Tea Wisdom
A good hot toddy is the perfect cozy tea-based drink for chilly weather. While you can make a hot toddy using plain hot water, using loose leaf tea as a base makes for an even tastier and more flavorful drink. We’re firm believers in enjoying hot toddies for pleasure, medicinal reasons, and to warm up on cold winter nights!
How to Make a Tea-Based Hot Toddy
The basic recipe for a hot toddy is pretty simple: add spirits, lemon juice, and honey to a base of hot tea, stir, and enjoy! That said, you can certainly fancy up a hot toddy by adding aromatic spices, garnishes, and additional ingredients.
Hot Toddy Ingredients
One cup of hot tea - You can use any tea you like as the base (see our recommendations below.)
Two ounces of spirits - Bourbon, brandy, and dark rum are all great options.
Lemon juice to taste - If you have it, fresh-squeezed lemon juice is ideal.
Honey to taste - Our organic Mt. Tam honey is lovely in a hot toddy.
Optional garnishes - Cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, and lemon or orange slices are all great additions.
Hot Toddy Instructions
Your hot toddy can be as simple or complex as you choose to make it. Adding a spoonful of honey, a squeeze of lemon, and a glug of bourbon to your tea is a perfectly acceptable (and encouraged) preparation method! Here’s a step-by-step guide to our go-to hot toddy recipe:
Prepare your tea - Follow the preparation instructions for whatever tea you’ve decided on.
Add your spirits - Stir about two ounces of whiskey, dark rum, or brandy into your tea.
Add fresh lemon juice - Add lemon juice to taste, freshly squeezed if you’ve got it.
Add honey - Add honey or another sweetener to taste.
Garnish - You can garnish your hot toddy with a cinnamon stick, citrus slices, or other spices.
Enjoy - For best results, we recommend enjoying a hot toddy along with a good book by a crackling fire.
The Best Tea for a Hot Toddy
While you can make a hot toddy using unflavored hot water, using tea as a base for a hot toddy adds a depth of flavor to this cozy drink. You can use whatever tea you want for a hot toddy, and any full-bodied, flavorful tea that can stand up well to the strong flavors of spirits and lemon is a good option. Here are some teas we recommend using for this recipe:
Assam - If you’re in the mood for a classic black tea-based hot toddy, you can’t go wrong with a hearty Assam. This bold black tea is full-bodied and malty, the perfect complement to the other ingredients in a hot toddy.
Earl Grey Francais - Earl Grey is flavored with bergamot, a small citrus fruit. Our Earl Grey Francais contains bergamot from France, which is extra flavorful and aromatic.
Orange Peel - A full-bodied black tea with orange peel, our organic Orange Peel is a great base for a hot toddy with citrusy notes.
Solstice Spice - Solstice Spice blends black tea with apple pieces, orange pieces, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, cloves, and pink peppercorn for a warming, cozy spiced tea.
Honeybush Hot Cider - Want to make a tea-based toddy without the caffeine? Honeybush Hot Cider Herbal Tea is a great option. This tea starts with a honeybush base, blended with apple pieces, cinnamon, chamomile, orange peel, and licorice root.
Egyptian Chamomile - Light, fragrant, and naturally sweet chamomile makes a lovely hot toddy base, flavorful enough to lend floral notes to the drink without outshining the other ingredients.
READ MORE:
How to make a hot toddy with bourbon, rum or other dark spirit, lemon, honey and hot water. Plus, lots of suggestions for variations. Jump to the Hot Toddy Recipe
How to Make Our Favorite Hot Toddy
We make them often, especially during the colder months. Variations are endless, so think of this as a guide. When it comes to the best liquor for making hot toddies, we choose a dark rum or bourbon. Brandy or whisky work well, but a hot toddy with dark rum or bourbon are our favorite.
You can deviate from the honey and lemon, as well. Orange, grapefruit or Meyer lemon would be lovely. We love the floral sweetness of honey, but brown sugar, agave nectar or other sweeteners can be used.
Tea is a nice variation, too. We’ve tried chamomile, ginger and even a black tea before. All were nice, but the black tea really stood out as a favorite — especially with dark rum.
A tiny splash of apple cider vinegar is really nice. Adam came up with the idea after ordering a hot toddy in the city — they mixed in a shrub, which is basically a fruit-and-vinegar syrup added to cocktails and sodas. The acid from the vinegar brings out all the flavors of the toddy without making it taste too sweet.
Since we don’t make our own shrubs at home (yet), we thought adding a little splash of apple cider vinegar just might work. It did. So well in fact that we think you should try it yourself.
Make two hot toddies, one with vinegar and the other without. Then taste the difference. I’m betting you’ll prefer the one with vinegar.
Another thing to consider is to buy a shrub and add that — we like Pok Pok’s shrubs a lot. Others suggest Inna Shrub and The Hudson Standard Shrub — they are all really well reviewed.
There are probably local producers too — ask a bartender what they have behind the bar. My last suggestion for playing with your own hot toddy is to call on a spice or two. Think cinnamon, clove or allspice.
Don’t they look so warming! We’re so excited for you to experiment for yourselves. Let us know in the comments how you make your best hot toddy.
Easy Hot Toddy with Honey and Lemon
- COOK 5mins
- TOTAL 5mins
Try dark rum or bourbon for this. Brandy or your favorite whisky will work, but dark rum and bourbon are our favorite. Hot toddies are best warm so you might want to think about warming your mug just before making the drink. Simply fill your mug with hot water then empty it.
Makes 1 drink
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 ounce dark rum or bourbon
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon pure honey
1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, optional
1/4 cup hot water or brewed tea
Lemon slice
Directions
Put honey, lemon juice and the apple cider vinegar in a warmed mug. Add hot water or hot tea and stir until the honey has dissolved. Add the rum or bourbon, stir then finish with a lemon slice.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- The acid from the apple cider vinegar brings out all the flavors of the toddy without making it taste too sweet. The drink tastes great without it as well, but if you have cider vinegar in your pantry, give it a try.
- Tea is a nice variation. We’ve tried chamomile, ginger and even a black tea before. All were nice, but the black tea really stood out as a favorite — especially with dark rum.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1 drink / Calories 129 / Protein 0 g / Carbohydrate 18 g / Dietary Fiber 0 g / Total Sugars 17 g / Total Fat 0 g / Saturated Fat 0 g / Cholesterol 0 mg