The Hot Toddy and How to Garnish It

What is Hot Toddy? A Hot Toddy can be brandy, whiskey or rum with honey, lemon, hot water and sometimes even a tea bag. Several creative versions and recipes for Hot Toddies are available and in the winter these become especially popular and sought-after.

Here are some of our favorite Hot Toddy recipes to keep you warm through the cold winter season! We have of course, included how to garnish these cocktails to elevate the flavor and make for interesting adaptions of the original "Hot Toddy" cocktail.

The Classic Hot Toddy is often made with bourbon or a rye whiskey, some honey, lemon juice and served in a mug with a lemon wedge and cinnamon stick for garnish. At Imbibe.com they get fancy with a star anise for an additional garnish.

SeriousEats.com goes even further and elevates their Scotch Hot Toddy with additional garnishes of allspice berries, and the coin of an orange peel studded with whole cloves. The orange oils add a warming spice to the Scotch-based drink.

TheKitchn.com suggests changing up the recipe and making it a Hot Apple-Ginger Toddy and garnishing with cinnamon stick stirrer, lemon slice, apple slice, and ginger slice. The ginger, cinnamon, lemon and apple flavors are also featured in the base of the cocktail.

Move Over Cherries, It's Apple Garnish season.

October is National Apple Month and what better excuse to replace our same-old traditional cocktail garnishes with something a little more exciting and seasonal- the apple!

This Apple season in The Big Apple we see Fall menus with everything from Apple-Creme Fraiche cronuts, Roasted Apple Baked Alaska, and more. We see the Apple-trend not only in the kitchen, but also at the most popular cocktail bars. These Apple-inspired cocktails are garnished with of course, apples.

The Apple cocktails of today have moved far past the outdated Apple-tini fad and instead utilize the fruit's natural tart and sweet flavors to create delicious, intricate and complex cocktail flavors, complementing both the liquors and the modifiers in the beverage.

There are several ways one can use an apple as a cocktail garnish. Here are some of our favorites:

• Dry The Apple and Use an Apple Chip or Two for garnish! (Instructions here)
• One Apple Slice with Star Shape (How to create Star Shape)
• A Few Simple Apple Wedges for Garnish
• Thinly Sliced Apple Sticks for a Tiki-Inspired Cocktail