Hot Buttered Rum Day

#HotButteredRumDay

Hot Buttered Rum Day is January 17th

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...” (Dean Martin)

It is still that time of year the weather is surely frightful and the snow is still falling. No better way to keep warm and enjoy the weather than celebrating Hot Buttered Rum Day.

Hot Buttered Rum is a cocktail that is traditionally made with rum, hot water, sugar, butter, and optional spices. Often the drink has variations like replacing the butter with ice cream or milk, and sometimes coconut oil. It is a cocktail that gives nod to the Hot Toddy.

History of Hot Buttered Rum

This speciality cocktail originated somewhere in Europe, supposedly around England’s Henry VIII era, becoming popular with the American Colonists. The book Convivial Dickens: The Drinks of Dickens and His Times by author Edward Hewett, which chronicles Victorian drinking customs and recipes, mentions how people enjoyed “scalding rum-and-butter”. When it comes to adding fatty substances to alcoholic beverages, the Victorians were also keen on Milk Punch, which David Wondrich suggests was an early example of fat-washing.

It is no surprise that rum has been around ages, especially in the 18th Century during the rum trade. The rum trade became part of a "triangular trade" between New England, the West Indies, and the African Gold Coast.