Buttered Rum Coffee
Hot coffee whisked with a spoon of spiced brown sugar and butter batter until frothy, so it tastes like a hot buttered rum. Despite the name, there is no rum in it. The rum flavour comes from a few drops of extract.
At a glance
- Batter : coffee
- 1:8
- Active time
- 10 min
- Total time
- 10 min
- Makes
- 6 mugs
- Serve
- Hot
- Kit
- Handheld frother
Ingredients
Note: Rum extract is a flavouring made with alcohol, but at a few drops per mug the amount is negligible. For a completely alcohol-free drink, use an alcohol-free rum flavouring.
Method
-
Beat the batter
Beat the soft butter, brown sugar, spices, vanilla, rum extract and salt together until smooth and fluffy. Keep it in a covered jar in the fridge for up to two weeks.
-
A spoon in the mug
Put a heaped tablespoon of batter, about 25 g, in a mug and pour in the hot coffee.
-
Froth it
Froth with a handheld frother for ten to fifteen seconds until the butter is fully emulsified and there is a golden foam on top.
Stirred, the butter floats as a greasy film. Frothed, it turns creamy.
Froth 15 seconds
Why this works
Hot buttered rum is a batter of butter, sugar and spice dissolved in hot water with rum. This keeps everything except the rum, and puts coffee in place of the water. The flavour that reads as rum comes from rum extract, which carries the molasses and oak-like aromas without a measure of spirit, and from the dark brown sugar, which still contains its molasses.
Frothing is the step that makes it work. Butter is fat, and fat does not mix with coffee. Stirred in, it melts and floats on the surface as an oily slick. A handheld frother breaks the melted butter into tiny droplets and disperses them through the coffee, and the coffee's own proteins and melanoidins help hold them there, the same emulsifying trick as butter coffee. The result is creamy, slightly foamy and evenly buttery.
The spices are the warm, sweet ones that suit both butter and coffee: cinnamon for its sweetness, nutmeg for depth and a little clove for its sharp, almost medicinal warmth. Clove is strong, so it is a pinch. Salt in the batter suppresses bitterness and makes the butter taste fuller, the same reason salted caramel works.
Making the batter in bulk means a mug takes a minute. It keeps two weeks in the fridge and can go straight into the mug cold.
Variations
- With real rum: 25 ml of dark rum per mug instead of the extract, for the adult version.
- Latte: whisk the batter into 100 ml hot coffee and 100 ml steamed milk.
- Iced: melt the batter into a little hot coffee, then pour over ice with cold milk.
- Vegan: use plant butter, which emulsifies the same way.
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Questions
Is there rum in buttered rum coffee?
No. The rum flavour comes from a few drops of rum extract. Add real dark rum if you want the alcoholic version.
Why does the butter float on my coffee?
It needs to be emulsified. Froth it with a handheld frother for ten to fifteen seconds instead of stirring.
How long does the batter keep?
Up to two weeks in a covered jar in the fridge.
Does rum extract contain alcohol?
Most rum extracts are made with alcohol, but a few drops in a mug of coffee is a negligible amount. Alcohol-free versions exist.