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I have been suffering from a spring head cold lately and I have had a hot toddy or two to help remedy the symptoms. I am following a long heritage of using whiskey as a medicine. From the earliest days of settlement in Kentucky, whiskey was used as a medicine. A hot toddy was drunk to ease the symptoms of a head cold. A shot of whiskey would be drunk every morning as an “eye opener” to ease the muscle pains and aches from the hard work of clearing fields, planting fields, harvesting crops, building barns, and other labor intensive jobs that came with settling a new land.

Many cocktails were created to make the whiskey more flavorful, because in these early days, you are probably talking about unaged corn whiskey either distilled yourself or purchased from a neighbor who had a still. The mint julep is a prime example of a cocktail that was used as an eye opener. Whiskey, with a little sugar and mint with a splash of water during the summer, over crushed ice in the winter. The hot toddy – whiskey, honey, lemon juice and hot water is another cocktail created as a medicine. These cocktails went on to be popular in taverns and were greatly improved when aged whiskey became popular in the 1820s.

One of my favorite recipes for whiskey used as medicine comes from Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Bartender’s Manual or How to Mix Drinks in the Present Style published in 1889. It is his recipe for Rock and Rye. In the recipe he writes: “This drink must be very carefully prepared, and care must be taken to procure the best rock candy syrup, and also the best of rye whiskey, as this drink is an effective remedy for sore throats, etc.”

“In serving Rock and Rye, put ½ table-spoonful of rock candy syrup into the glass, place a spoon in it, and hand the bottle of Rye whiskey to the customer, to help himself.” Imagine going to a bar and having that type of service. When you are feeling ill, having a bottle of good rye whiskey at your disposal is a dream come true. 

Whiskey was, of course, used as medicine during Prohibition. I love the label on one old Prohibition era bottle that touts the virtues of their whiskey. They believed it to be good for “headaches, stomach aches, muscle aches, fever, colds, flu and female problems”.  This whiskey was a true cure all. You could legally get a prescription for one pint of 100 proof alcohol (Bourbon, Rye, Rum or Brandy) every 10 days. Doctors supported this use of alcohol for medicinal use fully. In fact, when the legal whiskey started to run dry in the late 1920s, the government allowed the distilleries to make more in a limited amount.
After Prohibition, new regulations kept the distilling industry from making claims to the medicinal benefits of drinking alcohol, and the result was a decline in the use of alcohol as medicine. However, more than one household kept a bottle of Bourbon, Brandy or Rum in the house to make a hot toddy when someone was sick with a head cold. The same is true today.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller