Hot Drink Cure

"Perhaps warm milk? Warm milk with honey to soothe the throat."

— The Chef, Little Princess, "I Want My Voice Back"

Oh no! Somebody's unwell! Or maybe they're injured or have strained their throat and have lost their voice. What do you do? Well according to this trope, you offer them a hot drink.

Usually it's tea, especially herbal tea. Occasionally it's warm milk, although that's more commonly associated with helping people go to sleep. It's also often boiled honey and lemon water if the character has any disease with a sore throat as a symptom, because honey really does help soothe sore throats, and lemons contain nutrients that can help the immune system. It may also be heated alcohol cocktail, such as a rum toddy. On rare occasions, it's hot chocolate (which is more associated with warming up and/or having fun), and it's hardly ever coffee.

The character offering the hot drink is often very amicable and nurturing and could be the Team Mom. They might also be a Nature Lover and/or an expert on plants or nature in general if the drink is made of natural herbal ingredients (which it often is). The drink might also be an old family recipe.

The drink itself usually tastes either very good or very bad, and it is not a Healing Potion but rather a normal drink, although sometimes healing potions might be poured into these drinks (sometimes overlapping with Slipping a Mickey), invoking a practical version of the trope. Sometimes zigzagged with the Catch Your Death of Cold trope, where it's hard to tell if the hot drink is to warm them up or to treat the cold or both. Hot drinks that are explicitly to warm people up don't count unless the person has full-blown hypothermia. Neither do cases where the character is just unhappy or tired.

There is a grain of truth to this trope: if somebody has a minor illness, such as a cold, having a hot drink might help them stay hydrated and satisfy any chills they might have; the warm vapor from the drink might also loosen nasal congestion, and both the heat and the addition of honey will soothe a sore throat. However, it won't actually get rid of the disease, and if someone is seriously ill or injured, it's best to get a doctor. And of course, it's even more justified in the hypothermia instances as hypothermia outright comes from being cold, but simply warming the person up with no medical attention only works in mild cases and in severe cases, you should really let a doctor take over as warming them up too quickly could send them into shock, which could even kill them. The Saint-Bernard Rescue trope of dogs bringing hot chocolate to snowbound victims is a fictional idea aimed at kids (the hot chocolate is s substitute for brandy, to make it kid-friendly).

Compare Foot Bath Treatment, Soup Is Medicine, and Illness Blanket for other medical idiosyncrasies. Can overlap with Brits Love Tea if it's associated with Britain and tea. See also Healing Herb, which could be an ingredient. May overlap with That Old-Time Prescription. If the drink is a Magic Antidote (i.e. it works instantly) but it's supposed to be a normal drink, it's overlapping with Hyperactive Metabolism. Sometimes overlaps with New Technology Is Evil if the drink is said to be better than regular medicine. Compare Calming Tea for when the drink is used to help deal with psychological rather than physical problems. See also I Need a Freaking Drink when a character turns to a harder beverage for comfort.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In this advert for Superman Hot Cocoa, Superman treats two children to cups of the titular product after rescuing them from Captain Cold.

Anime & Manga

• In Chapter 99 of Komi Can't Communicate, Komi brings Tadano ginger tea when the latter gets sick with a cold. In Chapter 168, she makes hot milk for Rei in an attempt to comfort the younger girl after hearing her crying.
• Suzuka: In Episode 3, Suzuka makes a very lemony hot drink for Yamato when he gets sick (it was supposed to be a honey-and-lemon drink, but she didn't have any honey).

