It is pouring heavily here in Kerala. For the last two days, I have been my trying my best to shake away the cold I have caught from the wet season. Alas, all in vain. With a congested nose, how can you go to bed at night! I spent all my time sitting wide awake and snuffling. It was in one of those sleepless nights I came across this account of a cocktail named hot toddy.
What is hot toddy?
Hot toddy is not definitely a new phenomenon. It is recorded that even in the 19th century, Dr Robert Bentley Todd, a Dublin physician was administering his patients a mixture of brandy, cinnamon, sugar, and hot water. It worked wonders and his patients slept peacefully ever after. But as years rolled by, brandy was slowly replaced from hot toddy with whiskey as the base spirit for building the cocktail.
So what is the defining feature of the drink? It is not the whiskey or brandy or vodka in it but it is the heat in Hot toddy that makes it the Cold-killer.
Want to make the cocktail at home?
Pour warm water into a glass. Add the base spirit (brandy or whiskey or any other spirit you prefer). A few drops of lemon, honey, ginger syrup or cinnamon can do magic in the final drink.
Stir it well before you drink. The healing begins once the aromatic steam assails your nose. Remember, you haven't yet tasted it!
Here are a few famous recipes:
With whiskey
60ml whiskey
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar syrup
1 slice lemon
1 clove
Hot water to fill.
With brandy:
1 tbsp honey
3/4 glass tea
I peg brandy
1 slice lemon
Enjoy! Let me catch that much-needed sleep now.
(Manu Remakant is a freelance writer who also runs a video blog - A Cup of Kavitha - introducing world poetry to Malayalees. Views expressed here are personal)
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