Claire’s roommate is Indian, and she told Claire about this homeopathic remedy.

I think she heard this from her mom, but, I also may have come from, because she sings, so it could be from one of her many many singer friends. And that’s if you drink hot water with tons of honey in it, I’m talking like, this much honey (hand gesture, fingers indicating about 2 inches) in a cup like that big (hang gestures to indicate about 6 inches) then it’ll make your cold go away. So, she just drinks it all the time even she’s not sick. And so, I’ll come in to my room and there’ll just be like this thing of honey and she’ll just like, rip the lid off because she uses it like, literally an entire jar in four days. But, um, she was, I was coming down with a cold and she’s like, “oh here take this, like here’s my honey, take my cup, you do everything. It’ll be totally fine.” And she says it’s because the hydration in the water, well, water hydrating will help make the cold go away but also that the honey will like, coat your vocal cords. And I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

While I do not think honey can actually cure a cold, from personal experience I can attest that honey helps a great deal to alleviate a sore throat from a cold or other sickness.  As Claire described, it coats the throat, and along with hot water or tea, is very effective in temporarily relieving pain.

Claire’s roomate is Indian, yet this homeopathic remedy is not restricted to Indian people.  I personally heard this from my parents who are of mixed ethnic decent. I do not know if this remedy has any one origen, but I think the concept that honey is soothing to the throat is apparent enough that someone could come to the conlusion on there own.  Consequently, many people utilize and pass on the remedy.