Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful: Dark & Stormy Cocktails

Please forgive me if I’ve already started humming Christmas carols… I get the feeling that in Berlin, the weather goes from summer to winter without even a nod to my favorite season. This is not a city that does chunky sweaters and burnt sienna trees. It’s a city that does all leaves/no leaves. Tank top/parka.

And you wonder why this isn’t a country that has apple or pumpkin pie. They don’t even have a season for it. What do you expect?

Not so long ago I was in Bermuda. Now there’s another night/day contrast we can talk about. A brilliant, beating sun, pink sand, water so blue it seemed unreal. A perpetual sunburn on my skin, cold drinks on the deck of a ship. Somebody please remind me why I left.

While you can’t always take the island sunshine with you, there are some tokens of the beach that fit in a small bag. Gosling Black Seal Rum and ginger beer for one.

Dark & Stormies are simple, highball cocktails made with ginger beer and Gosling’s rum. And apparently yes, to make real Dark & Stormies you do need Gosling’s, as the drink is trademarked by the company, whose base is in Bermuda. It stands to reason then, that along with the Rum Swizzle, the Dark & Stormy is Bermuda’s national drink.

A Dark & Stormy is a beautiful drink. Sparkling, golden ginger beer topped with a jigger of rum that floats above the soda like a storm cloud.

As a drink it’s also a bit of an oxymoron. It might be a beach drink, but it describes the weather in Berlin perfectly. And so, beach or no, I’ll pour myself a glass. There’s just a little Bermudan rum left…

Dark & Stormy
Best served on a beach, but hey… if there’s no beach, a rainy city apartment will do.

4 oz. ginger beer
2 oz. Gosling’s Black Seal Rum
Ice cubes
Lime wedge for garnish (opt.)

Fill a highball glass halfway with ice cubes. Add ginger beer. Slowly pour the rum over the ginger beer so that the two liquids stay separate. The rum will float on top of the ginger beer. Add a lime wedge for garnish.

A more action-packed method: Pour ginger beer into a highball glass. Slowly pour the rum over the ginger beer so that the two liquids stay separate. Pelt ice into your drink and pretend it’s hail.