Hot Buttered Rum
You'll hear sleigh bells jinglin' with this spiced, cozy hot buttered rum. Its slow, soothing heat will have you snuggling deeper into the couch with each sip.
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Hot Buttered Rum
- ⏱ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- ⏰ Cook Time: 5 minutes
- 🥃 Flavor Profile: Buttery vanilla rolled sugar cookies with some holiday spice...in drinkable form. With some rum.
- 🎄 Good For: Rockin' around the Christmas tree, warming up on a chilly night, and sipping while decking the halls.
- 🧡 Difficulty: Easy-peasy!
"Very very good!! My husband really enjoyed it and this will be my new go to for hot buttered rum drinks when we are sitting here in Oregon on a cold rainy winter night!!"
- BRENDA -
Summarize and Save this Recipe Using:
🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hiya friend: It doesn't quite feel like Christmas until I've curled up in front of the fireplace with Bing Crosby on the record player and a cozy mug of Hot Buttered Rum in my hand.
Hot Buttered Rum dates back to the colonial days in the United States, and the recipe (and flavor!) hasn't changed much in the past few centuries-it's sweet, creamy, buttery, and packed with holiday spice. Let me show you how to make this delicious Christmas cocktail!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Christmas cookie in a mug: To the uninitiated, buttered rum may not sound like a super appealing drink. I mean, butter mixed with alcohol? Sounds like a pass. But trust me. Hot buttered rum is sweetly spiced and full of buttery vanilla flavor. It's kinda like a really good Christmas sugar cookie in a mug!
- Warms from the inside out: While I love a jingle juice to cool down at a packed party, most of my December celebrations call for a hot, comforting drink. Lots of people may turn to a classic wassail or spike their slow cooker hot chocolate (or peppermint hot chocolate), but my family loves a hot buttered rum!
🥃 The Ingredients You Need
- Rum: You can use spiced rum or dark rum here. Spiced rum is typically a dark rum that has been flavored with caramel and other spices. I prefer dark rum so I can control the spices, but a good quality spiced rum will also do the trick!
- Whipped cream: You may think this is just for a garnish, but don't skip it, or you'll miss out on the dreamy creaminess that it adds as it melts into your drink.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Drop the rum: You can make a non-alcoholic hot buttered rum by dropping the rum and keeping everything else. You'll still have a festive and delicious drink.
- Make it for a crowd: To make hot buttered rum for a group, put all the batter ingredients in the slow cooker on high for an hour. No need to make the batter separately in advance! Add some water and rum, and set the slow cooker to warm. Add the whipped cream and nutmeg to each individual mug as you serve.
- Spiced whipped cream: Mix a little cinnamon and nutmeg into your whipped cream as you are whipping it up for a touch of additional spiced sweetness. This spiced whip is also great on pumpkin pie martinis, salted caramel mochas, and eggnog lattes!
🥣 Hot Buttered Rum How-To
Step 1: Make the batter by gently heating the brown sugar, butter, and honey with the spices. Stir it often so it doesn't scorch. You'll know it is done when your kitchen smells heavenly, the butter is a complete puddle, and the sugar has dissolved. Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Step 2: Hear the sleigh bells yet? Whisk the batter into hot water: this will both melt the butter, and the residual heat will warm up the rum in the next step! Stir vigorously, until the batter is dissolved in the water.
Step 3: Whisk in the rum, then give it a taste test. If you want a little more sweetness (or a little more spice), add more batter.
Step 4: Garnish with whipped cream (don't skip this step!) and freshly grated nutmeg.
Want to save this recipe?
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
🙋🏻♀️ Hot Buttered Rum FAQs
Dark rum will give you the festive holiday flavor you're looking for. And no need to heat it-since we are using boiling water to whisk with the batter, it will do the work of heating the batter and the rum through. So go ahead and use room temperature rum!
Sure do! The recipe below makes enough batter for about four cocktails. If you're not using it all right now, the extra batter can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Don't skip the whip: If you are thinking of skipping the whipped cream...don't! As it melts into the drink, it makes the whole thing dreamy creamy.
- Make ahead: The batter stores beautifully in the fridge, so feel free to make it in advance and chill it in an airtight container until you are ready for a cocktail.
