Butterbeer Recipes... and What the Heck is Gillywater?

Kate (at almost 21 years of age) finally received her Hogwarts letter! As an early college graduation gift, we decided to head to Florida just after the New Year. Kate—and our whole family—are huge Harry Potter fans. It was everything we had hoped and more. The helpful people at Universal were always ready to tell a HP story or two and let us know that J.K. Rowling herself approved every last detail. To this day, if the park decides to move or change anything, they must get her signature first.

Once we were inside the famed Diagon Alley, Kate had to have a Butterbeer. Some of us tried the Pumpkin Juice—a very sweet drink that tasted like sweet tea mixed with pumpkin, it wasn't too bad. David had Fishy Green Ale, which is basically gingerale with exploding blueberries. It's greenish color and fizz would make an excellent drink to serve on Halloween. Gillywater was my drink of choice (because it's just water but with a cool label). And finally the aforementioned Butterbeer. A butterscotch-flavored drink with a sweet foam I can't quite describe, you can have it cold, frozen, hot, or even as an ice cream flavor. Frozen and hot Butterbeer were our favorites and we recommend it over the regular cold version. Would you believe no one had a Butterbeer ice cream? (This family lives for ice cream, but the diehards chose chocolate (boring) while I indulged in Earl Grey and Lavender. It. Was. Delicious.)

I don't think you can really replicate the recipe, but there are many people who have tried. You can find recipes here, here, and here. And when you visit your favorite Starbucks, they can make you one too. (Try this and this.)

Better yet, grab a broomstick and go try it yourself.