Hot Cocktail

Hot Toddy

5 min.Rye Whiskey

Pre-heat an Irish coffee glass or toddy glass by filling it with very hot water, then discard the warming water.
1
Add the sugar to the warm glass.
2
Pour in the rye whiskey and stir to begin dissolving the sugar.
3
Add the boiling water to fill the glass, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved and the drink is well mixed.
4
Grate a little nutmeg over the top if using, and serve hot.
5

United States
Origin
This hot whiskey toddy follows the toddy pattern laid out by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 The Bar-Tender's Guide, where toddies are spirit, sugar, and water, with the hot version made by omitting ice and using boiling water. In Thomas’s time the toddy could be served hot or cold, but the hot form gradually became the dominant understanding of a toddy in American bar culture. The later lemon-and-honey hot toddy is an evolution of this simpler 19th-century spirit-sugar-water template.
History
Jerry Thomas specifies a whiskey toddy using a wineglass of whiskey and sugar and notes that to make it hot, you simply use boiling water instead of ice. Nutmeg was a common optional garnish in 19th-century toddies and flips, adding a gentle aromatic layer without changing the basic three-part structure. Thomas explicitly contrasts a hot toddy with hot punch, reserving citrus more for punch and keeping the toddy as a simpler mix of spirit, sugar, and water. Modern hot toddies with lemon and honey are now more familiar, but historically this austere whiskey, sugar, and boiling water build is closer to what the term meant in 1860s American bars.
Trivia
Simple butter cookies, Shortbread, Lightly sweet tea cakes
Pairings
The Bar-Tender's Guide
Source