Improvisation is the mother of invention. A friend from Canada dropped in on me, quite sick. I know my chicken. He needed a stiff single malt, but that was out of the question. He wanted tea. What was the next best thing? A hot toddy. That way you can have your tea and your whiskey too. I didn’t have Bourbon in the house, but I had a few different Scotch’s. Most of them, too precious for a toddy..but why not? Medicine is medicine. I didn’t have cloves on hand either, but I did have my boyfriend’s hand-ground chai masala mix.  I thought, why not? We were given a special 5 spice recipe from our Gujarati friend, Rajiv in India a few years ago. I love blending cultures and it struck me that the peppery blend could be quite good for what ails.

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water.

1 cup spirit of choice (Bulleit Bourbon, Brandy, Chivas, Rum).

1 heaping t of raw honey.

1/2 t of secret masala chai blend (Clove, black pepper, dried ginger, cinnamon, green cardamom)

Makes me think that it would also be a great holiday drink with the addition of hot milk / almond milk.

Stir Well. Drink Up! Sweat! Feel dandy!

(it’s vegan!)

Then, you could easily think you are on the streets of Pushkar. But don’t expect the hard stuff.

Namaste!