hot_toddy

What I find to be the most powerful, and delicious, cure against a brutal winter chill and/or cold symptoms is the Hot Toddy.  This is a drink that is so warming, so soothing, and so cheerful that it radiates heat throughout the body and makes you sink deeper into your seat than ever before.  I think Pfizer would make a fortune marketing a Hot Toddy line of drugs, maybe called Thermatoddica, or Hottoddilax.  Ask your doctor if Hottoddilax is right for you. 

 

The Hot Toddy is essentially a hot mixed drink that is made up of only 4 simple ingredients.  The ingredients are as follows:

 

Base – can be hot water, tea or cider

Alcohol – a “dark” spirit, such as brandy, whiskey, bourbon, scotch, rye, or dark rum

Sweetener – sugar and honey are the most traditional sweeteners

Flavoring – typically lemon, but can also add cookie or mulling spices (add too many flavorings and you will get an Odd Hotty, not a Hot Toddy)

I am not going to offer a recipe here since the ratio of the four ingredients above is completely dependent on the tastes of the consumer.  I prefer the following ingredients: hot water, dark rum, honey, and lemon.  The video below will show you how I like to make my own Hot Toddy.

 

 

The true origin of the Hot Toddy is unknown, I am sorry to say.  Some believe the Hot Toddy was created in order to make the taste of scotch less offensive to Scottish women.  I do not believe this tale for one second.  I’m sure that Scottish women could readily toss back some scotch.  If you do not agree with me, then I have one word for you…haggis.  Others say it was a drink with roots in India and made its way to Great Britain via the British East India Company.

 

Regardless of how the Hot Toddy made its way into the realm of mixology, it is a drink that all “of age” souls should sample during the blustery winter months while saddled up next to a roaring fire.  It will soothe the body, relax the mind, cure what ails you, and warm you to the core.