Mulethi Tea for a Sore Throat
Licorice root tea for a raw, scratchy throat — how to brew it, and the two-week limit that most pages leave out.
Sat, Aug 8, 2026 · 3 min read🍵 The Sweet Root That Coats a Raw Throat
Mulethi is sweeter than sugar and behaves nothing like it. Brewed into a pale gold cup, the root leaves a film over a throat scraped raw by coughing. It is also the only remedy here that comes with a stopping date.
🌱 What Goes In, and Why
- Mulethi: the demulcent; its mucilage is what does the coating.
- Tulsi: a few leaves for aroma and the familiar cold-season note.
- Honey: optional, and barely needed — the root is already sweet.
🌿 Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 inch dried mulethi root, or ½ tsp mulethi powder
- 4–5 fresh tulsi leaves
- Honey, to taste (optional)
🥄 How to Make Mulethi Tea
- Simmer the mulethi in the water 5–7 minutes, until the cup turns pale gold.
- Take the pan off the heat, drop in the tulsi leaves, and cover for 2–3 minutes.
- Strain, and sip slowly rather than drinking it down — the contact is the point.
- Sweeten once it has cooled to warm, if at all.
🍵 Dosage
- Adults: 1 cup a day, for no more than two weeks at a stretch.
- Children (above 5 yrs): an occasional half cup, never a daily habit.
🕒 When to Use
- When the throat is raw and scratchy rather than blocked.
- After a long run of dry coughing has left it rasping.
⏳ Two Weeks, Then Stop
Mulethi is one of the few household remedies with a documented ceiling on how long it should be used. Glycyrrhizin, the compound that makes the root taste sweet, causes the body to hold sodium and shed potassium. Taken daily over weeks that can raise blood pressure, and low potassium brings problems of its own. The effect depends on both dose and duration, which is why the usual guidance is a course of about two weeks rather than an open-ended habit. Anyone with high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, anyone taking diuretics, and anyone pregnant should leave it alone entirely and choose a different soothing tea.
✅ Benefits
- May ease the rawness of a throat scraped by repeated coughing.
- The coating is soothing, not curative — it does not touch what is causing the soreness.
⚠️ Precautions
- The two-week limit above is the point of this page, not a closing formality.
- Not for anyone with high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, on diuretics, or pregnant.
- A throat that hurts on one side only, or comes with difficulty swallowing or a rash, is worth a doctor’s look rather than a longer course of tea.
- Confectionery liquorice is a sugared sweet, not a stand-in for the plain dried root.