Hot Buttered Rum with just three ingredients! Made paleo-friendly, this is a unique spin on the classic and is a warm and inviting cocktail, perfect for holiday season!
The refined sugar-free hot buttered rum code has been broken! Can you guess the key? Spoiler alert: apple cider’s the answer!
Let’s just address the most important question I could possibly think of right now: Have you ever drank butter?
This isn’t my first milk fat slurp down.
In point of fact, I used to drink butter every morning for years in the form of Bulletproof Coffee.
All’s I can tell you is you haven’t lived until you’ve sipped on butter.
Let’s talk about Hot Buttered Rum.
What is Hot Buttered Rum?:
Hot Buttered Rum is a warm cocktail combining rum, spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, brown sugar (or some form of sweetener) and water or cider. My mom used to make it during the holidays, for either Christmas Eve or New Years Eve (or both) for a traditional mug of holiday cheer.
It’s basically the cocktail version of one of the Hemsworth brothers making out with your mouth.
Like any cocktail, there are many ways you can make it, but the most common is using the aforementioned ingredients and heating everything together on the stove top.
What Makes This Recipe Unique?:
For a refined sugar-free version of the classic, I use unfiltered apple cider for sweetening and no added sugar. I also use ghee or grass-fed butter instead of regular butter just for the nutrients.
Ghee is lactose-free and contains omega-3 fatty acids in addition to 0mega-6 because it comes from grass-fed cows.
The result is the most perfectly sweet cocktail that is so rich and creamy, it will bring a big smile to your face!
You may just make it every single holiday season! Or all winter long…no one’s watching!
Hot Buttered Rum Ingredients:
Unfiltered Apple Cider: I go with organic unfiltered apple cider, but you can use your favorite apple cider or even apple juice. I find apple cider to have a unique richness that apple juice lacks, but you get to choose your juice, my friends!
If you’re using a spiced apple cider, taste the hot buttered rum before adding cinnamon and nutmeg to be sure you aren’t overdoing it on spice.
Rum: Pick your poison, but I always recommend quality rum (yes, even if it is for a cocktail), and spiced rum is even better! For this recipe, I use Diplomatico Reserva Rum.
Ghee or Butter: Ghee or grass-fed butter is what makes hot buttered rum nice and creamy and takes the edge off the sting of the rum. If you’ve never tried rum combined with a fat, it changes the entire experience! I recommend using high-quality (preferably grass-fed) salted butter or ghee for the best results.
How to Make Hot Buttered Rum:
All you do is heat and whisk the cider on the stove with butter until it gets all frothy-like. You then add the booze and BOOM, done and done: hot buttered rum.
Pour it into a funky glass or mug and sip merrily!
#ProTip: Hot liquid and butter whizzed up in a blender turns into a froth fest. So if you want to do one extra step and pour the mixture into your blender, you’ll end up with a bloomin’ hot buttered rum latte. Can you even? You can.
I used the whisk setting on my Blendtec Blender and simply left the center insert of the lid cracked just slightly.
Do not (I repeat: DO NOT) add hot liquid to a sealed single-serving blender. These blenders are not designed for hot liquid.
More Holiday Cocktail Recipes:
Get buzzed on butter.
Hot Buttered Rum with Cider
Ingredients
- 3 cups unfiltered apple cider *
- 4 tablespoons salted grass-fed butter or more to taste
- 1-¼ cups dark golden rum
Optional Add-Ins:
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the apple cider, butter and cinnamon stick to a medium-sized pot and bring to a full boil. Whisk vigorously until frothy.
- Remove from heat, add the rum, and serve hot.
- Note: Once the cider mixture has come to a boil, you can skip the whisking and add all of the liquid (including the rum) to a blender, and blend until frothy. Just make sure the steam can escape by leaving the center hole of your blender’s cover open.
Notes
Nutrition
We made this in Breckenridge, Colorado. Only difference, we used Tuaca instead of Apple cider and stirred in a scoop of whipped cream with cinnamon and nutmeg sprinkled on top. We called it “A Hot Apple Pie”!
@Paula,
We used Myers Dark Rum
Ooh la la! That sounds amazing! Cheers! xo
Hi
So you only used the cider and butter? No cinnamon or nutmeg or anything?
Hi Gregg,
As I mention in the recipe, cinnamon and nutmeg are optional additions. Apple cider often includes cinnamon and the rum I use is already spiced, so I don’t find additional spices necessary. But if you use an un-spiced rum and an apple cider that doesn’t contain cinnamon, I’d recommend adding cinnamon and nutmeg 😉 Hope you enjoy!
Nice! I’ve been making something similar with fresh-squeezed orange juice. (A keto purist or a rum purist might balk at Diplomatico and try to find a rum without added sugar or with more complex flavour, respectively, and I don’t really understand the implication that “overdoing it on spice” is a legitimate thing, but chaconne à son goût 😉
The Hot Buttered Rum with Apple Cider is so fabulous. We had a bonfire at the fir pit and brought put this beverage in insulated cups to keep it warm …..played some frisbee golf with cider in hand. Many compliments from all! It has hints of caramel, creamy and viscous. It seemed the recipe served 5easily. . I used an immersion blender in the saucepan so clean ip was super easy. Watch out if you have second helping!!
I love this!! What a fun evening…I want in! I’m so happy you enjoyed the hot buttered rum, and I love that the immersion blender worked out so well! Happy holidays, m’dear!
Been wanting one of these all winter will try foe sure
ahmen to moments of clarity and taking the time to s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n.
To drink. all. da. buttah.
Wow butter and rum sounds so tempting! Great recipe, great pictures. 🙂
Thanks, Claudia! It definitely is a belly-warming treat-of-a-beverage. Happy Holidays!
These sound amazing Julia – I love how you styled it too! (I find drinks notoriously hard to style!)
Where oh where did you find those cups! They are so beautiful!
Thanks, Leanne!! Random story about the cups: they came from a thrift store buy from my grandmother in a tiny little town in California, haha! I get the impression they’re pretty old, so I’m not sure which company originally made them 😀
Oh my goodness…hot buttered rum sounds AMAZING with cider! Can’t believe I never thought of this. Pinning, and definitely making this season 🙂
Oh girl, you will LOVE it! Let me know when you make it.
hi julia!
what kind of rum? dark? light? spiced? coconut? too many rums, i dont have the time or the stamina (anymore!) to try them all!
happy holidays! xo tina
So glad you asked that question! I should have been more specific. I used Diplomatico Reserva Rum, which is a dark golden rum. I believe in general one uses dark rum for hot buttered rum 😉 Let me know if you try the recipe!!
I wonder how vegan butter or coconut oil would work with this….either way, hot cider and rum is a winner in my book!
Sadly, I have zero experience with vegan butter, but coconut oil would definitely work! If you try it with coconut oil, I would definitely blend the hot liquid in a blender in order to give it the creamy/frothy consistency. Just be sure you let the steam escape from the top of the blender! xo