissolved in 1tablespoon hot water
• Optional: 2 slices of lime

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to a glass jar and refrigerate for one hour. Strain. The berries soak up a lot of water, even if they were crushed, so gently press on the strainer to release all the juice. If the tonic is too strong, add a little honey. This tonic tastes best chilled, so feel free to add ice cubes. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

This cold, latte-like drink can be whipped up in two minutes. It is perfect for mornings when you don’t have a lot of time. You most likely already have turmeric powder, cayenne pepper, and ginger powder in your spice cabinet. I love this wake-me-up for the anti-inflammatory benefits of the spices. Plus, it’s delicious! I’ve found that these spice powders dissolve best in hot water, but you don’t want to raise the temperature of your cold milk either, so use no more than two tablespoons to dissolve the powders, let it sit for a minute to cool slightly, then add your cold nut milk. This is a spicy drink with a warming after-effect. It will help your muscles release inflammation and it can also be great for any digestion issues or act as a quick detox before the start of your day.

Ingredients:

• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ cup almond or cashew milk

Instructions:

Dissolve all ingredients in 1–2 tablespoons of hot water. Allow to cool for 1 minute. Add cold almond or cashew milk. Mix and drink it up.

Farnoosh Brockis a business and leadership coach, an author, and a speaker. She left her corporate career to start her own company, Prolific Living Inc., in 2011 to pursue a new mission: To empower business owners and leaders to achieve their highest possibilities in life through powerful mindsets and methodologies. She’s an expert green juicer, an Ashtanga yoga practitioner, a voracious reader, and a world traveler. Brock is also the author of “The Healthy Juicer’s Bible”and “The Healthy Smoothie Bible,” both of which continue to be favorites in the juicing and smoothie community.