Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

One of my favorite winter restoratives is a Hot Buttered Rum. I grew to love and understand this drink during my first winter at Loyal Nine in Cambridge in 2015. As part of our commitment to marry the restaurant’s food and drink programs, I designed a traditional “butter batter” that incorporated both the classic winter spices and the ones in Chef Marc Sheehan’s unique interpretation of Piccalilli, a British version of an Indian mustard pickle. During that bracingly cold winter at Loyal Nine, Hot Buttered Rum was served both as a warm-up for guests settling in from the chilly outdoors as well as at the end of a meal, paired with dessert.

The history of adding butter to hot drinks dates back to mid-1500s England—during the reign of Henry VIII—when Andre Boorde recommended it in hot ale for hoarse throats. An actual recipe for a hot buttered beverage was transcribed by Thomas Dawson in 1594, well before rum was transported to the other side of the Atlantic from Barbados in the 1600s. Not surprisingly, at some point the drink switched from being viewed as medicinal to recreational.

Cocktail historian David Wondrich was unable to pinpoint when exactly hard spirits entered into the preparation instead of beer or wine, but he surmises that the New England colonies are a likely suspect; spirits were a major part of our trade whether it was buying rum from the Caribbean or the molasses base to make rum locally. Hot Buttered Rum did get notice in Britain; Charles Dickens mentioned the beverage in his 1854 novel Hard Times as a way to pick up one’s spirits, but this would have been after his trips to America starting in the 1840s. By 1862, American bartender Jerry Thomas finally put recipes down on paper and wrote instructions for plain and spiced versions calling for Jamaican rum in The Bartender’s Guide.

The drink got a major boost in the 1930s and ’40s from two disparate sources. One was in Kenneth Roberts’s 1937 novel and 1940 movie Northwest Passage about soldier life on the American frontier during the French and Indian War (around 90 years prior). The other part of the revival was the blossoming Tiki movement that started in the 1930s; Tiki forefather Trader Vic used butter batters in his Northwest Passage and Hot Buttered Rum Cow recipes, and other tropical-themed bars followed suit over the next few decades in variations like Hot Tiger’s Milk and the Hot Zombie.

In the last 15 years or so, Hot Buttered Rum has regained some popularity as the craft cocktail renaissance brings new eyes to early American cocktail literature, and bartenders have found it to be a recipe ripe for experimentation. Some have changed the batter’s sweetener— using alternative sugars and even honey, molasses or maple syrup in the mix—and the dairy, including using ice cream to make a richer finished drink. Others have gussied up the lengthening agent from the traditional hot water to a more flavorful liquid like apple cider, and there is plenty of room for experimenting with the spices, just like I did with that Colonial version of a British- Indian combination years ago at Loyal Nine. And rum is not the only spirit that works here, with whiskey and brandy being obvious contenders; I even switched things up by offering Chef Sheehan’s favorite option: a bitter Malört liqueur, which got the attention of the Chicago food media where that spirit has had a longtime cult following.

In the recipes that follow, I offer drinks that include both spirited and nonalcoholic versions, as well as an updated spice blend to keep this centuries-old tradition alive and make it modern again. And I even provide suggestions for vegans and lactose-intolerant folks! For nonalcoholic drinks, I found Hot Buttered Coffee to be a delight in the morning and Hot Buttered Cider as a great accompaniment to a sunset.

RECIPES

SPICED BUTTER BATTER
“Butter batter” is the refrigerator-stable vehicle for a bounty of late-autumn and winter beverages, from classic Hot Buttered Rum to nonalcoholic delights like Hot Buttered Coffee and Hot Buttered Cider. Here are two options: The first utilizes a classic winter spice blend of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and allspice, and the second sounds less traditional but works rather well in these drinks—namely Chinese Five Spice. You could even try tinkering with the recipe with a batter infused with garam masala or ras el hanout.

For the Classic Butter Batter:
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
4 ounces by weight salted butter (*), sliced and at room temperature
8 ounces by weight demerara or turbinado sugar

For the Chinese Five Spice Butter Batter:
4 ounces by weight salted butter (*)
1 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice (**)
8 ounces by weight demerara or turbinado sugar

NOTE: Either grind your own whole spices or use pre-ground spice powders or a mix of both. Note that freshly ground (or grated) is preferable.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOTH VERSIONS:
Toast the spices in a warm pan until fragrant. Add spices to a bowl with the butter and sugar and mix with a fork. Once the batter is well blended, place it in a covered container and refrigerate overnight to allow the spices to bloom into the butter mix. Keep the batter refrigerated in between uses, and the batter can be frozen at the end of the season. Batter will be similar to the consistency of molasses cookie dough.

(*) For vegans and lactose intolerant folks, this recipe works well with plant-based butters like the salted cashew and coconut oil–based Miyoko’s brand.
(**) Feel free to make your own from a blend of star anise, fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon and cloves.

HOT BUTTERED RUM
Hot Buttered Rum is believed to be a New England invention, although hot buttered drinks were well known in Europe for their throat-soothing qualities well before the American Colonies were established. Aged rums seem to do best here given rum’s roundness and the complementary flavors of barrel aging, but I have found this combination as delightful with whiskeys like bourbon, Cognac, apple brandy—even bitter amaro—and combinations thereof.

Makes 1 drink

1½ ounces aged rum (such as Privateer New England Reserve)
2 (perhaps 3) heaping teaspoons Spiced Butter Batter of your choice (to taste)
6 ounces boiling water (*)

Preheat a small coffee mug (8–10 ounces) with additional hot water. Dump the water, add the rum, butter batter and hot water; stir to mix. Feel free to add a little more water or change the amount of batter to make this combination most pleasant for your palate.

(*) Variation: substitute near-boiling cider for the final fill of water, slightly decreasing the amount of batter to balance the cider’s sweetness.

HOT BUTTERED COFFEE & CIDER
While Hot Buttered Rum is the classic, the batter works amazingly well even in a nonalcoholic drink. The richness of the dairy, the sweetness of the sugar and the flavors of the spices all complement a morning cup of coffee—and perhaps a decaf version later at night. Moreover, the spices and smoothness work well to make something akin to mulled cider which is a house favorite for lateautumn sunsets.

For the Hot Buttered Coffee:
8 ounces hot coffee
2 heaping teaspoons Spiced Butter Batter

For the Hot Buttered Cider:
8 ounces cloudy apple cider (nonalcoholic)
2 heaping teaspoons Spiced Butter Batter

FOR THE HOT BUTTERED COFFEE:
Add the coffee and the batter, and give a quick stir. The recipe is scalable: Add 1 heaping teaspoon batter for every 4 ounces hot coffee. Preheating the mug with boiling water is optional.

FOR THE HOT BUTTERED CIDER:
Heat the cider in a pot until near boiling. Pour the hot cider into a mug, add the batter and give a quick stir. The recipe is scalable: Add 1 heaping teaspoon batter for every 4 ounces hot cider. Preheating the mug with boiling water is optional.

This story appeared in the Winter 2025 issue.