🥂 More Festive Cocktail Recipes:
If you tried this hot buttered rum or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Hot Buttered Rum Recipe
Ingredients
For the Batter:
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg freshly ground is best
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Each Cocktail
- ⅔ cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons batter 1 ounce, plus more to taste
- 2 ounces dark rum
- Sweetened whipped cream and ground nutmeg for garnish
Instructions
- To make the batter: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, butter, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is completely melted and the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
- To make each cocktail, combine the hot water with about a quarter of the batter in a mug, and then stir vigorously to combine.
- Add in the rum and stir to combine. Taste, and add additional batter if you like it a bit sweeter or spicier.
- Top with a large dollop of whipped cream and fresh grated nutmeg.
Video
Notes
- Don't be tempted to skip the whipped cream! As it melts into the drink, it makes it dreamy creamy.
- The batter can be stashed in the fridge until you are ready to make your next cocktail.
- To make this in a slow cooker for a crowd, add all batter ingredients to the slow cooker and set to high for an hour, or until the mixture is melted and combined. Add in 2 ½ cups of hot water and 1 cup of rum and stir vigorously to combine. Set on warm. Serve anytime, topped with whipped cream and nutmeg.
I really wasn't sure how I was going to feel about butter in rum, but this was fantastic! So creamy and warming!
Hi! When I pour hot water on the batter, it becomes super hard and I can't really stir it. I haven't put any honey in it. Could that be why?
Hi Maya! We've never had that happen. I suppose it could be because there's no honey, but I'm honestly not sure. Does it seize and then soften after a moment in the boiling water? Are you using boiling water or hot water from the tap? My best suggestion would be to pour boiling water over the batter, let it sit for a moment or two to soften, then vigorously whisk the batter into the water. That should work! If you're still having trouble, please reply here or send us an email. We're happy to troubleshoot further! And if you try the recipe again with the honey and see a difference, please come back and tell us!
It does dissolve after a while though not instantly. It's quite lovely once it's dissolved! Maybe next time I'll just reheat this. I'll try it with honey in the next batch and let you know how that goes. It's delicious though!
I'm excited to try this it looks delicious. I'm thinking about using hot cider instead of water. If I do I may 1/2 the brown sugar so it's not "toothachingly" sweet.
Never knew you could “make your own”! I always pick up a jar but NEVER again! This was fantastic, really scratched my hot buttered rum itch!
I left my batter in the fridge and it got super hard/crusty where I can’t remove from my jar, should I heat up in the microwave or what is the best way to go about it?
Hi Jake! We haven't tried putting it in the microwave to soften it, so I'm not sure how that would work. But if you have the batter in a heatproof jar (like a glass canning jar), you can rest it in a small saucepan of simmering water to loosen it up for scooping. If it consistently hardens on you, you could also try storing it pre-portioned, so you don't have to worry about scooping anything. If you figure out something that works well for you, please let us know!
Oh so smooth and yummy I used Kirkland barrel aged 20 years dark rum this is a perfect hot buttered rum new favorite!!
Can you make this in the crockpot?
Hi Jen! Yes you can! Hopefully you found the instructions in the recipe card, but just in case—the slow cooker instructions are in the Notes section after the final step in the recipe.
Want to make this for 12 people not sure on proper ingredient amounts
Hi Frank! The recipe makes approximately 4 servings, so you'll want to triple the batch to serve 12 people! You can also use our instructions in the notes to serve it up for a crowd in a slow cooker instead of fixing everyone's drink individually. We hope everyone loves it!
I just made this and usually I make a recipe with ice cream and keep it in the freezer....This hot buttered rum recipe is better!!! Very very good!! My husband really enjoyed it and this will be my new go to for hot buttered rum drinks when we are sitting here in Oregon on a cold rainy winter night!!
YES! Thanks, Brenda! We're so glad you and your hubby love it!
Hi Cassie.
I've your recipe.
Was wondering where you sourced your hot buttered rum glass mug,they look amazing!.
Thank you
Hi, George! You can find those mugs here: https://amzn.to/3k5Puax
Any idea how long the batter might keep in the fridge?
Hi, JJ! You could easily get at least two weeks in the fridge with this. It's possible that it could be good for even longer, but ours has never lasted that long!
Why specify unsalted butter, and then add a pinch of salt? Just use slightly salted butter in the first place. (It's not like you're frying with the butter, when the salt content could lead to burning.)
We like using unsalted butter because it gives you the most control! You can choose which type of salt you add and how much, which means you can adjust to suit your taste preferences. If you prefer to use salted butter in this recipe—go for it! You can swap it one for one with the unsalted butter and then either leave out the additional salt or reduce it, as needed, to get it to your liking.