The Hot Toddy As A Cold Remedy

By Richard Thomas

For many in the Northern Hemisphere, February and March combine that unpleasant mixture of cold and wet, weather conditions that drag down the body and almost guarantee catching a cold. That makes this the time to start making hot toddies, both as a preventative measure and as a curative.

Known as a “hot whiskey” in Ireland and a hot toddy almost everywhere else, this warm cocktail is one of the classic alcoholic stimulants, with a recipe dating back centuries. Compared to another classic remedy, chicken soup, the hot toddy can be taken more often, offers more benefits, and is more tested by time.

The health benefits of drinking whiskey are well-established, but as a whiskey cocktail the hot toddy offers its own particular set of advantages:

The lemon gives the drinker a dose of vitamin C, which has long been theorized as an immune system booster.

The honey in a hot toddy has limited antibiotic properties, besides being a soothing element.

The alcohol content of the whiskey serves the exact same function in the hot toddy that it serves in numerous cold medicines.

The heat of the drink is a natural decongestant, especially in the nasal cavity.

To paraphrase how wine critic Victoria Moore put it in her book, How To Drink, the ingredients of the hot toddy soothe, numb, and promote health, and all of this in a package far tastier than any over the counter cold syrup. The one thing to guard against is drinking too many, especially if you use the black tea variant. The caffeine in the black tea and the alcohol are both diuretics, and cold-sufferers are supposed to drink and retain plenty of liquids.

Traditionally the hot toddy is made with Scotch, but as The Whiskey Reviewer discovered in experiments, any form of whiskey will do.

Ingredients

1.5 oz (50 ml) of boiling water

1.5 oz (50 ml) of scotch whiskey

2 lemon slices

1 spoonful of honey

Combine all of the above ingredients in a cup, and stir thoroughly. A good bit of stirring will be necessary to dissolve the honey, since the 50-50 mix of scotch and hot water will result in a drink that is warm, but not piping hot.

The result is a pleasant, warm, and refreshing hot drink. The Hot Toddy’s flavor is both tart and sweet, and with a mild honey note and lingering aftertaste. Despite having an alcohol content that must be in the high teens, you barely notice that the drink has any alcohol at all.

A variant on the Hot Toddy calls for brewing up a cup of black tea, and using that as a substitute for the hot water. In that case, increase the proportions of the other ingredients in tandem with the amount of tea.