Zarbee’s Cough Syrup Review & Giveaway

I got in touch with Zarbee’s cough syrup back in February when they were offering free samples for bloggers to review. At the time, TJ was in the midst of quite a coughing spree, and he couldn’t seem to shake it. Of course, by the time we received the samples, he’d gotten over it.

About Zarbee’s Cough Syrup

I liked the idea of Zabee’s cough syrup because it’s not actually medicine. It’s an all-natural syrup that treats both coughs and sore throats. You want the ingredient list?

Ingredients: Honey proprietary blend (buckwheat, wildflower), water, natural flavors, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid, zinc gluconate.

Zarbee’s cough syrup is made from honey, so it’s no appropriate for children under the age of 12 months old, but it’s safe for older children. With all of the children’s cold and cough medicine that’s been recalled over the past year or so, safety is a real issue when our kids get sick.

The TJ Test

So the next time TJ got a nasty cough, I tried to give him some Zarbee’s. He absolutely refused to take it because he didn’t like the smell. I tried to sneak it into his apple juice. “I want different apple juice,” he insisted. “This smells yucky!”

Zarbee’s did not pass the TJ taste test. It didn’t even pass the smell test. Or the sneak test. I contacted Danny at Zarbee’s to ask him what he wanted me to do, and he told me to try it myself. He obviously wanted a good review of his product, and I still had a giveaway to do, too! He told me to give it a try.

The Mommy Test

So lo and behold, I’ve been sick as a dog this week. It’s not the flu. I had that two weeks ago. This is a cold, and a rather obnoxious one. I’ve had very little luck with anything to treat my head congestion, but when it started to move into my chest, I saw an opportunity.

I have a picky palette like my son has. I didn’t like the taste or the smell… but don’t let that turn you off. TJ and I don’t like the taste of honey to begin with. I also don’t like tuna fish, tomatoes, coffee, or alcoholic beverages that taste like alcohol. (Fruity girly drinks for me!) I made a nasty face when I swallowed the Zarbee’s cough syrup… and it soothed my throat. It lessened my coughing fits. I’m grown up enough to do what I have to do to treat my cold symptoms. If you and your kids love honey, this will be amazing for you. Despite the fact that I didn’t care for the taste, this stuff really worked for me, and it’s not medication.

In my opinion, no cough medicine actually tastes good, and your kids may think that Zarbee’s cough syrup tastes better than medicine anyways. If you want to try a safe alternative to medicine that will actually help your child’s cough and sore throat, you should probably enter my giveaway.

The Zarbee’s Cough Syrup Giveaway

I’m giving away five (5) of the sample pouches of Zarbee’s cough syrup I have to one lucky winner. (Summer cold season is coming. Unfortunately.) There are four pouches of cherry flavor and one lemon flavor. Each pouch contains 2 tsp of Zarbee’s cough syrup. That is one full dose for ages 12 & up, two doses for kids age 6-11, or four doses for children 12 months to 5 years old. That’s anywhere between 5 and 20 doses for your child’s next cough.

How to Enter the Zarbee’s Cough Syrup Giveaway

To enter, you MUST complete the following step:

1. Visit Zarbee’s and leave a comment to tell me what you think you’ll like best about their cough syrup or something you like about their Web site.

For additional entries AFTER you’ve completed the first step, you may complete any or all of the following:

2. Follow @cutestkidever on Twitter. Leave 1 comment with your Twitter ID.
3. Stumble this post. Leave 1 comment with your StumbleUpon ID.
4. Subscribe to Cutest Kid Ever via RSS. Leave 2 comments if you complete this step. (2 entries!)
5. Tweet about the contest! Be sure to use this short URL or it won’t count: http://kl.am/zarbees Leave 1 comment with a link to your tweet. You may complete this step once per day.
6. Blog about this giveaway. Must mention both Cutest Kid Ever and Zarbee’s by name. Leave 2 comments with a link to the individual post that links back to this giveaway page.

This giveaway will end at 11:59 pm EST on Friday, May 29, 2009. Winner will be selected from eligible comments via Random.org. Winner will be notified by email or Twitter.