Someone in this house has been sick since Saturday, December 17th. Not seriously ill or with anything horrible like stomach flu… but a cold, a 24 hour fever, a cough, something …for nearly a month. I wasn’t sick for the first 3 weeks and I was becoming a little arrogant. So of course, within the next day or two, I felt a cold coming on. And let’s face it, when mommy goes down, the whole ship goes down.
In my opinion, the worst part about these annoying colds is not being able to sleep because your nose is constantly running or you’re coughing all night long. My husband recommended I have a little bourbon before bed to soothe my throat. Well, I hate bourbon. The smell alone makes me ill, so to actually drink it… No. But I tried it. First, neat. No. Then, with A LOT of rocks. Well, less than one shot took me about an hour and a half to get down. I made a terrible face after every single sip. But, I did sleep that night. I couldn’t go through that again so I started to google “Hot Toddy.”
A Hot Toddy is a warm mixed-drink. People drink it before bed to relieve cold and flu symptoms. This is not a cure or a substitute for a doctor. For me, it helped relieve my symptoms and get a more restful night’s sleep while masking the flavor of bourbon.
The recipe below is heavily based on this one I found on allrecipes.com. I really just changed the ratio of bourbon to water because… as you may have heard, I don’t care for bourbon. You can adjust the ingredients as you see fit. I tried it with tea (I love tea) but I actually preferred it with just hot water. I think in the future I might use 2 lemon slices. Maybe a couple drops of vanilla extract? All I know is that this is a warm comforting drink on a cold winter’s night and even better if you are feeling under the weather.
Hot Toddy
Ingredients:
1 oz Bourbon
1 slice of Lemon
3 whole Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 tsp Honey
Boiling Water (about 5-6 oz)
Pour bourbon into a mug
Add lemon slice, cloves, and cinnamon stick
Pour honey onto a spoon, pour into mug and pour boiling water over the spoon (to get off all the honey).
Give a little stir and let everything steep for 5 minutes.
Sip away
I wish you a speedy recovery and a good night’s sleep!