"lookie what the cat threw up!"

once upon a time several years ago, trader joe's sold something called a "spicy lemon soda". it was immensely unpopular and at one point, they'd sold it at 2$/6bottles to try and get rid of it. and it still did not disappear fast enough. i, however, have a taste for sweets that usually come in combinations of spicy, sweet, salty and by extension, loved the soda. it kind of burned and left a warm almost roiling feeling in your tummy when you drank it.

one day, a year and a half ago, i had a cold with a stuffy nose and really couldn't taste anything. then i figured i might as well try and concoct something warm and flavorful, and perhaps sinus clearing with expectorant properties. what happened was that really gross looking hot lemonade with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in it. it didn't taste very good. but the chili did help with the phlegm and i'm sure the lemon bits gave me much needed vitamins.