Honey is SUPER sweet and a bit richer than simple syrup, so you want to dilute it a bit. Trying to get honey to dissolve in a drink is like trying to get normal sugar crystals to dissolve. It takes a while and is kinda difficult. So for the purpose of making cocktails you’ll want to make honey syrup. To do that just mix honey and water at a 2 to 1 ratio. 2 oz honey to 1 oz water. This dilutes the honey enough so that it will mix easy but still be sweet.
There are tons of different kinds of honey all with subtle variations based on the flowers used, environment and bee. It doesn’t really matter though once it’s mixed into drinks with citrus, liqueurs, and spirits. So just pick get any kind and go with it.
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This is an amazing spiced tropical juice flavored cocktail. Its actually one of my favorite tiki drinks and in my opinion is much better than many of the more popular tiki cocktails. The honey and juice perfectly match the strength of the rum and the spice of the bitters. Not much to say other than this is a must try and one you will most likely make again.
Making a PI YI With a Fresh Pineapple
The original way to prepare this was to scoop out a small pineapple and use the inside, blend it, and use the juice of it in the drink. Once the drink was shaken and done it is poured back into the hallowed out pineapple. To keep with tradition I cut a pineapple and used a small bit of blended fruit as the juice for this drink and it turned out really good. I did not pour it back in since I want the drink to be visible in a glass. Also I ended up eating most of the pineapple on its own, and a hallowing out a pineapple would give me way more than 1 oz of juice. My assumption is all the extra fruit and juice from the fresh pineapple was used in other drinks too at Don The Beachcombers.
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A lot of these old drinks that we still make today are actually really hard to find information on. Hot buttered rum, hot ale flip, buttered beer, toddies, etc. Most actual written recipes are around the mid 1800s and later. Books were mostly published for histories and stories, but skills and trades were just taught from master to apprentice. There were a few but not like there is today. One tries to piecemeal as much as they can together.
In a 1769 book “A Dissertation On The Oleum Palmae Christi” by Peter Canvane he mentions adding medicines to “warm milk punch, common punch, or toddy, in which a hot poker has been quenched.” as ways of administering medicine to those who complain about the taste. (Total side note. All the really old stuff has the long “S” character ( “ʃ” ) but I changed it to a normal “s” in the quote, it looks like kinda like an f but it’s just another symbol for s that we don’t use anymore. Thats why the Declaration of Independence looks like they spelled everything wrong.) In an 1783 fictional book “Smyth’s Tour of The United States” by J.F.D. Smyth, he notes that his character likes to “take a draught of Bumbo, or toddy, a liquor composed of water, sugar, rum and nutmeg.” There was also a kinda funny romance story from 1741 I found, where a beautiful lady walks into the kitchen and ask the lord of the house for a toddy. “Would you like it hot, or cold? warm I replied.”
All silliness aside the point I am trying to get at is, there is no actual formal recipe to make a toddy but the parts and qualities of a toddy. There are as many toddies as there are people. What matters are the parts, so based on the works I referenced lets brake those parts down.
The first reference points to the colonial American way of heating up drinks. Not by using a stove but by using a hot fireplace poker often called a toddy rod or loggerhead. In a home setting a stove probably was used as it was already fired up for cooking food but in a tavern it was more efficient to simply place iron rods in the already running fireplace. Rather than having a stove run all night just to be ready for the occasional warm drink they could simply dip the toddy rod into the drinks people request warmed.
The second reference give us the ingredient of the toddy. The 4 parts are water, sugar, rum, and nutmeg. Now any spice will do but it is worth noting that even in the early 1862 Bartenders guide only nutmeg is mentioned when adding spice toddies.
The third reference lets us know that toddies were served both hot and cold and sometimes warm. Now I am willing to bet that a cold toddy was just not a heated one. Commercial refrigeration was not invented till the 1850s so access to blocks of ice was limited mostly to business. and while they did have ice houses that saved ice for most of the summer (some stayed in use up to the 1930s), something as special as ice was not going to be wasted on a single drink.
