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.

Sweet on Honey: In the Cocktail and As the Garnish.

Honey is a popular ingredient in many Autumn cocktails. It is a great substitute to simple syrup and can  round out the flavor in sweet or tart cocktails. Honey is popularly paired with lemon and ginger in cocktails and can be a great addition to a bourbon or scotch cocktail or even a gin or vodka cocktail. Aside from being a trendy cocktail ingredient, honeycombs have become a decorative and exciting way to garnish these honey-flavored cocktails.

Here are some ways to garnish your honey-based cocktails:

1. Honeycomb stirrer as garnish with mint leaves. Buy stirrer here. 

2. Wedge of Honeycomb on cocktail pick for garnish. Instructions provided by FoodonFifth. 

3. Place piece of honeycomb in cocktail for garnish with additional mint leaves. Autumn honey cocktail recipe by Drink of the Week!