Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Not Your Grandpappy's Cough Medicine

It's been almost a year since my last post, and several months from the one before that.  A brief update to life on the Bourbon Trail:

1.  I got pregnant.  Doctors frown upon pregnant women drinking whisky.  Go figure.

2.  I had a baby.  She's awesome and universally adored.  Her father packed a bottle of whisky to toast her birth at the hospital.  He had a bourbon while I breastfed his child and gave him the stink-eye. 

3.  We temporarily moved to Indianapolis for my husband's job.  I learned some important things in Indy - the weather is cold, the people are warm, and the restaurant workers know not a thing about bourbon.  I asked what kinds they had at a local watering hole and the woman offered me a selection of two Canadian whiskies, a single malt Scotch, and Jack Daniels.  I ordered a beer.

Which brings us to January 2013.  It's cold and flu season, and being the mother of three small children, one of whom insists on chewing on the Target cart handles when I'm not looking, we've all shared some hellish combination of upper respiratory infection, flu, and what I'm assuming is the black plague.  This has brought a slew of suggestions that I publish a folk remedy involving some magical combination of bourbon, lemon juice, rock candy, honey, cayenne pepper, eye of newt, etc.

I have tried the various permutations of this concoction, most of which are horrid.  I drank a corrosive combination of boiling hot bourbon, lemon juice, and honey for years.  I do not recommend it.  I also do not claim to dispense legitimate medical advice.  This is not medical advice.  Seriously.  Go see a doctor if you're sick. 

This is, however, delicious.  It's like a hot drinkable caramel apple, good enough to serve as a post dinner drink (and often is at our house!), and excellent at clearing the sinuses and fuzzing the head.

So what I now present is...Not Your Grandpappy's Cough Medicine.

6 oz. fresh-pressed apple cider (the fresh stuff is better, but if it's not available, any cider will do)
1/2 to 1 shot (1.5 oz) bourbon  Don't waste the good stuff on this.  I used Old Forrester.

Warm the cider in the microwave for 60-90 seconds and stir in the bourbon.  Breathe in the vapor with your mouth open.  Drink it while it's hot, cuddle up with a blanket and a Doctor Who rerun.

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