Hot Buttered Rum
ClassicRum, butter, and brown sugar melted into hot water.
Rich, silky, and dessert-like. Molasses-deep aged rum meets melted butter and brown sugar, with nutmeg and cinnamon warming the whole thing through. Rounder and more indulgent than a Toddy — a hot drink that drinks like a treat.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Aged Rum
- 1 tsp Butter
- 1 tsp Brown Sugar
- 4 oz Water
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
- Nutmeg · optional garnish
Method
- 1
In a warmed mug, muddle the butter with the brown sugar and a pinch of spice into a paste.
- 2
Add the aged rum.
- 3
Top with hot water and stir until the butter has melted and the drink is smooth.
- 4
Grate fresh nutmeg over the top.
The Story
Hot Buttered Rum is colonial America in a mug — rum was the everyday spirit of the 18th-century colonies, and warming it with butter, sugar, and spice made a rich, restorative winter drink. Taverns kept a loggerhead in the fire to plunge into the mug and froth it. It survives as a holiday classic, often built from a made-ahead "batter" of butter, sugar, and warm spices.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