Comic Books

• In issue #13 of the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers comic book, Dale is wrapped in a blanket and given a hot drink when he catches a cold after nearly drowning in a gutter.
• In the Mickey Mouse graphic novel "Mickey All-Stars", Mickey is given a hot drink after diving into frozen Antarctic waters and rescuing two stranded baby penguins.
• In the Lucky Luke story "The Daltons Escape", Lucky Luke makes herbal tea for the Daltons when they get sick from eating soup that he drugged.
• In a The Wuzzles comic story from "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories", Bumblelion gives Crocco some super-spicy herb tea when the reptile is pretending to have a broken leg.
• In one story of the Jackpot story "The Amazing Three", Tanya is struck by a horse. When she comes to, the woman the Three were helping gives her a hot drink to help her recover.
• After rescuing Wormy from drowning, Owly gives him a hot drink.
• Donald Duck:
  • In one comic story, Donald tells his nephews to fetch Gladstone a cup of hot tea when the latter barges into their house and claims that he's taking possession of it. Subverted in that Gladstone isn't sick like Donald believes - he's talking about a bet made the previous summer, where Donald bet that he would sign over possession of his house to Gladstone if he (Donald) didn't swim in a lake on Christmas Day.
  • In the comic story "Donald Duck in Old California", Donald and his nephews are given a bowl of hot liquid herbs to drink after crashing their car into a rock.
• In one Bash Street Kids comic strip, Teacher asks the pupils to give him some strong sweet tea after he looks through a telescope and, seeing Plug's face, mistakes it for that of a hideous space alien.
• In The Smurfs story "Doctor Smurf", the titular Smurf recommends that Sickly Smurf drink some horehound tea for his "illness" (which doesn't actually exist).
• In the comic story "The Little People and the Sick Fawn", the titular fawn is cured of its illness by drinking a brew made from yop-yop leaves.
• Exploited in the Zorro comic story "The Return of Zorro", when Zorro tells the woman he's helping to ask for some hot milk to quiet her nerves, which will enable him to slip out when the door is opened.
• In the Madeline comic story "Madeline and the Carousel", Miss Clavel tells Madeline to go to bed with a cup of chamomile tea after Madeline falls off of a carousel horse and hits her head.
• In the comic story "The Little People and the Giant", the Little People make the human sailor who washes up on their shore a cup of herb tea to soothe his sore head.
• In the Courage the Cowardly Dog comic story "The Gods Must Be Nosy", Courage makes a sick Muriel a cup of tea.
• In Asterix and the Griffin, Getafix's shaman friend makes him tea with fermented mare's milk in an attempt to help him get over his cold.
• In the Looney Tunes comic story "Dese, Dem and Dozzze", Elmer Fudd makes himself some warm milk in an attempt to cure his insomnia. Thanks to Bugs, it becomes too hot for him to drink.
• In the Duck Dodgers comic story "Tired and Tested", the Eager Young Space Cadet accidentally gives a sick Dodgers a cold remedy that puts him to sleep, and tries to wake him up by giving him coffee to drink.

Comic Strips

• In FoxTrot, one strip from a story arc which parodied A Christmas Carol depicted Quincy as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Jason (playing Scrooge) wonders why the Ghost doesn't speak, and the next panel shows him giving the Ghost a hot drink while remarking that he never knew that ghosts could get laryngitis.
• In one Stone Soup comic, Val asks Joan to make her some peppermint tea with honey when she (Val) is home sick.
• In The Moomins comic story "Moomin's Winter Follies", Moomintroll catches a cold and is put to bed with a hot drink.
  • In the comic story "Moomin the Colonist", after throwing a bucket of water over the squabbling Council, Moominmamma wraps them in blankets and gives them hot coffee to stop them from catching cold.
• In one Nancy comic, Nancy comes home from school to find a sick Fritzi lying on the sofa with a hot drink in her hand.
• In one Garfield strip, Jon's visiting grandmother notices that Garfield is looking stiff and gives him a glass of hot horse liniment, before realising that it should have been a glass of hot lemon tea.
• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's Mom sees him coming inside from the snow, and meets him with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate by the fire, causing him to comment "Nobody knows how to pamper like a Mom."
  • In another strip, Calvin is home sick from school and spends the day in bed, reading comic books and drinking tea.

