Dark 'n' Stormy

A cocktail with a trademark

Gosling Brothers of Bermuda holds a registered trademark on the Dark ‘n’ Stormy, which is unusual for a drink and says something about how tightly the recipe is defined: Gosling Black Seal rum and ginger beer, nothing else. Bars using another rum call it a safe harbour or simply a dark rum and ginger. The name is said to come from a fisherman’s remark about the drink’s murky colour.

The two ingredients, and why each matters

Two ounces of dark, molasses-rich rum is the base. Black Seal is the benchmark, and its burnt-sugar bitterness is what stops the ginger beer reading as sweet soda; a light rum here gives you rum and ginger ale in all but name. Four ounces of ginger beer is the other half, and it should be a brewed, cloudy ginger beer with genuine heat rather than a ginger-flavoured soft drink. If it does not prickle the back of your throat, the glass will taste flat.

Building it in the right order

Fill a highball with ice, add the rum first, then pour the ginger beer down the inside of the glass so it keeps its carbonation. Squeeze a lime wedge over the top and drop it in. The acid is not part of the trademark but it is in every good version, and without it the finish turns syrupy.

Strength

Around 10% ABV and roughly 200 calories, depending on how much sugar the ginger beer carries.

Where it goes wrong

• Building over crushed ice, which flattens the carbonation within a minute.
• Using ginger ale and calling it a Dark ‘n’ Stormy; the drink becomes sweet and lifeless.
• Stirring aggressively after the ginger beer goes in, which releases all the gas.

Variations

A Dark ‘n’ Stormy with lime cordial is the British pub version and tastes rounder. A Rum Mule serves the same combination in a copper mug with a heavier pour of lime.

Which rum if you cannot find Gosling’s?

Any dark pot-still rum with real molasses character: Blackwell, Coruba or Myers’s all work, though none of them lets you use the trademarked name.

Can you make it with diet ginger beer?

You can, and it will be drier, but the mouthfeel thins out. Add a little extra lime to compensate.