So for this hot toddy recipe I will stick to those points. Using only rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. Heated up with a toddy rod. Almost every recipe you find has lemon juice added it to add to its medicinal qualities but since that is not traditional to the 18th or 19th century I will leave it out and stick to the classic structure. On a fun side note, did you know the original name for the muddler was actually the toddy stick. Thats right, It was based off the pestle from the mortar and pestle but made of wood so it wouldn’t shatter glass cups. The shape was perfect for smashing together fruits, spices and sugar cubes.
Do Hot Toddies Actually Help You Feel Better When You Are Sick
So the short answer is, I guess… sure. The long answer is it depends on what ailment you hope to relieve. Western medicine has come a long way since the 18th century but there are three reasons a person makes a hot toddy today other than it just tasting good. 1). When they have a soar throat. 2). When their sinuses are congested and 3). It just feels nice to cozy up with one during the winter. The main health benefit from a hot toddy comes from honey, if you use sugar then you are missing most of the benefits of a hot toddy. Honey is actually a pretty awesome nectar and has shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. In some lab studies if is found to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, this combined with the warm steam from the drink can help reduce congestion as that is a inflammation of the sinuses. Or you can pop some Sudafed during the day and Benadryl at night as those are some of the present day gold standards of over the counter anti-inflammation medication.
Ignoring mechanical irritation of ones throat like screaming a bunch, the most common reason for a sore throat is infection and the bodies natural response to infection is inflammation. So again its honey with that anti-inflammatory response, or you could just pop an ibuprofen or naproxen as they would be a more effective treatment. And the last point is it just feels good to cozy up with one, and it does. Being cozy just makes you feel happy, but did you also know that nutmeg is a hallucinogen. The dose is so low that its hard to credit any effect on the brain to the nutmeg but it does contain myristicin which in large doses can make people trip. Maybe that good feeling is just a psychedelic nut and alcohol induced feeling. Some people are very sensitive to nutmeg and the active chemicals in it and get pounding headache from even the smallest amount. So don’t ever use too much nutmeg and don’t use it for the purpose of getting high and be careful as it can be dangerous in large doses. Make wise choices.
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Pulled from the pages of Harry Johnson 1882 bartender’s manual, this absolutely wonderful cocktail should never be served to babies. While honey may seem safe and wholesome enough, not to mention loved by Pooh Bears, it actually has a bacteria in it that can be fatal to children under 1 year of age. In fact play it safe and just don’t mix any alcoholic cocktails for you children. Just stick to what the laws are in the country you are currently in.
On a less silly note Harry Johnson was an early pioneer in the world of mixology and contemporary to Jerry Thomas. Harry Johnson (what a name huh) was born in 1845 in Prussia. In the early 1860s while Otto Von Bismarck began marching the Prussian army westward to both help unify the separate German states and set the stage for WWI, Johnson was making his way to San Francisco. He bartended and mixed eastward from San Francisco to New Orleans and eventually New York, opening bars and publishing his guides along the way. Even though Jerry Thomas is the more famous of these two early mixologist who published their works, Harry Johnson works contain a level of technical precision one expects from Germans.
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Mulled Apple Cider came around 40 – 50 AD when the Romans made it to what is modern day England. Brewed apple cider was a popular Celtic drink in the area and the invading forces brought it back with them to Rome. The Romans had a tradition of brewing herbs into their wine (Hippocras) for flavor and medicinal properties. They applied that to cider and thus mulled or spiced cider was created. Read my apple cider ingredient description first but pick the cider you want based on what you want your final product to be most like and how you want to layer your flavors. Personally, I think the sparkling cider apple juice stuff is trash. Just dump that one. The orchard unfiltered apple juice stuff is pretty good but also just a little too sweet. So you can’t really add your own sweetener like maple syrup or honey etc. This limits your ability to add complexity. I personally prefer to make this with a semi dry cider beer or still apple wine. These give you room to build more of your own flavors but also bring a nice brewed and aged taste that the unfiltered stuff lacks. Normal cider style beer works well for this too. The bubbles dissipate after a few minutes and your just left with essentially a still apple wine. So before your next holiday party get a variety pack of ciders. See what you like and then buy a six pack of the stuff. Also a six pack is almost equal to 3 bottles of wine, so keep that in mind, and don’t just add all 6 beers or adjust accordingly.
