What is a dark and stormy?

A dark and stormy consists of dark rum, ginger beer and lime, nothing more.

The rum gives the colour and the full molasses note, the ginger beer gives the fizz and the ginger bite, and the lime juice takes down the sweetness of the soft drink. The official recipe of the International Bartenders Association names 60 ml rum and 100 ml ginger beer, with a wedge of lime as garnish.

Nothing else goes in the glass: no sugar syrup, no bitters, no shaker. If you want the drink sweeter, choose a sweeter ginger beer. If you want it drier, take one with a lot of ginger and little sugar.

Fill a highball glass with ice, pour in 100 ml of ginger beer and let 60 ml of dark rum run slowly over it.

The order matters. If the rum is poured last over the back of a spoon, it stays on top for a while as a dark layer. That is how the cloud cover arises that the cocktail is named after. Stirring is fine afterwards.

1. Fill a highball glass to the brim with ice cubes.
2. Pour in 100 ml of well-chilled ginger beer.
3. Float 60 ml of dark rum on top over a spoon.
4. Squeeze a wedge of lime or place it on the rim.

Use cold ginger beer and plenty of ice. Little ice melts quickly and makes the drink watery.

Choose a dark rum with body, because spicy ginger beer almost completely drowns out a light rum.

Our rum department has 431 items. Of these, 10 bottles have the word dark in the name, from 7 brands and 6 countries, with alcohol percentages from 37.5% to 69%. Jamaica and the Netherlands supply 3 each, the rest come from the Dominican Republic, Panama, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

For this cocktail a full-bodied molasses rum from Jamaica or Trinidad generally works best, for example from Myers’s or Plantation. If you pick up a rum at overproof strength, pour clearly less than 60 ml. The official recipe is tied to a brand; you can read more about that further on.

Ginger beer has far more ginger and a spicier, fuller character than ginger ale, which tastes lighter and sweeter.

Ginger ale grew up as a mild soft drink and is mainly used to dilute whisky or brandy. Ginger beer comes from the tradition of fermented ginger drinks and retains its robust ginger flavor from it. The bottles you now find on the shelf are generally non-alcoholic.

If you take ginger ale, you get a milder long drink in which the rum sets the tone. Perfectly drinkable, but the ginger bite that gives this cocktail its character is then missing.

The name has been registered as a trademark by the Bermudian rum producer Gosling Brothers, which means the official cocktail name is tied to the rum of that house.

In the Canadian trademark register DARK ‘N STORMY is registered in the name of Gosling Brothers Limited in Hamilton, Bermuda. The official recipe of the International Bartenders Association therefore names that rum by brand name among the ingredients, which rarely happens in cocktail recipes.

For you at home that has no consequences: you pour what you like. Hospitality businesses that put the name on the menu in practice take the brand rights into account. If you would rather call your own version something else, dark rum with ginger beer covers it nicely.