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How the Honey, Garlic and Cinnamon Drink Is Made, Step by Step

The whole thing takes under a minute, and most of what there is to know sits in the small decisions: how warm the water should be, why the clove rests before it goes in, and what the cinnamon is actually doing. Written out in full, start to finish.

Key points, in short

What this walkthrough covers

Five parts, in this order. If you only want the recipe, skip to the next section; nothing after it is required in order to make the drink.

• What this is, and what it is not
• The four ingredients and the amounts
• Making it, decision by decision
• What the evidence does and does not show
• Safety points and interactions

The preparation

Single serving

• 1 tablespoon raw or unfiltered honey
• 1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and crushed
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 ounces water, warm and not boiling

Bring the water to something comfortable against the back of your hand. Crush the clove and leave it a moment. Stir the honey through until the water goes clear, add the garlic and the cinnamon, and stir once more just before you drink it. Morning, before food. About half a minute of work.

The walkthrough, in full

Written out completely, so nothing is hidden behind a video or a sign-up.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a short account of a home preparation made from honey, garlic and cinnamon. It is information about food. It is not medical advice, and there is nothing in it that constitutes a reason to alter a medication somebody prescribed for you.

Four things get covered: what goes in, how it is made, what the research supports, and what is worth mentioning at a doctor's appointment. That is the whole of it.

The four ingredients and the amounts

A tablespoon of honey. Raw or unfiltered is what the traditional versions call for, though the jar most people own is ordinary supermarket honey and that is what ends up being used.

One clove of garlic, fresh. Not the jarred kind packed in oil, which behaves differently once it is crushed.

Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, the sort sold in any spice aisle.

Six ounces of water, warm. The word warm is carrying weight there and the next section explains why.

Making it, decision by decision

Start with the water, because everything else waits on it. Warm means warm to the back of the hand. Not hot, and certainly not boiling. Older written versions of this recipe are consistent on that point, and there is a practical reason as well: very hot water flattens the taste of honey, and this drink needs all the help with taste it can get.

Peel the clove and press it flat with the side of a knife blade. Then leave it alone on the board while you do the next step. Garlic changes chemically in the minutes after it is cut, and nearly every written version of this preparation builds in that pause, which is why it is worth keeping.

Stir the honey into the water first, on its own, until the cloudiness goes and the water is clear again. Honey folded into a cup that already has other things floating in it takes longer and never quite goes in.

Now the garlic and the cinnamon together. Stir.

Then stir a second time immediately before drinking, because cinnamon does not dissolve, it suspends and then sinks. Whatever you do, the last mouthful is grittier than the first. Everyone who makes this finds that out on the first morning.

It is drunk before eating. Most people chase it with a glass of plain water, and a fair number keep a mint nearby. Raw garlic on an empty stomach stays with you for an hour or two, and there is no technique that prevents that.

What the evidence does and does not show

Here is the part that tends to get trimmed elsewhere, so it goes in whole.

This preparation has not been studied. There is no controlled trial of these three ingredients, in these amounts, taken this way by people over a period of time. What exists is work on each ingredient separately, and the bulk of that work is done to isolated compounds in laboratory conditions rather than to a mug of something somebody drinks at breakfast.

Reviews that collect the individual studies together tend to reach the same conclusion: too few subjects, methods too varied to combine, and findings that disagree with one another. That is a description of an unanswered question, not of an answer.

So when a page online tells you with confidence what this drink does, the confidence is the addition. Follow the citation and it goes to a paper about garlic, or about cinnamon, and not about this.

Safety, in writing

Ordinary foods, eaten by most healthy adults without a second thought. The list below exists because a food taken on purpose every single morning is a slightly different proposition, and a few situations deserve a question first.

• Medication affecting clotting. Concentrated garlic is a standing item in that discussion. The person to ask is the one who wrote the prescription.
• Blood sugar management. A tablespoon of honey is a tablespoon of sugar, and it does not stop being one because there is garlic in the cup with it.
• Surgery or dental work coming up. Say what you take. Daily and deliberate counts, whether or not it came from a pharmacy.
• A stomach that does not get on with raw garlic. Empty, it gets on with it less. That is common and it does not mean anything is working.
• Pregnancy, nursing, or preparing it for a child. Honey is not given to infants under twelve months. For anything else on this list, ask.

Where the claims are handled

Six specific claims circulate about this drink, and they are examined one by one on our claims review page. The short answer is that none of them survives the check, and that page shows the working.