Next up is spices. Long story short just read my mulling spices description. It can be summed up as don’t add too much and try and stick to just 4 different spices. Think cooking, you wouldn’t add a shit ton of salt or pepper to your fried eggs. It would be too much so you just do a light sprinkle. Same thing with this, just add 2 or 3 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks, etc. a little bit goes a very long way.
Next up is cooking. Most folks do this in a crock pot and for that I would just set it to warm. high, low and simmer are all too hot. Alcohol burns off at 173 f (78 c) and high, low and simmer all go to around 180 – 200 f. High just gets there faster than low and simmer, but warm only goes to about 160 f. You can do a slow cooker if you want but keep in mind you will burn off most of the booze even at the warm temp if you cook it for a long period of time. I think it cooks better if you do it faster in a normal stove top pot. Turn on the fire, pour it into the pot and quickly bring it up to heat. If you have a thermometer then stop around 160 or till you start to see a light vapor coming off the top. Once your hooch is up to temp, drop it to low, and add your sweetener and spices and then cook if for just 20 minutes. Most of the good flavors in your spices will come out in those first few minutes. Turn off the heat, add your bourbon, and serve. And that’s it. Serve it, put a lid on it, put it in a thermos, reheat it when you want more a little later, but stop the long term higher temperature cooking. Some folks cook this stuff for hours but I think that’s a little excessive. You won’t get anymore good flavor out of it and you will just burns off booze.
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Dry Mulled Apple Cider – My Favorite way to cook this classic cocktail
0 from 0 votesOnly logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings
1
servings
Calories
149
kcal
ABV
15%
Total time
3
minutes
Learn how to make a dry, boozy mulled apple cider.
Ingredients
6.5ozHoney
1bottleApple Cider Wine
8.5ozBourbon
2wholeAll Spice Berries
3wholeCloves
1peelOrange Rind
1wholeCinnamon Stick
Directions
Combine spices, honey, and wine in a stove top pot and heat to 71c (160f) or till vapor starts to appear.
Maintain this temperature and cook for about 20 minutes. Don’t over cook this as the flavors will become too strong and most of the alcohol will burn off.
After 20 minutes turn off the heat and remove the spices.
Add the fortifying spirit to the mulled wine and serve.
This maybe the oldest drink in this app because it dates back to the Romans. They had a spiced wine they called Hippocras. Unfortunately there are no actual recipes for it. At least that I could find. Its not till the 1300s that the English and French start to specify the spices to use and its basically what we still use today. This is NOT a hippocras recipe, this is a more modern, more palatable spiced wine you would expect to find in a normal cocktail app.
Now the drink. Pick a medium dry wine. If its already sweet then you can’t really add your own sweetener like maple syrup or honey etc. This limits your ability to add complexity. These give you room to build more of your own flavors. Next up is spices. Long story short just read my mulling spices description. It can be summed up as don’t add too much and try and stick to just 4 different spices. Think cooking, you wouldn’t add a shit ton of salt or pepper to your fried eggs. It would be too much so you just do a light sprinkle. Same thing with this, just add 2 or 3 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks, etc. a little bit goes a very long way.
Next up is cooking. Most folks do this in a crock pot and for that I would just set it to warm. high, low and simmer are all too hot. Alcohol burns off at 173 f (78 c) and high, low and simmer all go to around 180 – 200 f. High just gets there faster than low and simmer, but warm only goes to about 160 f. You can do a slow cooker if you want but keep in mind you will burn off most of the booze even at the warm temp if you cook it for a long period of time. I think it cooks better if you do it faster in a normal stove top pot. Turn on the fire, pour it into the pot and quickly bring it up to heat. If you have a thermometer then stop around 160 or till you start to see a light vapor coming off the top. Once your hooch is up to temp, drop it to low, and add your sweetener and spices and then cook if for just 20 minutes. Most of the good flavors in your spices will come out in those first few minutes. Turn off the heat, fish out the spices, add your bourbon, and serve. And that’s it. Serve it, put a lid on it, put it in a thermos, reheat it when you want more a little later, but stop the long term higher temperature cooking. Some folks cook this stuff for hours but I think that’s a little excessive. You won’t get anymore good flavor out of it and you will just burns off booze.
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