Hot Toddy – the natural healing for your croupy cough.

This the season for runny noses and croupy coughs…but we know just what the doctor ordered: drinks. Alcoholic drinks. But please DO NOT drink these when you’re taking heavy cold meds, but try to take a break from medicating and attempt some natural healing with a stiff drink. You’ll be back to normal in no time.

Hot Toddy

The Hot Toddy is a classic cold cure. Just coat the bottom of a mug with about a tablespoon of honey and add 1 oz. of whiskey, brandy or rum and squeeze in 1/4 of a lemon. At the same time, you should be boiling 1 cup of water with a cinnamon stick, a whole clove and lemon rind for about 3 minutes. Then pour that water through a strainer and into the mug.

The Cure

If you don’t really feel like sipping an entire drink, how about a shot? Just combine 1/2 oz. tequila blanco, 1/2 oz. agave nectar and 1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice. It will be just like when you used to take your cough medicine as a kid, except this will give you a way better buzz.

The Mila Kunis

Okay, this drink doesn’t actually have a name as far as we know, but Mila Kunis told GQ about it in an interview, so therefore we named it after her. She didn’t give any measurements, so just use some common sense and you’ll be fine.

Pour a bottle of Cabernet in a saucepan, then add green tea powder, chai, and two gel caps of fish oil. Let it simmer for a while until the gel caps open and ooze out the liquid. Then add apple cider vinegar and a third of a bottle of vodka. Hmm… yum?

What’s your cure for the common cold?

Do you have money to burn?

Drinking good cocktails should not break the bank, but sometimes it’s fun to read about the people who are rich enough (and crazy enough) to buy ridiculously pricey drinks. For example, Salvatore Calabrese from the UK recently claimed he set a new world record for making the most expensive cocktail in the world at roughly $8,800. What is the most expensive drink in the world made out of?

A 1778 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, a 1770 Kummel liqueur, an 1860 Dubb Orange Curacao and two dashes of Angostura bitters dating from around 1900. Hmm…seems like it might be cheaper to just build a time machine and travel back to those dates to drink… but what do we know?

Here are some other crazy expensive cocktails that people actually pay for:

 The Skyview Bar of Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates – $7,439
This is the drink that Mr. Calabrese knocked out of the top spot for most expensive cocktail. It is considered an ultra-luxury version of the traditional “old fashioned.” It’s made with 55-year-old Macallan whisky, ice made from water used at their distillery, and exclusive dried fruit bitters with passion fruit scented sugar.

Ménage a Trois at Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas – $3,000
Okay, this drink is just decadent. It’s made from Cristal Rose, Hennessy Ellipse and Grand Marnier Cent-cinquantenaire. It’s decorated with 23-karat gold flakes and liquid gold syrup. You drink it through a gold straw studded with a 9-point diamond that you get to keep.

Mai Tai at The Merchant Hotel in Belfast and Dublin, Ireland – $1,400
This cocktail also used to hold the world record back in the day. You’re probably thinking “why is a freaking Mai Tai over $1,000?” – because it uses 17-year-old Wray and Nephew Rum, which was used to create the original Mai Tai over 60 years ago. There are only six bottles of this rum left in the entire world and The Merchant Hotel has one of them.

If you were gonna make a cocktail and charge an arm and a leg for it, what crazy ingredients would you put in it?

UPGRADE YOUR HOME BAR

UPGRADE YOUR HOME BAR

 

This will mean not looking down our nose at the basics. A solid FIVE-BOTTLE BAR  – gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and bourbon!!!

 

At home happy hour starts with some mixers and tools such as cocktail shaker and jiggers you  can anchor one hell of a cocktail party, and is perfectly serviceable. But once you’ve mastered Mixology 101, it’s only reasonable to long for the next level: Classic cocktails with bitters and liqueurs, great garnishes, and exotic ingredients.

When you’re looking to upgrade your home bar, consider these 10 additional tools and spirits, each of which will help your cocktails reach new heights in quality and creativity.

 

Cocktail

Negroni

• 1 oz Campari Bitter
• 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 1 oz Gin

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass 3/4 filled with cracked ice. Add a splash of soda water if desired. Garnish with a half slice of orange.

 

1.) Juice squeezer

By now you know the mantra: All fresh juice, all the time. It just makes drinks taste better. One $10, hand-held juice squeezer will last you forever and do more for your cocktails than bottled lemon or lime juice could ever do (and will get more juice out of your fruit than you will squeezing by hand alone).

2.) Fruit peeler

A great way to add simple garnishes. Use the fruit peeler to trim a lemon twist — it doesn’t have to be in a fancy curl to make the drink look polished. When adding a twist to a drink, make sure to squeeze the piece over the drink with the peel facing the surface of the cocktail; this ensures that you get a hit of the aromatic essential oil hiding in the skin.

3.) Better ice

Stop using the trays that came with the freezer, and start thinking about what the drink itself might call for when it comes to ice.

4.) Pourers

While you’re upgrading your spirit selection, you can also upgrade the bottles themselves. Spouts help keep the stream nice and even, and keep you from uncapping and re-capping bottles during a party. They also just help the bar look tidier and more professional.

5.) Cognac

Good Cognac can be served on its own, after a meal, and it allows you to venture into the French 75. 

6.) Fruit-based liqueurs

Start with Cointreau, which is crucial for margaritas, and then upgrade further with a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino.

7.) Herb and botanical-based liqueurs

Three classic bottles will get your bar to the next level: Campari — the legendary red Italian bitter you’ll need for Negronis; Chartreuse, a hypnotically green, sweet-and-spicy cordial favored by Gatsby (so who are we to disagree?); and St-Germain, a deeply lovely, elderflower-based liqueur. The St-Germain, in particular, will give your bar a facelift, as the bottle is just gorgeous. Plus, you need it for this:

St-Germain Cocktail

2 parts Brut Champagne
1.5 parts St-Germain
2 parts Club soda

Add everything to a Collins glass and give it a stir. Garnish with a lemon twist.

8.) Sweet liqueurs

Start with the cremes — creme de cacao, creme de menthe, and creme e cassis — and you’ll be forever equipped for Grasshoppers and Stingers.

9.) Absinthe

You’ve always wanted to have a bottle of Absinthe on hand, so now’s the time to join the brotherhood of the Green Muse. Once you procure a bottle, host a Death in the Afternoon sort of brunch: Just add 1 1/2 oz of Absinthe to 4 oz of Brut Champagne.

10.) Bitters

First things first: Angostura.  Then venture out into orange bitters — which go well with anybody’s favorite martini recipe  – and a bottle of Peychaud’s.