black limbertwig toddy

1 barspoon Blackstrap Molasses (1/8 oz)
1 oz Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy (sub Calvados)
1/2 oz King's Ginger (sub Snap or Domaine de Canton)
2 dash Fee's Whiskey Barrel Bitters (sub Angostura)
1 piece Lemon Peel
2 oz Boiling Water

Preheat a 4 oz hot drink glass with boiling water. Dump out water, add molasses and fresh hot water. Stir until molasses has integrated. Add rest of ingredients and stir.
For Mixoloseum's Thursday Drink Night last week, the theme was "hot drinks." For a starting point, I thought about the rum and molasses classic Hot Black Stripe. An earlier recipe appears in Jerry Thomas, but I utilized the one in George J. Kappeler's Modern American Drinks where I had spotted it last. Using the same hot water and black strap molasses base, I replaced the rum in favor of apple and ginger notes and named the drink after an old heirloom apple varietal. This Toddy began with lemon, apple, and black strap molasses aromas. The black strap's richness donated greatly to the sip, and the ginger and apple flavors pleasantly rounded out the swallow.