This classic drink is a highball cocktail made with black rum and ginger beer, served over ice and garnished with a slice of lime. Classic, easy to make and tasty, the Dark ‘n’ Stormy is the national drink of Bermuda.

Many people believe there’s only one specific type of dark rum this cocktail can be made with – Gosling’s Black Seal. They say: “If it ain’t Gosling’s, it ain’t a Dark ‘n’ Stormy.”

With regards to its origin – as with the majority of rum history – the story of the cocktail comes from sailors. In the 17th century it was standard practice for the British Royal Navy to allot rum rations to sailors, and the rum was sourced from various bases on Caribbean rum-producing islands such as Bermuda.

Around the late 1860s, the Gosling Brothers’ rum distillery, located in Bermuda, began marketing a heavy blend of dark rums, which eventually became the Gosling’s Black Seal that is marketed today.

The Royal Navy added a ginger beer plant to their dockyard on Ireland Island (Bermuda). Ginger is a well-known tonic for seasickness so may have been used in an attempt to wean sailors off heavy rum-drinking.

The name itself is said to have originated when a sailor held the drink up to the sky and observed the drink was “the colour of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under”.

Ingredients:
Ice
50ml Gosling’s Black Seal Rum (or other black rum)
150ml ginger beer
Lime wedge (optional)

Method:
1. Fill a highball glass with ice and add 150ml ginger beer.

2. Top up with 50ml black rum and garnish with a lime wedge (optional).

Why not have a Mocktail?
For a non-alcoholic alternative, mix 20ml molasses, 220ml ginger beer and 25ml fresh lime juice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY