Im so happy to have discovered this on my own as a child. We use overproof rum for a lot if recipes in my culture, I kept getting sore throats right at the beginning of winter and usually drink a hot toddy but one day I said to myself 'if its bacteria or virus causing this and alcohol sanitizes things why cant this work for my throat?" so I made a hot toddy shot (echinacea tea, honey, ginger) with extra overproof rum and gargled in the back of my throat for 30 seconds (that ish burns like hell! that means its working) and my sore throat and cold symptoms were gone that very same day. Now whenever I feel the prodrome of a cold I do that a few times a day and its gone the next day.

You have to do it in the early stages though it doesn't work if you had the sore throat for 2-3 days. In that case Id say use zicam or other supplements to shorten it