Butterbeer Tasting Party Pictures
September 18, 2010

After tasting the amazing Butterbeer at The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, I looked up butterbeer recipes on Google. I found 8 different recipes, so I decided to have a Butterbeer Tasting Party as an excuse to make 8 batches of butterbeer (of course, there are now even more recipes). Jessie found another recipe that claims to be the same or similar to Universal's recipe, so we will probably make that one sometime soon.

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Here we see the ingredients all set up on the table to prepare for the potion-making, uh, butterbeer concocting. The ice cream and most of the milk is still in the fridge or freezer at this point. We had a lot of butterbeer to make up with 14 people at the party! The stuff was all so sweet, that we ended up only making 6 of the recipes before we decided the snack food wasn't enough to balance out the sugar and went to dinner.

The main ingredients in most of the recipes was either milk or cream soda (sometimes it was cider or rootbeer, but I chose cream soda for all of those with soda because that was closest to the Universal taste), and butterscotch or caramel (I chose caramel because I just like the taste better than butterscotch), and butter. In this second picture, we can see the first two recipes awaiting judgement.

Here we see all 6 of the recipes lined up with Cyberlizard, Kelley, & Jessie trying out the only ice cream recipe of the day. We also discovered that the amount of butterbeer drunk per recipe decreased as the party wore on.

In the end, there was a tie between two of the recipes, and one recipe emerged as the crowd favorite but was unanimous that the recipe was NOT butterbeer. So it gets an honorable mention.

Tied for First Place
Butterbeer Recipe #1
Ingredients:

• 1 cup (8 oz) club soda or cream soda
• ½ cup (4 oz) butterscotch syrup / caramel (ice cream topping)
• ½ tablespoon butter

1. Measure butterscotch/caramel and butter into a 2 cup (16 oz) glass. Microwave on high for 1 to 1½ minutes, or until syrup is bubbly and butter is completely incorporated.
2. Stir and cool for 30 seconds, then slowly mix in club soda/cream soda. Mixture will fizz quite a bit.
3. Serve in two coffee mugs or small glasses; a perfectly warm Hogwarts treat for two!

Butterbeer Recipe #3
Ingredients

• ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ cup butterscotch topping / caramel
• 2 tablespoons whipped butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups vanilla cream soda

1. Combine condensed milk, butterscotch/caramel topping, and butter in a glass heatproof measuring cup.
2. Heat in microwave for 1 minute.
3. Remove and stir until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture.
4. Meanwhile heat cream soda in another heatproof measuring cup for 1 minute 30 seconds.
5. Divide butterscotch/caramel mixture between 2 (10 to 12-ounce) mugs.
6. Fill mugs with heated cream soda and stir thoroughly. Serve garnished with an old-fashioned butterscotch candy stick.

Honorable Mention
Butterbeer Recipe #7
Ingredients:

• 1 pint of vanilla ice cream, softened (use vanilla bean if possible)
• ½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 bottle (3 cups) sparkling apple cider / cream soda

1. Allow ice cream to soften, about 30 minutes, and bring butter to room temperature, about 2 hours
2. Blend butter, sugar, and spices in large bowl
3. Add to ice cream and freeze
4. Heat sparkling cider/cream soda in a pot until warm but still carbonated (at least 3 minutes)
5. Fill each glass with a scoop of ice cream mixture and pour warmed cider/cream soda over ice cream

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