A budget-friendly turmeric black pepper tincture to boost your immune system. Plus a guide on how to make and use a tincture!

I’m already obsessed with turmeric and now here is a budget-friendly turmeric black pepper tincture. Within this blog post, I’ll show you how to make a tincture and explain how to use it.

If you haven’t already seen them, then you can check out my recipes for some daily turmeric energy shots the blender version and the juicer version.

But just in case you’re not entirely convinced, here is some more information. Turmeric root is a fantastic ingredient that can increase the antioxidant capacity of the body and protects the body from free radicals.

And why is turmeric such an excellent ingredient? Well, have you heard of curcumin?

Curcumin is the active ingredient of turmeric root. So if there is a way to use this great nature’s treasure in yet another healthy way, please sign me up! – Oh hello, turmeric tincture, I see you.

This is probably the point that you may be wondering what precisely a turmeric tincture is, how to make a tincture, and how to use one.

What is turmeric tincture?

A tincture isn’t exactly a word that is casually thrown around in most households, so I don’t blame you if you’re a little confused as to what I’m talking about.

Alcohol-based tinctures are a concentrated liquid form or extract of a plant/fresh herbs that have been dissolved in alcohol. For an alcohol-free version, you can use glycerine. Most recently you may have seen (or heard) a lot of hype about the CBD oil tinctures that are currently making the rounds on social media as the ‘it’ new health product.

When specifically focusing on a turmeric tincture – this liquid form of curcumin allows for much faster and better absorption of the chemical by the body.

As the body doesn’t need to break down a liquid extract, the medicinal properties are easily absorbed into the system.

How to use this turmeric tincture?

Turmeric tincture is very easy to use. You just need a 1 ml tincture dissolved in a glass of water 2-3 times a day. So basically, not only are you receiving amazing nutrition from the turmeric, but you’re also encouraged to drink more water. Win-win situation!

Alternatively, if you’re struggling with the taste, then you can mix the drops into some fruit juice.

I know that people have tried to use this in a similar way to CBD oil by using the dropper under the tongue. However, the flavour of this turmeric black pepper tincture is powerful and can give you the ‘burning throat’ sensation – so I don’t recommend taking it this way.

I think it’s important to note though that before using any tincture or herbal medicine, you should consult your doctor, especially if taking any medication. Turmeric is healthy to be ingested every day of the year; however, certain chemicals and nutrients can reduce the absorption of certain medications.

Note* dropper bottles contain about 20 drops per dropper full, which is about 1 ml. 

How to make a tincture?

As a general rule of thumb, herbal tinctures need a very high level of alcohol based solvent like vodka to be made. In many commercial tinctures,  60-70% alcohol is usually used. The alcohol then extracts the various active ingredients from your fresh or dried herbs/plant. It also stabilises the final tincture.

As we aren’t making this commercially, I’m not going to suggest trying to get your hands on alcohol solvent at that level. Instead, I recommend using high quality organic (if possible),  strong alcohol. For example, a 70% ,or 90 proof Vodka would work well.

It’s best to use fresh organic turmeric roots. However, it is also possible to use turmeric powder.
Why use organic roots, you may wonder. First, there are no nasties from any pesticides and no processing into making it a powder. But also, you can keep the skin on organic turmeric root as it brings extra nutrients.

You also need organic black pepper. The ratio of pepper to turmeric is 1:10 (in grams).

You will need equal amounts of cold alkaline water and high-quality.
Note: the alcohol can be replaced with glycerine for a non-alcoholic version of the tincture.

The proportions of herb to liquid should be about 1 part herb to 4 parts liquid (1:4) or 1 part herb to 5 parts liquid (1:5). So for example to make a 1:4 tincture you would need 250 grams of turmeric, to 500ml of vodka and 500ml water, and a 1:5 tincture would be 200g herb to 500ml of vodka and 500ml water.

I sometimes also add Acerola Cherry – this, however, is optional. Acerola Cherry is rich in Vitamin C  and antioxidants and acts as a preservative, thus making it a great addition.

Before you start, make sure to sterilise all your tools and containers – any spoon, jar, blender jug that would come in contact with the turmeric tincture must be well washed and sterilised. This is the first and most crucial step for making the tincture.

An easy way to sterilise your tools is to wash them with boiling water – boil some water in the kettle and pour it over the tools.

Start by grating the turmeric. Make sure to wear gloves to prevent your hands from staining in yellow. You can also blend it in a food processor/blender just long enough to break it down into tiny bits.

Alternatively, you can also finely slice your turmeric. However, I’ve found that grated turmeric works better for me. This is because when it comes time to drain the liquid into the dropper bottles, grated turmeric will allow more liquid to be squeezed out.

This is not only more cost-efficient but also better for the quality of tincture.

It’s also important to note that each solvent extracts various properties from your herb/plant. I’ve suggested using a mixture of alcohol and water or glycerine and water here. You can also make a version with all three ingredients to try and extract everything possible. However, I want to keep things as simple as possible here.

Also, if you are worried about the alcohol in the tincture – I remember reading that if you put your turmeric dropper into hot water, the alcohol will simply evaporate. I don’t know enough about this to be an expert, however, it’s still worth trying. Alternatively you can make an alcohol-free version of this using organic vegetable glycerin but this will take longer (almost double the time to extract).

The next step is to add the grated turmeric into a sterilised glass container. Add the black pepper and acerola cherry powder (this is optional for added vitamin C). Pour the alcohol over, then add the water.

Stir well and put away in a dark cupboard. It’s important to keep the mixture away from sunlight – tucked away in a cupboard or even better, stored in darkened glass jars container in a cupboard.

Every couple of days, opens and stir well. Then return to its ‘hiding spot.’

To extract the curcumin and get the tincture, the turmeric needs to soak for at least six weeks in its glass container (the alcohol free glycerin version  takes even a bit longer – almost double the amount of time).

In 6-weeks time, this mixture can be drained and stored in little darkened dropper bottles.

To transfer the tincture, just pass the mixture from the jar thought a sieve or a tea strainer into a clear container.

Make sure to press well so that all the liquid is extracted.

Then fill up darkened dropper bottles. They are most convenient but you could use other darkened bottles and then carefully pour the tincture when needed.

Then the turmeric elixir is ready to be used.

Since the tincture is alcohol base, the shelf-life is very stable. It can be used up to a year after making it.

If you try this recipe then let me know your thoughts in the comments. Also, I love seeing your recreations so feel free to tag me on Instagram @AlphaFoodie.