Dried (Dehydrated) Honeysuckle Blossoms are a delicious way to preserve these delicious blossoms for use all year round. The flavor they provide is rich, floral, unique, and so delicious.

Honeysuckle flowers are delicious to use for honeysuckle tea and honeysuckle simple syrup – we especially love the simple syrup to make fun cocktails. You can use the tea as you would any other tea – as a base for a cake, scone, or muffin – or just drink it!

I love dehydrating fresh honeysuckle, because besides knowing I have it for future use – it makes the house smell so good.

*Note: Throughout this post, I will refer to the honeysuckle blossoms as blossoms, flowers, or just plain honeysuckle. When I say this, I am referring to the flowers, picked fresh off the bush – NOT the leaves or berries. The berries are toxic if consumed.

A jar of honeysuckle that has been dehydrated.

🥘 Ingredients Needed

A brown bowl of honeysuckle blossoms.
  • Fresh Honeysuckle Blossoms
  • Water

🍽 Equipment Needed

  • A dehydrator or oven
  • A large bowl and Strainer

🥣 How to Dehydrate Honeysuckle

Pick Honeysuckle: The first step is to go out into your yard and pick a ton of honeysuckle blossoms. We like to take a few big bowls outside and just fill them up.

A man in yellow pants and a gray sweater picking honeysuckle off a bush.

Clean the Honeysuckle Blossoms: Once you have a big bowl of honeysuckle, fill the bowl with water that is about room temperature or cold. Slosh the blossoms around with your hands, then pour out the water – either through a strainer or hold the flowers back with your hand and be very careful pouring out the water.

Dehydrate the Honeysuckle Flowers: Once the flowers are cleaned up, line the trays of a dehydrator with them.

an excalibur dehydrator

If your dehydrator has a temperature, set it to 108°F or 41°C (the setting for herbs or living food) for 12 – 24 hours.

If your dehydrator does not have an adjustable temperature – just turn it on. These dehydrators run pretty hot, so the flowers will dry a lot faster, likely in 2 – 4 hours. (Just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.)

To dehydrate the flowers in the oven, place them on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet with edges. Put the flowers in the oven on low heat, around 180°F – 200°F, for 2 – 4 hours.

Check if the Flowers are Dry: To tell if the flowers are dry, press on a flower. If it is crunchy, it is dry. If it is at all squishy, it needs to dry longer.

Once dry, transfer the flowers to an airtight container or jar.

Dried honeysuckle blossoms last a long time if stored in an airtight container, like a mason jar. I also add a desiccant packet to absorb any extra moisture.

🙋‍♀️ Frequently Asked Questions

Can you dehydrate honeysuckle in the oven?

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can dry the flowers in the oven for 2 – 4 hours at 180°F – 200°F.

How long does dried honeysuckle keep?

Dried honeysuckle will last a long time if stored out of direct sunlight in an airtight container with a desiccant pack in the jar.

What are the different types of honeysuckle?

There are two kinds of honeysuckle that are prominent in the southeast – Amur and Japanese. Our old house in North Carolina had Japanese Honeysuckle and our new house in Tennessee has the Amur Honeysuckle & Japanese Honeysuckle. (The Amur honeysuckle has much smaller flowers with sadly, less nectar – and they are much more invasive – they spread like wildfire.) This article has a lot of information about the differences between the two and there is more below.

Different Types of Honeysuckle (Found in the Southeast)

Japanese Honeysuckle is the best for dehydrating, making tea, and making simple syrup.

Here’s What Japanese Honeysuckle Looks Like:

Amur Honeysuckle (pictured below) is more of an invasive weed that smells good but doesn’t have as much sweet nectar. Amur Honeysuckle also blooms a few weeks before Japanese Honeysuckle, at least in Tennessee.

Here’s what Amur Honeysuckle looks like:

As you can see, the Amur Honeysuckle flowers are much smaller and it grows as more of a bush – whereas the Japanese Honeysuckle has larger, trumpeting flowers that while still kind of bushy – are more of a vine that climbs on other plants.

