Hot Toddy (brandy & lemon)

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (30 ratings)
  • Hot Toddy (brandy & lemon) Image

    Hot Toddy (brandy & lemon)

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Hot Toddy (brandy & lemon) image

Photographed in a Libbey Irish Coffee 6oz

Ingredients:
1 1⁄2 oz Rémy Martin V.S.O.P. cognac
1⁄3 oz Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1⁄3 oz Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup (2 sugar to 1 water)
2 1⁄2 oz Boiling water
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-heat a Toddy glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of coin-sized lemon zest twist.
  3. POUR first 3 ingredients in warmed glass and stir.
  4. TOP with boiling water while spoon still in glass and briefly stir.
  5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 7/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 7/10
More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Warms the cockles with brandy and a good dose of citrus.

View readers' comments

History:

The first published reference to a Toddy was in England in 1741.

A Brandy Toddy features in Jerry Thomas' Bar-tenders Guide, published in 1862.

Brandy Toddy.
(Use small bar glass.)
1 teaspoon of sugar.
½ wine-glass of water.
1 do. brandy.
Stir with a spoon.
For hot brandy toddy omit the ice, and use boiling water.

Jerry Thomas, Jerry Thomas' Bar-tenders Guide, 1862

Nutrition:

One serving of Hot Toddy (brandy & lemon) contains 136 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1 standard drinks
  • 10.12% alc./vol. (10.12° proof)
  • 14.2 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Chris Dimal’s Avatar Chris Dimal
28th March 2023 at 11:44
Remade this with a proper Cognac, not another French Grape Brandy. I used Camus VS. And strangely, I prefer the previous rendition. I feel like the Cognac made it dryer, with a floral palate combined with strong citrus. I used standard sugar syrup as per the recipe and it felt very tart. Is this only because I'm using a VS? Even then, I'd expect better, as it was rated 5 stars on this site. Any advice?
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Michael Z’s Avatar Michael Z
3rd December 2024 at 02:31
Demerara is the way to go. I would increase to 1/2 oz.
1
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Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
17th May 2024 at 17:53
Agreed, overly sour. I've updated the recipe and will re-photograph ASAP. The lemon slice in the glass contributes to the imbalance - better with a coin-sized twist.
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Chris Dimal’s Avatar Chris Dimal
6th January 2023 at 09:30
I'd say the 3.5 rating is accurate. Warms you, but not much more than that. I used Demerara syrup instead of standard sugar syrup, didn't feel like it added much though.
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