Photo by Anda Ambrosini on Unsplash

I was down with the flu for a fortnight a while ago, and during that time I had a lot of time left over to experiment with “home remedies” for the common cold if you catch my drift. After some research, I found that the NHS in the UK claims that most over-the-counter cough remedies doesn’t actually work, and that a lemon juice and honey dissolved in water actually works better. 

I tried that, but it tastes a little bland, so I came up with two versions of the drink that are a lot more pleasant to drink, and that actually good enough that you could enjoy them without a cold.

Honey Tea

This is the PG version, aka. alcohol free.

Dissolve a heaping tablespoon of honey (local, organic is better and might prevent some allergies down the road as well) and around 2 cl of lemon juice (or just half a lemon of freshly squeezed juice) in a big cup of black tea. It should be almost too sweet to drink, as the “healing” effect comes from the honey coating the back of your throat.

Rum Honey Toddy

Here we go all in, a few of these and you’ll forget that you’re even sick.

As in the previous version, dissolve a heaping tablespoon of honey (local, organic is better and might prevent some allergies down the road as well) and around 2 cl of lemon juice (or just half a lemon of freshly squeezed juice) in a cup of hot water. Add to that 4 cl (aka. a shot glass) of good rum. I prefer Appleton Estate Rum (UK) myself.

Categories: Food

Tags: cough-medicine, Food, home-remedy, honey, lemon, medicine, rum, rum-toddy