★★★☆☆
WORKED TEMPORARILY
PEANUT BUTTER
Out of curiosity, I tried eating a spoonful of chunky peanut butter to soothe my sore throat, and it worked! It lasted at least 1/2 an hour, but that's longer than any cough drops, tea, honey, or apple cider vinegar that I've tried. Half an hour isn't that long, but most of the scratchiness and soreness went down and continued for awhile after. It's a lot of calories, but if you're sick you probably won't be eating much, so won't be a problem. This is probably a good solution to do when your throat hurts really bad, between cough drops or tea, etc.
HARD LIQUOR
I've also found that drinking a shot of cheap alcohol, the kind that 'burns' as it goes down, works really well at numbing the throat. Either drink or gargle a shot's worth (or add it to warm water with salt).
