Name: Rebel Toddy
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 2 oz Starward Whiskey; 0.25 oz Allspice Dram; 0.75 oz Honey Syrup; 0.25 oz Lemon Juice; Splash of ginger syrup

When it’s cold, gray and wet outside, there’s nothing like ducking into a cozy pub and sipping something hot and boozy to warm your bones. The classic choice, of course, is a hot toddy — whiskey, lemon, honey and hot water. It’s practically cold medicine, in the most delicious of ways. Lots of variations include tea or flavorful syrups and liqueurs, and some swap the classic bourbon for other whiskies or different spirits altogether.

If your soul (and your throat) could use a little love on one of these bitter winter days, put the kettle on and try mixing up a toddy yourself. The key, for these as for any hot cocktail, is to use heat carefully — you want to get it up to temperature, but be sure not to boil the spirit itself or the alcohol will cook off.

This Hot Toddy Recipe Saved My Sanity

A very easy hack will make this your favorite winter drink

We rounded up these five hot toddy recipes from cocktail bars in the cold winter climes of New York, D.C. and Chicago. They range from incredibly simple to more advanced, with flavor profiles to suit palates of all kinds. With one of these steamy drinks in hand, winter isn’t so bad after all.

Rebel Toddy – Little Rebel (NYC)

“The secret to making the best hot toddy is finding the right balance of lemon and honey,” says Jarek Krukow, owner and beverage director of Little Rebel in Manhattan’s East Village. He, too, believes in the (very scientific) medicinal power of the toddy.

“The perfect complement to winter, a hot toddy is a secret weapon – it can help as a great decongestant since whiskey is the main spirit. Honey and lemon can help soothe during the cold season, so it’s tasty and effective.”

Krukow’s toddy recipe sticks closely to tradition by including the core ingredients — whiskey, honey and lemon — with the addition of allspice dram and ginger syrup. Allspice dram, a liqueur made from allspice berries, typically goes for $20-30 per bottle, or you could go full homesteader and make your own.

Rebel Toddy

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 10 mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients

2 oz Starward Whiskey
0.25 oz Allspice Dram
0.75 oz Honey Syrup
0.25 oz Lemon Juice
Splash of ginger syrup

Directions

1. Combine ingredients, add 4 oz of hot water.

Hot Jazzy – TLK (NYC)

Tea isn’t a standard hot toddy ingredient, but it’s probably the one most commonly added. Michelle Morgan, owner of the East Village’s TLK, opted for sweet, floral jasmine tea to serve as the backbone of this toddy variation. Jasmine also appears in the base spirit, an infused Japanese whiskey. If you’re not already a pro at infusing spirits, it’s easy: fill a jar with liquor and add a hearty scoop of dried jasmine tea, then let sit for a day or two, or until it reaches your desired strength of flavor.

Hot Jazzy

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 10 mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients

1 oz jasmine-infused Suntory Toki Whisky*
0.5 oz Pineau De Charentes
0.5 oz ginger syrup
0.5 oz honey syrup
0.5 oz lemon juice
Hot jasmine tea
Garnish: orange wheel and dried jasmine flowers

Directions

1. * For the jasmine-infused whisky: Combine the 2 cups of loose-leaf Jasmine Tea and 1 liter of Suntory Toki Whisky in a sterile container for 24 hours. Then, strain the tea from the whiskey into a bottle for use.
2. Place all ingredients in the mug, finishing with hot jasmine tea. Place an orange wheel flat on top and sprinkle with crushed dried jasmine flowers.

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Mercy Me at Yours Truly DC

For those in search of something a little more decadent, Sami Katrib, Food and Beverage Director at Mercy Me at Yours Truly DC, came up with this fruity toddy-esque concoction. It’s a hot drink that contains citrus (in the form of orange bitters) and honey, but the Baby It’s Cold Outside takes a non-traditional approach by swapping the whiskey for rum and using apple juice or cider to comprise most of the cocktail’s volume. It gets its body from the fat-washed rum, and at Mercy Me, guests are served their drink in a smoked glass, adding a whole extra layer of flavor.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 10 mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients

1.5 oz Butter washed rum*
.5 oz apricot liqueur
2 oz unfiltered apple juice or cider
.25 oz honey
2 dashes orange bitters
1 dash clove bitters (angostura bitters works best)
Garnish: lemon wheel and cinnamon stick used to smoke the glass

Directions

1. * For the butter-washed rum: Place 1 stick of salted butter, melted and cooled, in 750 ml of warmed rum for 2 hours and strain liquid.
2. Smoke the toddy glass or mug with fragrant wood chips. If you don’t have a smoker, simply light a cinnamon stick and place it over the glass of choice for 45 seconds.
3. Combine all ingredients over a stovetop or liquid heating machine for 3 minutes.
4. Garnish with lemon wheel and cinnamon stick.

Artesano Tea – Artesano (NYC)

Generally, we tend to associate clear spirits with refreshing drinks for warmer months — but gin is perfectly at home in this herbaceous hot cocktail, designed by Marek Trocha, mixologist at Peruvian restaurant Artesano in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood. It’s not exactly a toddy, swapping lemon for lime and getting its sweetness from a homemade mint-rosemary syrup rather than honey, but the inclusion of green tea provides all the cold-weather comfort you need. And with its stunning peridot color, it might be the greenest thing you see until spring.

Artesano Tea

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 20 mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients

2 oz gin
1 oz mint-rosemary syrup*
2 oz green tea reduction**
1 oz lime juice

Directions

1. *For the mint-rosemary syrup: Take 10 mint leaves and 4 rosemary pieces, 3 bags of green tea, and 10 oz each of water and sugar and boil for 15 minutes. Strain and cool.
2. **For the green tea reduction: Combine 3 bags of green tea and 10 oz of water. Boil until half the liquid evaporates.
3. Mix gin, syrup, tea reduction and lime into a pot and heat to desired serving temperature (be careful not to let it boil).

I Can’t Believe It’s Slivo – Rose Mary (Chicago)

And now for something completely different: this hot cocktail contains lemon and honey like a classic toddy, but it involves some fairly advanced techniques and a spirit that may be unfamiliar to some. The base liquor in this drink is slivovitz, a plum-based spirit that originated in Serbia and is produced throughout Eastern, Central and Southern Europe.

Kyle Davidson, head bartender at Italian-Croatian restaurant Rose Mary in Chicago, devised a milk punch around the plum spirit, to be served warm during the winter months. The milk helps to counterbalance the strength of the slivo, and the inclusion of chamomile makes it a supremely comforting drink.

Since this one is somewhat labor-intensive, it’s best to make it as a batch cocktail. This recipe serves about 25, depending on the size of glassware you’re using.

I Can't Believe It's Silvo

Prep Time: 24 hours

Cook Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 54 mins

Servings: 25

Ingredients

6 cups slivovitz
2.25 cups lemon juice
2 cups honey syrup (3:1)
0.5 cup water
25 g chamomile
500 g whole milk

Directions

1. Combine slivovitz, lemon juice, honey syrup, water and chamomile; infuse for 30 minutes.
2. In a separate container, add 500 g cold whole milk. It’s important to add the mixture to the milk, not the other way around. This enables a smaller curd which will help with straining, instead of fewer, bigger particles. Strain for about 24 hours.