Hot toddy
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A hot toddy, also hot totty, is typically a mixed drink made of liquor and water with sugar and spices and served hot.[1] Hot toddy recipes vary and are traditionally drunk before going to bed, or in wet or cold weather. They were believed to help cure the cold and flu, but the American Lung Association now recommends avoiding treating the common cold with alcoholic beverages as they cause dehydration.[2]
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[edit] Preparation
Traditional Northern British preparation of a hot toddy involves the mixture of whisky, boiling water or warm milk, and sugar or honey. Additional ingredients such as cloves, a lemon slice or cinnamon (in stick or ground form) may be added.[3]
Depending on preference, the cloves and cinnamon stick can be removed before drinking, although leaving them in is often said to make a toddy even better for clearing a blocked nose and relieving a head cold.[citation needed]
A common version in the Midwest uses Vernors Ginger Ale, lemon, honey and Bourbon whiskey. In Wisconsin, brandy is often used instead of bourbon.
[edit] Popular etymology
It has been suggested that the name comes from the toddy drink in India,[4] produced by fermenting the sap of palm trees. The term could have been introduced into Scotland by a member of the British East India Company.[5]
An alternative explanation is given in Allan Ramsay's 1721 poem The Morning Interview, which describes a tea party in which it is said that
- "All the rich requisites are brought from far: the table from Japan, the tea from China, the sugar from Amazonia, or the West Indies, but that
- 'Scotia does no such costly tribute bring,
- Only some kettles full of Todian spring.'"
To this passage, Ramsay has appended the note:
- "The Todian spring, i.e. Tod's Well, which supplies Edinburgh with water."
Tod's Well, on the side of Arthur's Seat, supplied Edinburgh, and since whisky derives its name from water (the Scots Gaelic term uisge beatha ), it could be that "Toddy" was a facetious name for whisky.
[edit] See also
- Tamagozake, the traditional Japanese cold cure, uses heated sake.
[edit] References
- ^ "Definition of Hot Toddy". Princeton WordNet. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=hot%20toddy. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ "Facts About the Common Cold". American Lung Association. August 2005. http://www.lungusa.org/lung-disease/influenza/in-depth-resources/facts-about-the-common-cold.html. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
- ^ http://www.lifeoverhere.com/recipe-for-a-hot-toddy/
- ^ Glossaries India
- ^ Conans Pub hot-toddies
- MacKay, Charles. A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888)
