Elderflower Enthusiast

Soda is generally not allowed in our house with the exception of a shared 2-liter bottle on pizza night or for a party of some kind. But we love our SodaStream carbonator to have 'fizzy water' on hand at all times. To add some flavor, we've gotten hooked on 2 syrups from IKEA to spike our fizzy water….lingonberry and elderflower.

Elderflower is my favorite, as it is very light with a hint of citrus. It's hard to describe the flavor - it's frequently compared to lychee, but to be honest I don't really remember what lychee tastes like so I can't say if it's true. Probably the closest description I can make is that it's a delicate floral taste with a hint of honey.

Can't beat $5 for a bottle of syrup that lasts a couple months. Considering I grew up on packets of Kool-Aid with a cup of sugar in each pitcher at dinnertime, I consider our use of IKEA syrups my small contribution to a little less sugar for the next generation. But as far as flavors go, elderflower is a long way from ‘grape’, ‘cherry’, and ‘orange’ and may not be familiar to everyone.

You may have noticed a little more attention to elderflower recently as it was one of the primary flavors in the royal wedding cake for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. You may also remember me highlighting its use in the European 'drink of the summer'....the 'Hugo'(sparkling wine, mint and elderflower)...in a post last year.

While it's been more popular in the U.K. and Europe for many many years from foods to home health products, elderflower is now just starting to appear more commonly in the U.S. ....teas, ointments, cosmetics, liqueur (St. Germain) and now even beer. Victory introduced a wheat with elderflower a couple years back (Blackboard #3: Berliner Weisse with Elderflower) - haven't tried yet, but it's on my list for the summer!

Since it seems to be getting a lot more attention than it used to and since the flowers are at their peak in June and July, it seemed a great time to find out a little more about this very pretty plant.

Elderflower is, as its name implies, the flowering portion of the elder plant known as Sambucus. Elder is commonly found in the U.K and northern Europe and there are over 10 species in the U.S. The same plant produces elderberries, which are toxic if eaten raw, but can be cooked and used to make wine or jams. The flowers are very pretty....umbrellas of lacy, fragile looking, white flowers. After seeing them, you can understand the legend that fairies live under elderflower bushes. Here's a little aside on that.....

The elder has been thought of as a very sacred plant in which 'Mother Elder' lives inside the trunk. It's also been called the 'Witch Tree', and it was considered good luck to plant one outside your door as it would ward off evil spirits. The elder fairy, generally thought of as an old woman or Mother Elder, is considered a spirit of transformation, associated with birth and death, and thus able to advise on beginnings and endings....what to cast away and what to take up. Anglo-Saxons believed if you fell asleep under a tree in full bloom (a Midsummer's night dream you might say) you would be carried off by the fairies as the tree was a portal from one world to another.

And in more modern tales, the Elder Wand is the most powerful of all wands in the Harry Potter stories. Considering old druid lore held that cutting an elder tree would anger Mother Elder, it is not surprising the elder wand in the story seemed cursed from the moment it was cut.

The elder tree has long been used for a variety of ailments in traditional medicine with every part of the plant – bark, leaves, flowers and berries – being noted of some use. Documentation of elder's use has existed since the days of Hippocrates in ancient Greece to the Roman commander and naturalist Pliny the Elder in AD 23 - 79 to Native Americans in the US.

A syrup of elderberries can be used to boost the immune system and elderflower teas are known to be calming, anti-inflammatory, and aid in digestion. There are studies that have shown it to be antibacterial against gram positive and gram negative organisms and it may also have antiviral activity as well. The plant is chockfull of pharmaceutically active compounds so it's no surprise its been used for centuries - flavonols (antiviral activity), chlorogenic acids (immune system activity), and triterpinoids (analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects).

My husband planted an elderflower plant just last year by our patio and it has fast grown into a tall plant with enough flowers for me to experiment with making a simple elderflower syrup.

I found a simple recipe by Jamie Oliver that seemed pretty straightforward. The proportions were roughly 20 flower clusters, 1 L of water, 300 g of sugar, 2 lemons. There are many recipe variations out there - I was looking for a small one as I knew I didn't have that many flowers yet.

I shook the flower blossoms to make sure no dirt or bugs hitched a ride inside and then quartered the lemons and set aside. I boiled the water and added the sugar, stirring to fully dissolve to make a simple syrup. Then I poured that over the blossoms and fruit and let it sit covered for 24 hours. You could filter and bottle it at this point.

I pulled the lemons out after the first day and am letting it sit for another day to see if I can get a stronger elderflower flavor. The lemon adds citric acid for stability so that you can store the syrup for longer periods of time so it's important to include.

I've also seen recipes where a mixture of oranges and lemons were used (presumably to cut down the tartness of the lemons) and also recipes where the blossoms were soaked in hot water and the sugar and fruit were added later (didn't make as much sense to me but would be curious if anyone else has tried either variation).

So after 2 days, I drained and filtered the syrup. You could use a coffee filter or fine mesh cloth (I actually used my greek yogurt filter as it has such fine mesh). And then poured it into bottles easy to store in the fridge. I would say my homemade version is a little more lemony and less sweet than the IKEA version. But I'll need to do a whole family taste test for a larger sample size and more scientific conclusions!