Here in California lately, it has been cold and rainy. That has gotten me thinking about hot alcohol drinks to take the edge off the cold!
Hot alcohol drinks are usually not my thing. My go to is just some hot coca with a bit of Irish Crème or dark rum (well, perhaps more than a bit. Favorite for that is Bumbu dark rum).
But the dads and I did some internet looking around to get some ideas for different hot drinks we have not tried before. Below is my write up with an easy hot toddy and a hot buttered rum recipe.
Hot toddy
Turns out there are many, many variations for a hot toddy, but basically it comes down to bourbon or dark rum, honey, and lemon. From there it seems like everyone has a few extra tips. The recipe I am using involved apple cider vinegar.
Recipe:
The recipe I am using is here. But here is the summary:
• 1-ounce dark rum or bourbon
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon pure honey
• 1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, optional
• 1/4 cup hot water or brewed tea
• Lemon slice
Enjoy!
To make:
1: Put honey and lemon juice in a mug.
2: Pour in very hot water.
3: Mix.
4: Pour in apple cider vinegar and alcohol.
5: Put lemon slice in glass.
6: Pour mixture into glass.
Effort:
Pretty darn easy. Maybe 5 minutes to make the whole thing. Took more time to gather up the ingredients than actually making the drink.
Verdict:
Very citrusy, as I expected. The apple cider vinegar makes is very sharp, and I used a lower amount than the recipe called for even. Not very much alcohol involved.
To be honest, I didn’t like it very much at first. However, see caveats below!
Caveats:
Probably a mistake to use spiced rum. Then again, the spices in a spiced rum shouldn’t really add to acidity flavor.
I forgot that bottled lemon juice tends to be much more sour than fresh squeezed, so that was certainly contributor to the acid flavor. Should have used fresh squeezed.
MUCH better with a couple healthy pinches of cinnamon. In fact, I rather enjoyed it once the cinnamon got involved. The recipe I link to above does not call for cinnamon, but many variation recipes do involve cinnamon.
Room to grow:
Next time, no apple cider vinegar. Fresh squeezed lemon, make sure to add cinnamon. Use non-spiced dark rum. I am not giving up on you hot toddy! There must be a reason why there are dozens of recipes for you!
Hot Buttered Rum
Okay, time to drink two of the night, hot buttered rum. Apparently, this is a very old drink going back hundreds of years.
Recipe:
This one is more complex, but I did enjoy it more. The recipe is here, but here is the summary:
For the spiced butter (4 drinks; multiply as desired)
• 6 tablespoons salted butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
For each drink
• 1 ½ tablespoons spiced butter
• 2 ounces rum
• 6 ounces boiling water
First make the spiced butter using the ingredients above. The recipe says to roll it out with rolling pin, but I had more success softening the butter then just mixing in a small bowl with a spoon.
Portion out butter into glass, pour in hot water and alcohol as directed. Mix well (like more than you think it needs) There you are!
Effort:
Pretty easy, assuming you have all the ingredients on hand. There is nothing especially exotic involved though. It is a bit more work than just pouring out a nice glass of wine, but really only takes about 10 minutes. Note that making a portion for four is basically the same effort as for one, so make this to share!
Verdict:
Now this is more like it! It has a complex blend of heavy flavors, very sweet and filling. Just the sort of thing my body is craving in the cold weather. Putting butter into a drink is counterintuitive to me, but I know plenty of people enjoy doing this. It is basically just a different way of adding cream or milk.
Caveats:
Again, I regret not getting off my lazy bottom to get some non-spiced dark rum. Also, do make sure you are paying attention to the water/rum ratio. I could have used a bit more water to give the powder ingredients more room to dissolve.
But otherwise, I didn’t have to adjust the recipe at all. The recipe mentions that you can include some whipped cream on top for some added sweetness.
As a sidenote: the butter by itself is very tasty and I bet would be fantastic on some toast. You could make a larger portion of the butter and refrigerate what you do not use for the drink.
Room to grow:
By the time I got to the end, I had some major sludge at the bottom of my glass, meaning I could have done better mixing the ingredients. This is a drink where it is better to make a larger portion to share with others.
There are many more hot drinks to try! Let us know your favorites!
Check out some of the Smoking Hot Dads favorite drinks here.