🍳 Serving Suggestions & Uses

Use dried honeysuckle to make hot honeysuckle tea, iced tea, and as the base for cakes and scones made with tea.

Button linking to the Pinterest page for Southern Bytes.

🥫 Storage/Shelf Life/Reheating

Dried honeysuckle blossoms last a long time if stored in an airtight container, like a mason jar. I also add a desiccant packet to absorb any extra moisture.

What is a Desiccant Pack/Packet?

Desiccant packets are those little silica gel packets you find in your new shoes that say “DO NOT EAT!!” all over them. The idea is that they should actively absorb any moisture in the container that they are stored in so that whatever they are stored with does not; so dehydrated foods, leather goods, etc. Be sure that you use a food-safe brand and that you use the right size for your storage. (You don’t need a 50 gram pack in a small mason jar!)

I like to use Wisedry 5 gram Packs for most of my food storage. They are small enough for a jar, and the beads change color to a dark green when saturated with moisture so you know to change out the pack. (Once you take out a pack, you can “recharge it” by drying it back out and reusing it, which is also really cool.)

a bag of desiccant packs

✏️ Helpful Tips

  • Remember that the berries on honeysuckle bushes are toxic – but the nectar from the flowers is perfectly safe to consume.
  • Dehydrate as much as you can! You will be surprised how delicious of a tea they make, and the plants aren’t available all year round.

Other Delicious Dehydrated Recipes

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A fancy spoon with dried honeysuckle blossoms on it.

How to Dehydrate Honeysuckle

5 from 2 votes
Dried (Dehydrated) Honeysuckle Blossoms are a delicious way to preserve these delicious blossoms for use all year round. The flavor they provide is rich, floral, unique, and so delicious.
Author: Kari
Servings: 8
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 8 hours
Total: 8 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients  

  • honeysuckle flowers
  • water

Instructions 

  • The first step is to go out into the yard and pick a ton of honeysuckle blossoms. We like to take a few big bowls outside and fill them up.
  • Once you have a big bowl of honeysuckle, fill the bowl with water that is about room temperature or cold. Slosh the blossoms around with your hands, then pour out the water – either through a strainer or hold the flowers back with your hand and be very careful pouring out the water. 
    honeysuckle flowers, water
  • Once the flowers are cleaned up, line the trays of a dehydrator with them.
    honeysuckle flowers
  • If your dehydrator has a temperature, set it to 108°F or 41°C (the setting for herbs or living food) for 12 – 24 hours. If your dehydrator does not have an adjustable temperature – just turn it on. These dehydrators run pretty hot, so the flowers will dry a lot faster, likely in 2 – 4 hours. (Just keep an eye on them so they don't burn.)
  • To dehydrate the flowers in the oven, place them on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet with edges. Put the flowers in the oven on low heat, around 180°F – 200°F, for 2 – 4 hours. 
  • To tell if the flowers are dry, press on a flower. If it is crunchy, it is dry. If it is at all squishy, it needs to dry longer. 
  • Once dry, transfer the flowers to an airtight container or jar.

Notes

Dried honeysuckle blossoms last a long time if stored in an airtight container, like a mason jar. I also add a desiccant packet to absorb any extra moisture.
Use flowers to make a delicious honeysuckle tea – simmer in boiling water, then strain.

Special Equipment Needeed

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupCalories: 1kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 2mgPotassium: 7mgVitamin A: 80IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 2mgIron: 1mg

Nutrition information is approximate and is automatically calculated, so should only be used as a guide.

Course: Drinks
Cuisine: American, Southern
Keyword: dehydrated flowers, dehydrated honeysuckle, how to dehydrate honeysuckle, how to dry honeysuckle
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Hi, I'm Kari!

I am a newlywed, food blogger, health coach, and mama to a hot mess of a border collie. I love to put a new spin on old family recipes and I try to make as many meals as possible with an Instant Pot.

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Comments

  1. I was wondering can the honeysuckle be used if I dried it too long it turned brown but it’s still s7mells good?

    1. That’s totally fine! The flower petals can brown a little if they get exposed to the air while they are drying and brown a little. As long as they didn’t burn, they should be perfect! (You would smell it if they burned!)