This drink takes inspiration from Harry Potter and butterbeer. While still fun, it resembles a very serious grown up drink, the Old Fashioned.

We’ll call this the Refreshment of Awesome Deception (RAD for short).

I started with what I knew was a requirement: butterscotch schnapps. The biggest problem with butterscotch schnapps is that it’s awfully powerful, so it was then a matter of balancing that sweetness and rounding out the flavors.

Through some pondering and consideration, after visiting potions class, I knew that a spiced rum would work very nicely with the rich flavors. Now we had a solid base of rum and butterscotch, which is pretty good alone, but still needed some friends.

To accent the good notes, tamper down the bad ones, and let everyone harmonize to manage some mischief, I added peach brandy (booyacasha) and ginger schnapps.

Garnish with cherries and you really have a perfect likeness to an Old Fashioned — except it’s an adult butterbeer.

Oh, yeah, I’m sure you can just get cream soda and pour in some butterscotch schnapps for a more “authentic” butterbeer, but that’s not as exciting. We wanted to go high class with this. It’s fancy enough to fool people at your own celebration of American overindulgence, but it’s still a RAD riff off a fantasy story drink that some might argue is for children (the story, not the drink).