Fan Works

• The Lord of the Rings fanfiction:
  • In Fall, Legolas has been beaten up, so Aragorn and Gimli give him tea.
  • In The Falls, Legolas (again) is served lemon tea to help with his sore throat.
  • This happens to Legolas for a third time in A New Feeling: Sickness, although played with because it's actually an allergic reaction they're treating. Legolas is allergic to some nuts, which make him have cramps and throw up among other symptoms, so Aragorn feeds him herbal tea.
  • It happens to Legolas yet again in Resting, when he has a cold ^note Which is actually going against canon. Elves, including Legolas, are immune to all diseases.and they give him herbal tea.
  • Happens to Frodo (for a change) in A Little Walk, when he gets sick due to a combination of being out in the rain and being thrown in jail (It Makes Sense in Context), and is given both soup and tea to help him get better.
  • In Keep Him Secret, Keep Him Safe, Aragorn is given a drink of beef, herbs, and salt to stop him from getting dehydrated from his illness.
  • In Splashing and Spluttering, Pippin and Gimli are both given hot drinks after falling into the river and getting chilled.
  • In Baggins of Hobbiton, Frodo is given hot tea after falling through an icy pond, then later that evening is given tea with honey to help his sore throat.
  • In What Needs Looking After, Frodo makes Sam a hot drink of mint and laurel with honey when the latter gets a cold.
  • In Chapter 22 of Episodes From Middle Earth, Dori makes Bilbo medical tea when the hobbit gets sick from being underground for too long.
    • In Chapter 28 of the same story, Kili and Fili give Bilbo tea while he is suffering from a cold.
  • In Rising in Spring, Frodo makes chamomile tea with honey for a sick Sam.
  • In I Always Know You, Merry is given herbal tea to help his sore throat when he gets sick.
  • In Noble Soul, Aragorn makes a special athelas tea for Boromir and the hobbits when they fall into a lake and get wet.
  • In Old Winyards Finest Hobbit Ruination, Bilbo makes peppermint tea for Frodo when the tween gets a hangover after drinking wine he mistook for cordial.
• In the Inside Out fanfic Feeling Better, Riley gets sick and drinks "enough tea to choke a Brit".
• In the fifth chapter of the Transformers fanfic Protector, Starscream is given a cup of copper cocoa to help him calm down and warm up after he hears Enforcer sirens and has a flashback to the night he was almost sold by slavers.
• In the last drabble of A Drabble a Day Keeps the Bonstys Away, Slickis offers to make Ickis a mug of hot unleaded crude oil after the latter falls through an icy pond and catches a cold.
• In The Second Older Brother, Wakko makes peppermint tea for a sick Dot to help her get over her cold.
• In A Rainy December, Arnold makes Helga chicken noodle soup and lemon tea when she gets sick. She returns the favour by making him vegetable soup and warm milk with honey when HE gets sick.
• Happens by accident in Java - while trying to come up with an idea for a new coffee recipe, Brain is duped into mixing Tabasco sauce, chili powder, and cayenne pepper with coffee. It's accidentally served to a customer...who loves it, because he's been suffering from a horrible cold all week, and the spicy coffee cleared his sinuses.
• In Sun and Ice, Arthur falls into an icy pond and is pulled out by Antonio, who takes him back to his caravan and gives him hot chocolate to help him warm up.
• In Simple Gifts, Sherlock Holmes gives Doctor Watson a cup of weak tea to help him shake off the flu.
• In the J-WITCH Series, the events of "Divide and Conquer - Chaos and Hilarity" ends with Valmont catching cold after being part of a Human Snowball, thus requiring him to be wrapped up in a blanket and drink hot chocolate.
• In Take Two (And DON'T Call Me in the Morning!), Professor Von Slickstein gives Penny a cup of honey lemon tea when she's sick with flu. She also drinks a cup of tea (along with two large glasses of orange juice) while in bed.
• In The Unwanted Harem Of Nathan Adams, Insomi and Sandi make coffee and warm milk, respectively, for a sick Nate.
• In Save the Date, Xibalba makes peppermint tea for a hungover Jack the morning after the latter's stag night.
• The Kedabory Verse:
  • In After Yamiko, Alice offers Mepple some warm milk to help him relax after it's discovered that, because his Card Commune was in Nagisa's pocket during the battle against Yamiko, he is also suffering from the same Bad Energy poisoning as Nagisa.
  • Inverted in Don't Cry For Me, I've Already Wilted; Saki uses a Cold Drink Cure, apple juice, to help Joker with his nausea.
  • In the Turning Red fanfic Fragile; Handle with Care, Robaire makes Tae-young tea for his throat while the latter has a cold.
  • Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles: In the November 15th installment of "The Voicemails", the youth center headmasters give the sick boys chamomile tea.
  • In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Ma Fille, Von Kaiser makes Glass Joe ginger tea while he has the flu.
  • Tall Pine Tales: In Paging Dr. Theresa, Sandrine tells Theresa that chamomile tea always helps her feel better when she's sick.
  • In "Tea and a Blanket", Karen makes tea for a feverish Komachi.
• In Usagi's Struggles, Usagi first drinks a cup of hot tea in order to help her sleep, then is given hot lemon tea after getting sick.
• In Chapter 10 of The Ranma Omake Files: Innortal Style, Kasumi makes medicated tea for Ranma after he sees his parents having sex and becomes traumatized.
• In The Sailor Rainbow Series story "All Hearts Can Melt", Darien makes hot cocoa for Lydia in an attempt to cheer her up when she is sad about missing Fiore.
• In Nightmares, Haruka makes tea for the other Outer Senshi to help them recover from the shock of the nightmares they've suffered.

