This summer, Sweet Leaf ® Tea chose Austin, TX as the location for their Sweekend events. It makes total sense as Austin is the home for Sweet Leaf Tea! All throughout the summer, Sweet Leaf Tea hosted events across our city for guests to try free samples of their six teas in a tasting flight. A number of delicious, custom-made tea cocktails were also served up, which was the perfect way to beat the heat! We even partnered up with Sweet Leaf to host our own happy hour at Collide ATX!
All of the innovative tea cocktails that we tasted at their events really got our creative juices flowing to create our own tea-based cocktails at home. All summer long we were using Sweet Leaf as a refreshing mixer for our boozy drinks.
Now that the season is starting to change, we decided to come up with a fall and winter cocktail: a new twist on a Hot Toddy.
It’s even featured in our round up of 35 Amazing Whiskey Christmas Drinks.
What’s in a Hot Toddy? Traditional Hot Toddy cocktails are usually made with four ingredients: whiskey, lemon, honey and water. Toddy’s are the most famous hot whiskey drink. We decided to take a Southern twist on this classic cocktail recipe by using sweet tea. Sweet Leaf tea makes a number of flavor options to pick from in order to customize your Hot Toddy: Original Sweet Tea, Raspberry Iced Tea, Peach Iced Tea, Mint & Honey Green Tea, Citrus Green Tea, Half and Half Lemonade Tea.
We decided to go the traditional route with their Original Sweet Tea, but if you’re a lemon lover, the Half and Half could be really good as well! When it comes to honey, we bought Karen’s mom a beehive last year to start her new hobby of beekeeping. Upon visiting us last week, she brought us her first batch of honey. There’s nothing better than real, organic honey that came straight from your hometown backyard in Minnesota!
For the whiskey portion, you can choose whatever type you prefer. Some folks like using a rye, others like bourbon, and some people use fireball to bring in some extra heat to their Hot Toddy. We have become big fans of Whiskey after visiting Kentucky last year. We opted to use Treaty Oak as our whiskey of choice as they are an Austin-based company as well (in fast, they were Austin’s FIRST whiskey).
Making the cocktail is simple and we know you’ll enjoy this flavorful twist on a Hot Toddy Recipe!
Hot Toddy Recipe: Our Tea Time Toddy
Makes 2 cocktails
3 cups Original Sweet Leaf Tea
2 oz. bourbon or whiskey
2 tablespoon of honey
Juice of 1 lemon
Garnish: lemon slices, cinnamon sticks, and star anise
Bring the cup of the Sweet Leaf tea to a boil in a stockpot on the stove. Squeeze the juice of half of a lemon in each glass. Be sure to add the lemon first, that way, it is easier to remove any seeds that might sneak their way into the glass. Next, add the whiskey and honey. Once the tea is hot, pour the boiling tea into the mug. Use a stir stick or spoon to dissolve all the ingredients and combine them well. For garnish, add lemon slices, cinnamon sticks and star anise. Cheers!
Check out the location finder on Sweet Leaf Tea’s website to find where you can pick up your favorite Sweet Leaf Tea flavor in Austin and beyond.
This is a sponsored post in partnership with Sweet Leaf ® Tea.
1 Comment
Mary Reinsberg
October 6, 2017 at 12:31 pmWhat a pretty drink. I must make this!