Harry Potter Butterbeer Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Harry Potter Butterbeer made of? ›

A simple brown sugar and butter syrup gets topped with cream soda and a dollop of cream in this wildly popular drink. Next time you are having a Harry Potter movie marathon, book club meeting, or even a Halloween party, pull out all the stops with this sweet drink that even Harry, Ron, and Hermione would approve of.

The Universal Studios Orlando's butterbeer recipe is still top secret, but according to the books, it is made out of butterscotch, sugar, and water.

In Bon Appetit's January 2002 issue, author J.K. Rowling was asked what butterbeer tastes like, and she said: "I made it up. I imagine it to taste a little bit like less sickly butterscotch." The version sold at The Wizarding World was tasted and approved by Rowling herself.

Butterbeer Recipe

Combine the cream soda, soda water, and butterscotch syrup in a bowl, then mix the last three ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add the soda mixture to a cup (or a mug for a Wizarding World feel) and top with the whipped cream mixture.

Known ingredients. Butterbeer was a popular wizarding beverage described as tasting "a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch". It was served at numerous locations in the wizarding world and had a very slight alcoholic content.

This is a reality. But its origin dates back much further than J.K. Rowling's films. Butterbeer, or “Buttered beere” as it was described in 1594, has existed for many centuries. At the time of the Tudors, beer was already a typical and commonly consumed drink.

According to the Harry Potter books and films, Gillywater is made of Gillyweed and plain water.

The Harry Potter series introduced us to all manner of wizardry, from intricate potions and spells to flying brooms and fantastical creatures. But curious drinkers have always gravitated toward one particular invention: Butterbeer.

If this is your first Butterbeer, I'd recommend the cold version. As a Harry Potter fan, this drink comes the closest to how I imagined it. It can be served in a regular cup or a souvenir tankard.

Particularly in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there are subtle hints about its effects. One notable moment is when Hermione Granger appears slightly tipsy in the film adaptation after consuming butterbeer. This portrayal suggests a mild alcoholic content, despite it not being explicitly stated in the books.

Was Hermione drunk after Butterbeer? ›

↑ In the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, however, Hermione Granger appears to act slightly tipsy after a visit to the Three Broomsticks Inn where she was shown drinking some; this can be seen just before the discovery of Katie Bell.

Butterbeer had a slight alcoholic content and although was safe for children to drink, it could affect creatures (such as house-elves) if consumed in to high a quantity. Harry enjoyed his first Butterbeer in Hogsmeade.

In this new and improved edition of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Butterbeer, you will find all things sugary to satisfy your sweet tooth, including Ron's Love Spell Sugar Cookies, Butterbeer Cupcakes, Pumpkin Juice, Hermiome's Precious Potion, Mulled Mead, Rock Cakes, Treacle Crisp, ...

Just as Rowling imagined, there's more flavor here than sugar, or at least that's how it drinks — essentially, you're getting a butterscotch cream soda with a float of something like toasted marshmallow crème; there's no escaping the inevitable foam mustache, and while you can try, you'll never outdrink the head.

The Sugar Shrub was a magical plant used to produce sugar or a similar sweetener. Sugar Shrubs were grown in the greenhouses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Just as Rowling imagined, there's more flavor here than sugar, or at least that's how it drinks — essentially, you're getting a butterscotch cream soda with a float of something like toasted marshmallow crème; there's no escaping the inevitable foam mustache, and while you can try, you'll never outdrink the head.

In the books, Butterbeer is described as having a very slight alcoholic content. Of course, in the parks and in pretty much all homemade recipes it's made alcohol-free. Butterbeer was also a real drink in England called “Buttered Beer” in the 1500s. It was made from beer, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, and cloves.

While butterbeer is not a real drink, it has inspired many real-world versions that have been created by fans of the Harry Potter series. These versions often consist of a base of cream soda or root beer, mixed with butter-flavored syrup and topped with whipped cream.