Films — Animation

• Mentioned by Captain Amelia on Treasure Planet after her longboat took a hit from the ship's deck gun. After a sloppy landing, she emerges from the overturned craft wincing in pain. As Doctor Doppler and Jim Hawkins try to assist her, Captain Amelia dismisses their aid, claiming, "A spot of tea, and I'll be right as rain." This brave facade is belied immediately when she mistakes Doppler for Hawkins.
• The Simpsons Movie: When Homer is rescued from the freezing cold by an old Inuit woman, she feeds him a boiling-hot bowl of liquid. He leaps up screaming and breathing fire before asking for more.
• In the Gumby movie, the titular character and his three new bandmates, the Clayboys are kidnapped by the Blockheads and rendered unconscious by freezing them in a cell. When Gumby's friends arrive to save them, Goo revives Gumby with a mug of hot soup, and Prickle turns up the cell's thermostat.
• In Turning Red, Ming gives Mei herbal tea in order to help with the period cramps she believes her daughter is suffering from.

Films — Live-Action

• In Little Women (1994), Amy is sulking because her cold means she's not allowed to go to a play with her two oldest sisters. Beth, the third sister, promises to make her some ginger tea.
• In Madeline, Ms. Clavel suspects that Madeline is sick, and orders her to drink tea (as well as stay under the covers and eat soup.)

Literature

• In Bear Feels Sick, Bear's friends encourage him to drink some tea when he's sick.
• Implied in Dear Substitute which shows the teacher lying in bed with tea, but she's never outright stated to be sick.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg gets sick and he talks about how the only good thing about being sick is having someone fuss over you. The illustration shows Greg sick and his mother handing him a hot cup of something, saying, "Are you strong enough to hold this cup?".
• In the second Doctor Dog book, Gerty Gumboyle gets given ginger tea to help with her motion sickness. As an interesting bit of trivia, ginger does indeed help get rid of nausea sometimes.
• The Haunted Hotel: Lord Montbarry, suffering from a cold, sends out his courier for lemons to make hot lemonade... and unwittingly sets off a chain of events that lead to both men's deaths.
• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore prescribes bed rest and a mug of hot chocolate for Ginny to help her recover from being Mind Raped by the memory of Tom Riddle.
• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron makes a cup of tea for a distraught Hagrid, claiming that it's what his mother does whenever someone's upset. It seems to work somewhat.
• Heralds of Valdemar: In the first book of The Collegium Chronicles, a severe blizzard hits Haven. Some people caught in the storm barely make it to shelter in time, and among other hypothermia treatments are given hot (and alcoholic) drinks.
• The Kingkiller Chronicle: Court Physician Caudicus advises the Maer Alveron to drink his medicine this way, while it is still hot from preparation. Kvothe knows that the temperature of a medicine has no effect on it working, leading him to suspect that he is lying about his credentials and inadvertently poisoning the Maer. The truth is different: Caudicus is exactly what he says he is, and is quite intentionally poisoning the Maer.
• In Madeline's Rescue, after Madeline almost drowns in the Seine, Miss Clavel puts her to bed and gives her chamomile tea.
• In the Morris The Moose book "Morris Has a Cold", Boris makes Morris tea to help with his cold.
• In Peter Pan, Slightly, posing as a doctor in John's hat, prescribes Wendy "beef tea out of a cup with a spout to it" for being shot. This is after claiming he's made her well by pretending to put "a glass thing" in her mouth. Of course, everyone except Peter understands that he's not really a doctor.
• In Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, Jerry's mother offers him hot chocolate under the belief that he's suffering from paranoia.
• In Postman Pat's Day in Bed, Mrs Goggins has Pat take an aspirin with a hot drink for his headache.
• In Ramona Quimby, Age 8, when Ramona comes down with the stomach flu, her mother gives her "grown-up tea" for the first time in her life.
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit ends with the sick Peter being given chamomile tea by his mother.
• The Talisman: After Jack catches a cold, which he gradually develops a fever as a result of^note Which is rather unusual as colds don't often warrant fevers except in kids., Wolf offers him a hot drink containing herbs he gathered. Jack is quite reluctant to drink it, and it tastes awful, but it does the trick and his condition improves.
• In Teddy Bears Cure a Cold, William is given a honey-and-lemon drink when he's in bed with a cold.
• In the picture book Zebra's Hiccups, Zebra is drenched in cold water, which stops his hiccups but gives him a terrible cold. He ends the story by going home to bed with a cup of hot cocoa.

