With winter come the inevitable sniffles for millions of people across the world. Some people are lucky and manage to go the whole season without a cough or sore throat whilst the rest of us hear someone coughing from a mile away and seem to catch it.

There are hundreds of items available in the shops to help make you feel better. The problem is that they can be very expensive. My personal favourite is to go out and get the ingredients for a hot toddy which has these useful effects:

  • Clears blocked nose
  • Soothes sore throat
  • Makes you sleepy

If you google a hot toddy recipe you’ll likely find that you need to visit the shops to get a lot of the ingredients. To fix that here is my “Invent your own hot-toddy” manual. Simply select 1 item from each of the 6 columns and combine them in your favourite mug.

Hopefully you’ll find something listed in each section that you already own meaning this cold remedy doesn’t involve you spending any more money.

1. The Base (3/4 of a cup) 2. Booze (1 or 2 shots) 3. Sweetener 4. Fruit (1 or 2 wedges) 5. Extra
Hot water

Tea (Without milk)

 Scotch

Bourbon

Rum

Brandy

Vodka

Cointreau

Amaretto

 Honey

Sugar (Brown preferred)

Maple Syrup

 Lemon

Lime

Apple

Grapefruit

 Dried Cloves

Cinnamon stick

Juniper berries (crushed)

Ginger (ground)

Nutmeg (ground)

Star anise

Apple cider vinegar

for example : Make a cup of tea (no milk). Add a shot of rum, a dollop of honey, a slice of lemon (with the seeds removed) and sprinkle some nutmeg on top. Then sit down in a sofa and enjoy.Xmas spices

The above table will make drinks that most people should enjoy. I know different countries around the world have their own variations of this (Japan makes one with egg!). If anyone has tried anything funky in their own version of this drink I’d love to hear about it.