Recipe: Hot buttered rum

Adapted from Nothing Without Salt

After a week of frost bite threats, sidewalks that test one’s ability to walk on skating rinks, and abnormally frequent applications of moisturizer to dried out cheeks, who needs a drink?

As someone whose bartending skills haven’t progressed beyond one part vodka to six parts orange juice, the prospect of whipping up a piping hot beverage to not only warm my friends’ hands but actually taste good at the same time is, to say the least, comical. Aware of this, I scoured the interwebs and found a drink that can’t not act as therapy for our chilled souls. Why? Its two main ingredients are universally enjoyed: brown sugar and butter.

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 stick of universally enjoyed unsalted butter, soft

2 cups of universally enjoyed dark brown sugar

If you can, use a food processer to quickly cream together the butter, sugar, and spices. Using a wooden spoon will do the trick too. Now roll up your glorious mixture into a log-shaped turd. Cover it and refrigerate/freeze.  If you do so in the fridge, it’ll last for two weeks, and in the freezer, it’ll last for two months.

When you’re ready to enjoy your beverage and impress your friends all at the same time, add a tablespoon of the mixture to your mug of choice. Pour a couple ounces of rum and ½ cup of hot water, but you can experiment with this ratio (perhaps several more ounces of rum during exam period).

Sit back, turn on some of the latest picks by ANDY, and drink it up!