In this new series Things I Swear By, I want to take a little look at some of the things that I swear by.

The rationale is this: we all have things in our lives that we depend upon, that we swear by. These are things: products, goods, services, routines, rituals, etc. that we’ve picked up somewhere along the way. They’ve become important to us, essential to us, and something that we couldn’t do without. I think we all have these things—we hear about them, or start doing them or using them, at the suggestion of a friend, a relative or a colleague… and they work. I thought it’d be fun to share a few of the things that I swear by, and maybe you can suggest some too.

Ricola

I first heard about Ricola from my wife, Maria, who knew about these wonderful cough drops from her aunt, a musician. Ricola are incredible. If you know nothing about them you might, at least, recall this commercial from the 90′s which featured two Swiss men alternately yelling, “Riiiiiiiicola!” and blowing into some kind of enormous horn. Does that ring any bells?

Ricola are cough drops made from all natural ingredients, some kind of mix of herbs found in the Swiss mountains, I gather, and they work great. As a teacher, I’m talking a lot so when I’m sick and have a sore throat it’s an absolute pain to try and teach. But Ricola are soothing and wonderful, and they taste good too. I personally can’t stand the menthol taste of Halls or the other alternatives but something like Ricola, which tastes pretty good and seems to be natural too, is really agreeable.

Out of all the stuff I’ve used for coughs and sore throats, Ricola is hands down the best. They’re natural. They taste good. And they work, tried and tested by musicians and teaches alike Ricola is something that I swear by.