Cheers! Feeling under the weather? These hot toddy cocktails just might cure what ails you
There's nothing like a Hot Toddy to sooth a sore throat or help get a sound night of sleep.
The Hot Toddy is an old recipe used for hundreds of years. It started out very simply: hot water, citrus, sugar and whiskey. And according to my grandfather, the stronger the toddy recipe the better.
But times have changed, and we don’t use the Hot Toddy solely for medicinal purposes anymore. It can be considered a bonafide cocktail. There are a myriad of ways to prepare it using a huge variety of ingredients, all based off the original recipe.
Vodka drink is all punch, no bite
After contracting a case of the sniffles and determining that I did not have the flu, I decided to experiment with Hot Toddy recipes. Here are just a few I came up with.
By the way, after sipping one of these before bed, my sniffles disappeared and I woke up well-rested. So my grandfather may just have been onto something.
Traditional Hot Toddy
2 ounces whiskey
1/2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 slice lemon
Add whiskey to the half cup of boiling water into a large mug. Stir in the sugar and squeeze lemon into the mug, and drop the cloves in. Add the cinnamon stick and top with a clove-spiked lemon wheel for a more intense flavor.
Orange Blossom Hot Toddy
1 ounce bourbon
1 tablespoon orange blossom honey
1 teaspoons lemon juice
2 dashes citrus bitters
1/4 cup boiling water
Add the bourbon to the hot water and spoonful of honey. Stir well and add the bitters, stir again. Garish with a lemon wheel.
Using citrus bitters and orange blossom honey gives this toddy a Florida twist that you can taste in every sip. If you have fresh vanilla beans or pure vanilla extract, try adding a touch of either to this recipe.
Hot Tropical Toddy
The Hot Tropical Toddy recipe below features rum as the main toddy ingredient. Of all my toddy experiments, the rum version was my favorite. This lovely sipper will send you to sleep with dreams of an exotic paradise.
1/4 cup hot brewed tea
1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
2 ounces dark rum
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 piece dried pineapple
Mince a small piece of ginger and put in a fine mesh strainer. Pour hot tea over it and into a mug. Add rum, brown sugar and lemon juice to the mug and stir well. Garish with a lemon slice, dried pineapple and cinnamon stick.
Christina Jordan is a member of the Straw Hat Barmen and an advocate for quality cocktails. For more information, visit strawhatbarmen.com. Her recently published book, Everyday Exotic Cocktails, Florida Edition, features 50 recipes for fresh, easy-to-make, exotic cocktails with a Florida twist. It is available through Amazon and Etsy.