Hot Toddy Recipe

It's been rainy and soggy here in Vermont for the past week.  It looks as though Friday might clear up, but for now, it's gray.  Seemingly in sync with the weather, I managed to get a sore throat/cold thing a few days ago.  It's been lingering, and by the end of a long work day yesterday, my throat was in need of something warm and soothing.  Enter: the hot toddy.

I'd heard about these for a long time, but I'd never actually had one.  I read a few recipes online and then did what I usually do, which is come up with some amalgamation of what I read.  A lot of the recipes just use hot water with honey and lemon, but that sounded gross to me... so I used tea (a lot of recipes do).  Many say to use whiskey, but I didn't have any.  What I did have was maple rum (I know, I know - I'm on a real maple kick lately! But to be fair it is autumn in Vermont), which worked rather wonderfully.  Spiced rum would probably be good too.

My recipe is below.

Hot Toddy Recipe

You will need:
-  Tea (black tea, herbal tea, or green tea would probably all be good. I didn't want caffeine, so I went with ginger peach)
-  Half a lemon
-  Honey
-  Rum (or whiskey)

It's all pretty simple.  Brew your tea in a mug.  Leave a little room, since you'll be adding more liquid with the rum or whiskey.

Squeeze in the juice of half of a lemon - you can do more or less if you want.

Stir that up with a teaspoon of honey.

Add your rum or whiskey and stir it really well.

Sip and enjoy!  This was really soothing and didn't taste overwhelmingly like any one of the ingredients.   I enjoyed sitting by the fire and sipping away, and it really did make me feel better.

Of course for the work day, I'll just have to settle for tea with honey and lemon!