Hello and welcome to another summer Friday. Up here in the Northeast it is finally starting to get warmer and feel more seasonal. Like last week’s spritzer, I wanted to focus on a lighter, easily drinkable cocktail. Mrs. Sharkbait and I are still on our self imposed quarantine, so the liquor cabinet is yet to be re-stocked. However, I do happen to have the ingredients (sort of, more on that later) to make to one of my favorite summer cocktails: The Dark & Stormy. They are very refreshing and simple to make.

Dark & Stormy:

2 (ish) oz.Goslings dark rum

Ginger beer

Slice of lime

Fill a glass with ice. Add rum and top with ginger beer. Squeeze lime and drop into the glass. Stir and enjoy

Unfortunately, I do not have Goslings (boo self quarantine) So I had to make do with Myers’s dark rum.  Normally I would say a substitution here wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but while Myers’s is good, Goslings is that much better. Their ginger beer is fantastic as well. I at least had that on hand.

I added the -ish to the recipe above because there really is no golden ratio here. It really depends on how strong you want your cocktail. I might add a little more than 2 ounces, because I like my drinks strong. But, you do you.

The drink has a faint ginger smell from the ginger beer, and the lime adds a pleasant zip. It’s floral and effervescent as well.

The dryness of the ginger beer is what comes across immediately on the first sip. After that, the ginger flavor starts to take over, with added depth and sugary sweetness from the rum. The lime’s acidity helps prevent the drink from being too saccharine.

Given that dark rum is a molasses based liquor, no additional sweeteners are required here. It needs sturdy ingredients to maintain balance, and the ginger beer and lime are a perfect 1-2 punch in that regard.

I love a Dark & Stormy during beach season. They are not heavy, and keep you cool on those hot, humid summer days. Go sit outside with one of these this weekend.

(Banner image found here)