A couple of years ago, I found myself down at the beach shack all by myself (a rare occurrence in those days). My friends John and Janice invited me up to their cliff-side cottage for crabs and stuff (it was early fall, I think, because we were still getting local corn). I’d already eaten dinner of some sort by myself (darn!), so I wasn’t up for picking crabs, BUT, they had put romaine lettuce on the grill and served it with blue cheese dressing and chopped bacon. New obsession! I must have eaten 2 heads of that! (grilled romaine is a post for another day)

We got to talking about mojitos, and they managed to round up enough white rum for me to make us a pitcher. There were several of us, so that went pretty fast. John then asks if I’d like to try a Dark and Stormy. I have no idea what that is, and he explains it’s the national drink of Bermuda and is made with black rum. I’m immediately suspicious — I’m not the biggest fan of dark liquor — but I cautiously agree to try one. OMG — what an amazing drink! This rum drink seems a little more in tune with the changing season than my summery mojito. It’s still beachy and fizzy but with its golden caramel color and definite punch of ginger, it really does suit the autumn palate. Thank you, John!

Dark and Stormy
As poured by John and Janice

1 part black rum (I use Gosling’s Black Seal)
2 parts ginger beer (I use Gosling’s)
Lime wedges

Fill a tall glass with chipped[*] ice. Add the rum and ginger beer. Squeeze in a lime wedge or two. Gently stir. Consume with gusto!

Notes:

• Do NOT substitute ginger ale for the ginger beer. Different products altogether (ginger ale is a soft drink; ginger beer is a fermented beverage).
• This translates well to a pitcher — just squeeze in an appropriate number of lime wedges

[*] update: Janice says the ice must be chipped, not whole ice cubes!