My informant is a talented singer, who is active in school choirs as well as a traditional Indian singing group. As a result, she often gets sore throats from all her singing, and has relied on this remedy for her sore throat since she was around eight or nine. Her Indian singing teacher was the first to tell her about this when she was in elementary school. Since then, she has heard about it from several different groups, including her high school choir director and her choirmates. She says there have never been any ill effects from her using this remedy, so she’ll continue to use it. However, she does think that the water probably hydrates the body and makes the sickness go away.

“To get rid of a sore throat fast, heat up a mug of water until it’s hot enough to make tea, then put about a tablespoon of honey into it. The honey should dissolve, but it’s okay if it doesn’t. I even go as far as to just eat the honey straight out of the bottle if my sore throat is really bad. The honey coats your vocal cords and heals any rawness in your throat.”

I’ve tried this before when I had a sore throat, since my informant swears by it. While it worked, I am still a bit skeptical about how effective a household product could be when curing something like a sore throat. However, her point about the hydration probably does help. I hadn’t heard this before, but my mother used to tell me that hot tea was a good combatant against colds and sore throats. It seems that the two operate on the same principle.