About this time last year, Nole and I were enjoying our first trip to the Caribbean. To celebrate the memories of the trip, here’s a quintessential Caribbean cocktail, the Dark & Stormy. This is a drink that’s really great on a hot day, rich and fizzy and full of flavor, and somehow both spicy and smooth at the same time. – Andrew

Illustration by Caitlin Keegan for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Dark & Stormy

2 oz Dark Rum
3-4 oz Ginger Beer
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Combine everything with ice, give it a good stir, garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

The proper rum to use here is Gosling’s, a Bermudan rum that’s a little spicy and a touch funky. But any dark and heavy rum, like a rich Demerara, could do nicely. The lime is not original to the recipe, which also hails from Bermuda, but is a great addition that really makes the other flavors pop.

 

The Dark & Stormy is a trademark of Gosling’s, which has been making rum since 1806, since the early 20th century. But the drink’s origins probably go a little further back than that. British sailors started receiving a daily rum ration sometime in the 17th century* which, by the mid-1800s, was two ounces of heavy, dark rum of the sort Goslin’s made. Sometime later, the British navy also decided to build a ginger beer bottling plant (weird, right?). Some enterprising sailors (the original inventors of so much of what we drink today) likely started putting together their rum rations and ginger beer quickly thereafter; Gosling’s just made it official.

*British sailors received their last rum ration on July 31st, 1970 – Black Tot Day. There’s a very small amount left from the last consignment, and I hear it’s very unusual and very delicious. It’s also very, very expensive – I’ve seen bottles for sale for nearly a thousand dollars – so, sadly, I don’t think we’ll be featuring it in any Cocktail Fridays any time soon.

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper