Winter Warmers

January 17 is National Hot Buttered Rum Day in the States, so I'm going to find out more about this cocktail and then give it a whirl in celebration. Before starting this blog I admit I had never before heard of Hot Buttered Rum but I love warm drinks in cold weather, butter and rum, so by all rights this venture should be a resounding success. Upon researching the history of this drink I discovered that it basically just a bastardisation of the classic Hot Toddy (that had it's own celebration last week) dating back to the colonial American era, when the importing of molasses from Jamaica started to become a big thing. In some areas of America Hot Toddy and Hot Buttered rum are in fact just interchangeable names for the same thing, although there are many regional and personal variations. I procured this particular recipe for the winter cocktail from foodnetwork.com;

Hot Buttered Rum Cocktail

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002

Prep Time:

10 min

Inactive Prep Time:

1 min

Cook Time:

10 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• Pinch ground cloves
• Pinch salt
• Bottle dark rum
• Boiling water

Directions

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Refrigerate until almost firm. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the butter mixture into 12 small mugs. Pour about 3 ounces of rum into each mug (filling about halfway). Top with boiling water (to fill the remaining half), stir well, and serve immediately.

A helpful friend beating the butter into submission!

Verdict It smells incredibly Christmassy, and is warm and comforting to hold. . .devastatingly strong but undeniably delicious. A friend added coffee and a splash of milk to her cup and it worked really well, so this can presumably work with tea just as easily :)  Someone mentioned that butterbeer from the Harry Potter novels is described as being similar to this drink, and so possibly might be based on hot buttered rum. This is entirely (mildy drunken) speculation, and is based on 0% true facts, but it might be true! Whether there is any truth to this idea or not, the drink is an absolute delight, warming you from the inside out, and totally worth the effort. It loses a point for being a bit of a pain to prepare. Just be aware: it's extremely strong  9/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tea Testing Round 3

I went with an online recipe for this cup of Lavender tea, but I definitely didn't actually grow and harvest the lavender, I just used a tisane and then showed the brew a bag of Yorkshire tea briefly, adding some honey and lemon. I'm getting well into honey and lemon with hot drinks now, it's an excellent gravy train and I would recommend that everyone get on it immediately. I love the smell of lavender, and this doesn't disappoint. Tastes wicked too, nice and sweet but the lemon gives it a sharp edge. Really scrumptious, will definitely be repeating this one :) 8/10