Apple Cider Hot Toddy Recipe - The Cookie Rookie® (2024)

FAQs

Does a hot toddy help a cough? ›

The ingredients in a hot toddy have been shown to have cough-suppressing properties. Alcohol isn't needed in the recipe to experience these benefits. Consuming warm water, lemon, and honey is the key to symptom relief. Additional items can be added to taste, such as tea, clove, and ginger.

Irish Whiskey: Known for its smoothness and light sweetness, brands like Jameson and Bushmills blend well without overpowering the other ingredients. Bourbon: With its rich, vanilla, and caramel notes, bourbon like Maker's Mark or Woodford Reserve adds depth and complements the honey and lemon in the toddy.

Experts say yes — sort of. The folklore goes that a hot toddy – the alcoholic drink composed of hot water, lemon juice, honey and whiskey or rum or brandy – can soothe your sore throat or clear your winter cold-induced congestion.

After drinking the whole hot toddy, the 1.5 ounces of bourbon both puts you at ease and helps you drift into sleep so your body can recover. Learn how to make a hot toddy. Whether it's for yourself or for a loved one, we recommend keeping this recipe in your back pocket.

Adding spices, such as ginger, to a hot toddy may also have benefits. There is, however, no evidence to suggest that alcohol can help with the symptoms. Doctors often recommend that people avoid drinking alcohol when they have a cold or flu.

And it turns out that the core ingredients in a Hot Toddy — whiskey, hot water, honey, and lemon — do pretty much the same thing. A great decongestant, the alcohol in whiskey dilates the blood vessels, making it easier for your mucus membranes to deal with the infection.

Drink Ginger Tea

Along with helping you hydrate and steam out your sinuses, hot ginger tea contains the anti-inflammatory gingerol. This compound reduces inflammation in your mucus membranes, making this the best tea for sinus infection relief.

And try to limit or avoid caffeine, alcohol, or sugar-sweetened beverages since these can be inflammatory. Staying hydrated can also help with a common symptom of sinus infections: sore throat. Drinking plenty of water will help prevent your throat from feeling dry.

Best consumed in small doses and infrequently, Hot Toddies can only be served as as medicine to those 21 and over, should not replace a medical professional's advice, and are best followed by a tall glass of water, some herbal tea, and plenty of rest and TLC.

How Strong Is the Hot Toddy? The hot toddy is not one of those drinks that you down simply to get drunk. It is more of an experience and a way to relax, so its alcohol content may be irrelevant for the most part.

What is better for a cough hot or cold? ›

VERDICT: Drink warm water for cold symptom relief. Room temperature water is also a good choice if you are coughing or sneezing.

Both experts concluded that a hot toddy is a soothing drink that can help temper some cold symptoms, but it doesn't have any more healing powers than a bowl of soup or a steaming cup of tea. “It'll make you feel better because it's comforting and it will help replace some fluids, but not much else,” Kacew says.

Stay hydrated with water, juice, clear broth or warm lemon water with honey. Avoid caffeine and alcohol, which can dehydrate you. Eat chicken soup. Chicken soup and other warm fluids, such as warm apple juice or tea, can be soothing and loosen congestion.

Whiskey can temporarily widen your blood vessels. In small amounts, this can help clear mucus congestion in your sinuses and chest, which lets your body better deal with sickness and infection. This effect may also relieve other symptoms of a cold or flu, like coughing or wheezing.