When I got back to Ithaca a few weeks ago, I realized that the snow and wind chill here made sub-freezing D.C. seem positively balmy (although, with all the body heat left over from Inauguration, it’s probably warmed up by now).

It was so cold in Portland, Ore., that a state of emergency was declared because scads of cars — abandoned by owners gone in search of warmer climates — were blocking the roads, and it was still warmer there.

This cold has, however, given me a chance to try something I’d always wanted to make: the Hot Toddy.

Like the Mint Julep and the Manhattan, the Hot Toddy was something I read about growing up, making my markers of 100-year-old drinks that hadn’t been popular since the 1950s.