Live-Action TV

• Adventures in Wonderland
  • In the episode "Lip-Sunk", while the other Wonderland characters search for the Queen's lost voice, Alice is sane enough to give her tea with lemon and honey.
  • In the episode "Take My Tonsils... Please!", the March Hare finds the Mad Hatter drinking tea with honey. Even though the Hatter drinks tea all the time, he doesn't usually put honey in it, so this makes the Hare realize that the Hatter's sore throat is worse than he's letting on.
• In The Big Bang Theory whenever someone is sad or sick, Sheldon says social convention requires giving them a hot beverage. Refusing it "is not an option".
• Evoked in A Christmas Carol: The Musical: When Bob Cratchit asks to go home from work early on Christmas Eve to be with his sick son Tiny Tim, Scrooge coldly retorts "I suggest Tiny Tim drink tea." Of course this is before the ghosts teach him that Tim's illness isn't the kind that tea can cure.
• Clarissa Explains It All:
  • In "Janet and Clarissa Inc.," Marshall and Ferguson both have tonsillitis and drink tea throughout the episode.
  • In "The Flu," the sick Janet drinks tea with a towel over her head to breathe in the steam and clear her sinuses. When Clarissa starts showing symptoms near the end, she tries to quickly cure herself by doing the same thing, but it doesn't work.
• Doctor Who: "The Christmas Invasion" uses this trope rather uniquely. The Doctor, suffering from severe regeneration sickness, is unconscious and can't be woken up. What fixes him up? Breathing in evaporated tea that dripped onto one of the lights beneath the TARDIS' floor. Only with Bizarre Alien Biology, folks!
  Doctor: Tea! That's all I needed! Good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free-radicals and tannin, just the thing for healing the synapses.
• His Dark Materials: In "The Daemon Cages", Mrs. Coulter gives Lyra an infusion of Chamomile in order to calm her nerves after she was nearly sliced away from Pan.
• Home Improvement: In the episode "Eye On Tim", Jill has a bad cold, and Wilson makes her what he describes as "the quintessential hot toddy": his own special blend of lemon, honey, and oak-barrel Scotch whisky. It gets her drunk.
• M*A*S*H: Defied twice.
  • Once where Hawkeye tries to convince the British medics not to give tea to patients with abdominal wounds, which can make things worse.
  • Again, where Major Winchester, with a toothache but desperately trying to avoid seeing a dentist, tries a vile concoction of roots, herbs, and assorted vegetables that is an alleged Korean folk remedy. It does absolutely nothing for his toothache but makes the surrounding ground around The Swamp smell horrible after he throws the remainder out, unimpressed by its lack of efficacy and repelled by its taste.
• On Psych, as Lassiter recovers from a poisoning that nearly made him insane, Shawn hands him a coffee cup, which Lassie quickly drinks...and almost spits out. Turns out it's not coffee or tea, but gazpacho. Lassie doesn't think it's that bad.
• The Riddlers: Discussed in the episode "In the Soup" - Mr. Grimly advises a sick Majorie to keep warm and drink lots of hot drinks. Also, in the in-universe story "Poorly Pandas", a sick panda is given a cup of warm milk.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Ensign Ro", Picard offers Admiral Kennelly — who is suffering a cold-like Cardassian virus — a cup of ginger tea with honey at 80°C, which he states was his Aunt Adele's home remedy for the common cold.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features a hot alcoholic drink called Fanalian toddy. When Leeta gets a crush on Dr. Bashir, she pretends to be sick to get his attention. He is not fooled but jokingly offers her the toddy to make her "better".
• In an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Seven of Nine is changing personality all the time^Why? Because she used to belong to a hivemind of cyborgs called the Borg who turn people into them. Nearby was a machine meant to fix malfunctioning Borg drones that tried to work on her but instead it gave her the personalities of other people assimilated by the Borg. and Neelix hears that there is something wrong with her, assumes she's sick, and suggests using tea from his home planet to cure her.
• In one episode of Sesame English, Tingo comes down with a cold and is given a mug of hot tea by his friend Niki.
• In the Gullah Gullah Island episode "Natalie's Sick", Ron gives Natalie a cup of tea after she gets sick.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: In "Pebble Pox Blues", Bobber makes dooganberry tea for Wembley's pebble pox.
• The Puzzle Place: In the episode "I Love Kiki," when Kiki tries to talk to Julie but can't get any sound to come out, Julie assumes she has a sore throat and gives her herbal tea with honey. This does no good, though, because Kiki's throat is fine: she's just scared to admit to Julie that she broke her toy horse.
• Under the Umbrella Tree:
  • In the episode, "Hamster Hullabaloo," part of Gloria, Iggy, and Jacob's efforts to keep Holly from finding out that Henry the hamster got loose involves Gloria pretending to have a cold. Holly goes to the kitchen to get her a cup of hot lemonade and a cookie to go with it... and finds Henry in the cookie jar.
  • In another episode, when Holly has a sore throat and loses her voice, she sends Gloria, Iggy, and Jacob out to buy lemons and honey so she can make herself a hot drink.

