The Best Hot Toddy
Prep
3m
Cook
5m
Total
8m
Bigly says
Folks. The hot toddy. The BEST hot toddy. The greatest hot toddy in the history of hot toddies — and there have been many hot toddies in this world, more hot toddies than any single warm beverage in human history, the Scots had them, the Irish had them, the Vikings probably had a brutal version with something I don't want to know about — and this one beats every single one of them. Every one. Not even close. It's a slaughter.
My grandmother made hers every winter night for forty years. Believe me, she was a tough woman. She'd hand you a mug, she'd point at the chair, and you'd drink it whether you had a cold or not. She lived to 96. I'm not saying it's the toddies. I'm not NOT saying it's the toddies. The neighbor across the street, same routine, lived to 102. Could be a coincidence. Probably not. Food chemists agree — well, the ones I've talked to, the smart ones — that hot honey, hot lemon, and a brown spirit is the closest thing to actual medicine that comes out of a kitchen.
A REAL hot toddy uses HOT water, not warm, HOT, just off the boil, and it uses GOOD whiskey, and it uses RAW honey, and it uses a fat lemon wheel studded with whole cloves, and a cinnamon stick, and a tiny piece of fresh ginger. THAT is a hot toddy. You drink that when you have a cold, the cold leaves. You drink it when you're sad, the sadness leaves. You drink it on a snowy night and suddenly the snow looks beautiful instead of like a parking nightmare. Tremendous. Tremendous beverage. Trust me.
Ingredients
- 6 ozwater
- 1.5 ozwhiskey (bourbon, rye, or Irish)(your choice, no wrong answer, all good answers)
- 1 tbspraw honey(raw, the cloudy good stuff, not the squeeze bear)
- 1 tbspfresh lemon juice(from a real lemon, never bottled, the bottle is a lie)
- 1 thick slicelemon wheel
- 3-4whole cloves(stuck into the lemon wheel)
- 1cinnamon stick
- 1 thin slice (about the size of a quarter)fresh ginger(smashed with the flat of a knife)
Steps
- 1
Stud the lemon wheel with the whole cloves by pushing them through the peel.
- 2
Bring the water to a near boil in a small kettle or saucepan. Add the ginger slice and cinnamon stick and let steep, off heat, for 2 minutes.
- 3
Pre-warm your mug by filling it with hot tap water and letting it sit for 30 seconds. A cold mug kills a hot toddy — pour it out and dry the mug before using.
- 4
Add the honey and lemon juice to the warm mug. Stir to dissolve the honey.
- 5
Add the whiskey.
- 6
Pour the hot ginger-cinnamon water through a small strainer into the mug, leaving the cinnamon stick out for now.
- 7
Stir to combine, then drop in the clove-studded lemon wheel and the cinnamon stick as a stirrer.
- 8
Let sit 1 minute so the flavors meld, then sip slowly. Inhale the steam first — that's half the medicine.
One more thing
Eight minutes start to finish, including the time you spend feeling sorry for yourself because you have a sniffle. You make this, you drink this, you wrap yourself in a blanket, you put on a movie nobody you respect would admit to watching, and the world becomes a kinder place. The hot toddy fixes things. The hot toddy has always fixed things. It's just a fact. I'll see you next time.
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