St. John, USVI, December 1992, it wasn’t a normal Caribbean feeling day. I had just got back from a rather chilly sailing excursion as a foggy, winter storm rolled in over the islands. After we left the boat, I bellied up to the bar on the top floor of a local restaurant, over looking the harbor and feeling chilled and exhausted, I ordered a John Courage ale to pick me up. The bar tender looked at me and said, “I’ll get you the beer, but you look you need something else, and I’ve got just the thing”. I was all ears and and a few minutes later he emerged from the small kitchen with a steaming mug of a caramel colored, frothy, spicy, deliciousness which was exactly what I needed. It was over the top delicious. I thanked him, grabbed my cup, threw my hood up over my head and found a spot next to the open air window to sip my drink and watch the winter storm settle in all around us, enjoying what was a most perfectly comforting and invigorating cup of island exoticism which I never forgot, while listening to the cool rain hitting the surf.
I’ve spent years trying to re-create that one off drink I had in that little island bar, and had found a few recipes that were close, but just not quite there until Saveur magazine had a rum issue a few years back and in that issue I found a hot buttered rum recipe that came awfully close. I tweaked it a bit, and now I’m satisfied that this is as close as I’ll ever get to whatever that magical concoction was. I got goose bumps on the first sip.
8 oz Apple cider
shot of Rum or Bourbon
3/4 # butter, softened
1 C brown sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg, freshly grated
1 scraped vanilla bean worth of seeds
pinch of salt
With an electric mixer, blend butter and sugar until fluffy, add spices, salt, vanilla and chill.
for each cup, add 8 oz of hot cider to 1 heaping teaspoon of butter spice mixture. top with booze and whisk until incorporated.
tpchow 