Video Games

• Epic Battle Fantasy: From the third game onwards, coffee is used to revive characters.
• Moshi Monsters features a drink called "Emergen-tea medicine", which is essentially medicinal tea.
• In Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Skeeter the snake has been rendered too cold to move, since he's coldblooded and stuck in the Zoo's Arcticland section. Putt-Putt has to give him some hot cocoa to warm him up so he can return to his part of the zoo.
• In Secrets of da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript, when Babou loses her voice after singing for Valdo, he has to prepare a hot tincture of honey and lemon to ease her pain.

Web Comics

• The veterinarian from Freefall checks a soggy and wounded Florence Ambrose, and finds her body temperature to be a worrisome 31 degrees Celsius.^note At first he suspects the thermometer, but understands otherwise when she tells him she feels numb instead of cold. The doc prepares a warm bath and a warm drink to raise Florence's temperature back to normal, beginning at strip #365.
• Jailbird: In Chapter 3, Osprey brews a batch of herbal "Throat Soother" for the titular character, who lost their voice from overuse. Because plants are inherently magical in this world, so is the drink. There is even a cute recipe given for the drink.
• My Milk Toof: In the "Sweet Wilting Tree" story, Lardee gives a wilting tree warm milk tea with lots of sugar to make it feel better.
• In one Breaking Cat News strip, a sick Ginger has a box of tissues and a mug of hot tea beside her.
• One Bear With Me strip shows Bear wrapped in an Illness Blanket with a hot drink by his side after going out in the rain and getting sick.
• This Lemonhead and Lollipup comic has Lemonhead makes Lollipup a cup of herbal tea after Lollipup wakes up from a nightmare.
  • Lollipup returns the favor here, when she makes tea for Lemonhead, who has just had a nightmare of her own.
  • Implied in this sketch, which shows a sick bathrobe-clad Lollipup holding a cup of tea.
  • In this comic, Lemonhead makes herself some peppermint tea after she has a nightmare, but gives it to Lollipup when the pup also has a nightmare.

Web Original

• Neopets:
  • The disease Bubbles (a disease that involves hiccuping bubbles) can be cured with a certain herbal drink that's served in a mug.
  • The disease Neoblues (whose symptoms mirror depression but it's a contagious disease) can potentially be cured with green tea.
• This vector art of a sick Santa Claus depicts Santa wearing a face mask and holding a hot drink after getting the flu.

Web Videos

• During the twelfth annual Desert Bus for Hope (DB2018), Jacob told a story about a trip to Ireland in which he was in extreme pain from an abscessed tooth, and an old lady gave him a hot toddy that pretty much anesthetized him.
• If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device: When the Emperor summons Helbrecht for the Imperial podcast he insists that the gravel-voiced High Marshal drink some tea. After a couple sips he throws the mug in Boy's face, gouging his eye out.

