My husband and I have been ill all week, and my mother suggested we take Zicam in order to feel better. She swore that my father and sister, both also sick—likely from shared germs during Christmas!—were both getting much better after taking Zicam rapid melts. The medicine is more expensive than the Dayquil I usually buy—around $10 or $11—so I was naturally skeptical. And when I heard that it was homeopathic, I was even more wary—not because I don’t trust natural remedies; I truly do. It’s just that my sinus structure is different from most people’s, and both conventional and homeopathic remedies usually don’t work well on me for these types of things.

Nevertheless, I asked my husband to pick up a box. Unfortunately, there were no more rapid release melts, so he picked up the lozenges—which, unfortunately, take me about an hour and fifteen minutes to suck on! I’m not joking, either; I timed it. You can’t chew them up or swallow them, you see; they have to melt all of the way.

And they taste awful. The product is supposed to be tasty, with a cherry flavor; but instead, it tastes like that pink antibiotic medicine we all had when we were kids, long before you could add fruit flavors to mask it. And it was disgusting. And the thing is, I haven’t been able to taste anything all week except for this nasty flavor, leaving it in my mouth. My mouth has felt like I’ve eaten chalk all day, and as soon as you finish one, you have to do another three hours later—just when your mouth is recovering!

Now, all of that said, this is a product that really does seem to work. My colds usually last weeks. After two days, my voice is back to normal, my sore throat is gone, I am sleeping better, most of my taste is back, and the only things I’m still suffering from is my post-nasal drip and cough. The cough is nasty and painful, but without the other symptoms at least it is bearable. And I’m sure if I kept taking the Zicam I would probably be even better, but I just can’t stomach it; too many antibiotics as a child to remind me of that taste! If you can get past that, I highly recommend this remedy; as for me, I’m going to try the orange flavor next time.