Hot Buttered Rum

It was Christmas morning when I had my first true taste of hot buttered rum. I say "true taste" because for years my mom had been serving my brother and I hot buttered rum sans the rum; basically hot water mixed with hot buttered rum mix (ie: brown sugar, spices, and vanilla ice cream). We were too young to have the alcoholic version of the drink and, to be honest, I was still legally too young when I had my first alcoholic version of hot buttered rum. There was only half a shot of rum at best in the entire drink, but it still made me feel pretty cocky to be drinking alcohol like bad ass (what can I say: I was a middle-schooler). When the creamy sweet drink hit my tongue followed by the unfamiliar bite of rum, I could feel the warmth travel down into my chest as my face grew more and more rosy with each sip. That particular Christmas morning was filled with random giggles, sleepy firelight, and a goofy grin I just couldn't explain.

So why is it called hot buttered rum? The brown sugar mix that you buy in stores tastes nothing like butter. Is there even butter in it? Don't get me wrong, it's friggan delicious! But I couldn't understand why it was called hot buttered rum when butter seemingly had nothing to do with this particular concoction. In order to answer that question, one must rewind back to the 1650s when Colonial America first started distilling rum from molasses imports. When hot buttered rum was originally made, it had very few ingredients. Typically it contained nothing more than: rum, hot water, sugar, butter, and nutmeg (or other mulling spices). That's it. Hey, what do ya know! It contains hot butter and rum; now the name makes sense, right? Today's modernized version is way more sweet and rich than it's original predecessor, now comprised of heavy amounts of brown sugar, spices, and ice cream. As our modern "hot buttered rum" leans dangerously in the territory of being a melted milkshake with rum, the original festive beverage is nearly all but extinct.

This winter, I decided to forgo the modern version of hot buttered rum and give the ol' original recipe a try. Although this recipe tastes almost nothing like today's hot buttered rum, it isn't nearly as overly sweet, and it has an alcoholic kick that will certainly leave you feeling warm on a cold winter's night! Although Spring is quickly approaching, there are still plenty of cold days left to give this recipe a try. So if you are brave enough to ditch today's standards for hot buttered rum and mix up a cup of true history, give this recipe a try.

Hot Buttered Rum

Ingredients:

1 tsp. brown sugar

boiling water

1 jigger rum

1 pat unsalted butter (plus a little extra to butter the inside of the mug)

nutmeg

Butter the inside of a mug. Drop in sugar, fill not quite half full with boiling water, add the rum and pat of butter, and stir. Grate nutmeg over the top. This makes one portion.