Western Animation

• Arthur: In the opening scene of "Is There A Doctor in the House?" (the episode where Arthur and D.W.'s parents both get sick), Jane tries to drink a cup of tea to help her sore throat. The morning's chaos gives her no time, though, and she's forced to pour it down the drain.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • In "Bitter Work, after Zuko encounters Azula, in which Iroh is hit by her lightning strike, Zuko treats his uncle's injuries; one of which is by attempting to brew some tea for him, with emphasis on attempting.
  • Later, in "The Earth King", Iroh brews some tea for Zuko after he experiences an Angst Coma after setting Appa free from Long Feng.
• In The Busy World of Richard Scarry episode "Be My Valentine", both Lowly and Hilda are wrapped in blankets and given both Foot Bath Treatments and hot cocoa after being pulled out of an icy pond.
  • In "The Biggest Storm Ever", Mr. Gronkle and the beggars are wrapped in blankets and given hot cocoa (and a Foot Bath Treatment in Mr. Gronkle's case) after being rescued from the flood.
• In the Camp Lazlo episode "Love Sick", Lazlo and Raj make Kaffizzle River Curry Pepper Tea for Clam in an attempt to cure his love sickness.
• At the end of the Care Bears (1980s) episode "No Business Like Snow Business," when Grumpy Bear has a cold, Baby Tugs gives him a cup of hot chocolate to go with his Illness Blanket and Foot Bath Treatment.
• In the Central Park episode "Garbage Ballet", Owen makes Paige a cup of tea when the latter is sick.
• In the Disenchantment episode "Spy vs Spy vs Spy", Zog gives Bean some "nighty-night knockout tea" when she is unable to get to sleep.
• In the Fireman Sam episode "Poorly Penny", Bronwyn advises Elvis to make Penny a hot drink with lemon and honey to help with her cold.
• In the Grossology episode "Yack Attack", Abby gets sick from drinking contaminated water and lies on the sofa under an Illness Blanket while Petunia brings her a cup of tea.
• In the Katie and Orbie episode "Sore Throat", Katie is given a hot lemony drink to help her sore throat.
• In The Koala Brothers episode "Ned Catches a Cold", Ned's friends give him a hot drink with honey and lemon to help him with his cold. Later, when Mitzi catches a cold, they give her the same drink.
• At the end of the Little Bear episode "Frog In My Throat," Mother Bear soothes Little Bear's sore, froggy throat by giving him hot lemonade with honey. And then she makes some for Duck, Owl and Hen too when they show up with froggy throats too.
• In the Little Princess episode "I Want My Voice Back", the princess loses her voice and is offered warm milk and honey. She is reluctant to drink it, but when she does, she instantly gets her voice back.
• Madeline:
  • In Madeline's Rescue, as in the book and live-action film, Miss Clavel gives Madeline chamomile tea after she almost drowns in the Seine.
  • In Madeline's Christmas, when Miss Clavel and all the girls except Madeline catch a cold, one of Madeline's many duties while taking care of them involves bringing them tea and warm milk.
• In the Milly, Molly episode "Class Concert", Molly loses her voice and Aunt Maude prescribes a "special cure" that is a hot drink to be drunk at bedtime that's a mixture of honey, lemons, and ginger. It works.
• Molly of Denali: In "Crane Song," Walter offers Dr. Antigone some Labrador tea to treat her cold. It works wonders.
• In one episode of Monkie Kid, Sandy has to find a magical flower to make an antidote for Mk's earthquake causing hiccups.
• Mr. Magoo: In the comic story "Mighty Moe" (an adaptation of "Captains Outrageous"), Magoo tries to give Waldo a cup of coffee in order to ward off a cough. Key word being "tries to" - not only does he mistake a seal for Waldo, he accidentally gives the seal cod liver oil instead of coffee.
• My Little Pony:
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Three's a Crowd", Discord fakes having the "blue flu" and claims (in song) to need many things to cure him, including tea with honey.
  • My Little Pony: Make Your Mark: In "A Little Horse", Izzy tries brewing some magical tea to cure Pipp's illness, but after two failed attempts, she gives up looking for the cure and just brews her some chamomile tea to at least cheer her up.
• In this Finnish animation, a bear falls into icy water and is given a hot drink, a Foot Bath Treatment, and an Illness Blanket after being rescued.
• In the The Owl House episode "Escaping Expulsion", King gets a cold after being frozen in a combo spell of Eda's gone awry and is seen in an Illness Blanket drinking a cup of hot cocoa.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Flu-In-U-Enza", the Enchanted Upchucks make a sick Rocko "Toe Jam Tea", consisting of hot water mixed with gunk scraped from between their toes. Luckily for Rocko, Spunky drinks it instead of him.
• In The Simpsons episode "A Star is Torn", Lisa gives the family weak tea when they get sick from eating organic food.
• In The Smurfs (1981) episode "A Little Smurf Confidence", Smurfette brings Weakling Smurf a hot cup of smurfberry juice while he's giving himself a Foot Bath Treatment after being fished out of a river.
• In the Unikitty! episode "Sick Day", Unikitty gives a sick Dr. Fox a cup of tea. Hawkodile also makes several cups to use as ammunition on a mutated Dr. Fox (It Makes Sense in Context).
• Viva Piñata: In "Sick Day", Fergy makes twineberry tea and vineberry tea for a sick Paulie and Ella, respectively.
• In The Year Without a Santa Claus, Santa has a cold. While visiting Southtown USA in disguise, he befriends Iggy Thistlewhite's family (and convinces Iggy to believe in him) after Mrs. Thistlewhite hears him sneeze and invites him into the house for a hot drink.

Real Life

• The Hot Toddy is a popular drink used to alleviate cold and flu symptoms. It consists of hot tea mixed with honey, lemon, and brown liquor (usually some variety of whiskey but sometimes rum or brandy are used). The hot liquid and honey both work to soothe a sore throat. The alcohol helps ease the aches and pains associated with mild illness and makes it easier to sleep, which speeds up recovery time.
  • In Russia a traditional variation of this folk remedy is a raspberry tea — a good measure of raspberry jam dissolved in a mug of hot tea (and the tea is actually optional), possibly with measure of some liquor, often herbal balsam, as it's believed that raspberry has anti-fever properties.
• Traditional medicine in many parts of the world prominently involves teas made from roots, leaves, bark, etc said to heal various ailments. While many have dubious medical value, others have been adapted by science-based medicine (i.e. willow bark tea to aspirin).
• Tea, and green tea in particular, experienced a surge in popularity in the 2010s in North America due to its supposed health benefits, notably its high antioxidant content.
• TheraFlu is a beverage that combines elements of medicine and hot tea and comes in different varieties intended to help with symptoms of cold and flu.
• George MacDonald Fraser repeatedly asserted that in the British Army, a hot sweet cup of tea is the remedy for all ills except perhaps a bullet through the stomach - and he isn't sure about this last proviso. The British military's enthusiasm for tea does have practical benefits, however, being both a good prophylactic against hypothermia and a good incentive to make sure the water has been boiled properly. Hawkeye would agree with the bullet through the stomach remark, as pointed out above in Live-Action TV.
• Grog, or rum mixed with lemon or lime juice in hot water or milk^note The latter is generally a bad idea, though, as adding lemon or lime juice to milk or cream will curdle it, making it at best unappetising and at worst emetic., was used by the British Navy to ward off scurvy.
  • In the winter of 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier and several of his men developed scurvy while they were icebound in the St. Lawrence River. Some local Iroquois people gave them tea made from the needles and bark of a white cedar tree, and they recovered quickly. The remedy was effective because cedar and many other types of evergreen needles are rich in Vitamin C.
• There is, of course, the ancient urban legend that states that St. Bernard dogs treated hypothermia patients with warm brandy, famously represented by little barrels tied around their necks. Not only is this something that never happened in the entire history of using St. Bernards as rescue dogs, it was determined by researchers of all types (including the MythBusters) that brandy is a very bad (even dangerous) fluid to give hypothermia sufferers because it has the side-effect of making veins expand, which worsens the human body's capacity to hold in heat.
• Many professional singers and speakers swear by hot tea with honey and lemon for soothing a strained throat or even treating a case of laryngitis. Andy Serkis used a variant that he called "Gollum Juice" (with ginger instead of tea) while working on The Lord of the Rings. He claims he drank it "by the bucketload" every day, saving his voice.
• Lemsip (and unbranded equivalents) is a common cold and flu medication containing paracetamol which is designed to be taken in the form of a hot drink (it comes as sachets of powder to which you add hot, but not boiling, water).
• In Asia, ginger tea is an ideal drink for cold weather and is a remedy against sore throats due to the spiciness of the ginger root.
• Black coffee is a popular folk remedy for sobering a person up, but the only real remedy for alcohol intoxication is time.
• In general, hot drinks with things like honey, and chicken soup, can help quite a bit with illnesses like the common cold where there is no "cure" other than time. Sick people often prolong their illnesses by not eating, and not getting enough fluids (because feeling sick is not conducive to proper nutrition). Substances like this can help with mild dehydration, and provide needed nutrients, electrolytes, and vitamins that the body needs to actually fight the infection, along with making the person more comfortable so they can rest (which lets the immune system work faster). This is the main reason these types of hot drinks and soups are helpful for sick people. This obviously only works with minor colds and such, if you have a severe fever or anything else seriously wrong it's time to see a doctor.
• Elderflower tea can provide soothing relief and help with colds.

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