Making Classic Cocktails at Home #29: Dark ‘n Stormy

The twenty-ninth entry in the series where my wife Sabrina and I journey through the wide wonderful world of classic cocktails by crafting and drinking recipes together at our home bar. Today let’s dive into this delicious, delightfully simple darling of seaside sippin’, the Dark ‘n Stormy.

Recipe:

• 2 oz Goslings Black Seal Rum
• 4–5 oz Fever Tree Ginger Beer
• Garnish: Lime wedge (optional)

Fill a highball glass (or similar tall glass) with ice and add the ginger beer. Float the rum on top by slowly pouring it over the back of a spoon to create a swirling “storm effect” in the glass.  Give it a gentle stir. Optionally garnish with a lime wedge.

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Intro:

The “color of a cloud only a fool or dead man would sail under.”  

Ah, the Dark ‘n Stormy. A boat drink, through and through. The name alone conjures up images of the rough waters of the deep sea, a roaring tempest, a wet salt-soaked beard on a guy yelling through the wind to batten down the hatches, boys! 

But the beautifully basic pairing of rum and ginger beer brings forth a much more pleasant vision of the ocean as well, like staring at it from a beach chair under the sun, mid-afternoon, with a strong, cold drink in hand. In this scenario, “Dark ‘n Stormy” is much more likely to describe how your head feels the next morning after yesterday’s rum-drenched afternoon in the sand.

The traditional recipe for a Dark ‘n Stormy is the epitome of easygoing oceanside inertia. Two ingredients and some ice. Maybe a lime slice if you’re not too hungover to wield a knife to cut one. It’s what The Dude from Big Lebowski would drink if he were in a Jimmy Buffett song. 

The Dark ‘n Stormy has also been attached to boats since its birth back in the early 1900s, and not just because it has a cool boaty name. It has long been part of Bermuda’s sailing culture, notably the famed Newport Bermuda race. It’s even rumored that Newport Bermuda racers helped introduce its staple rum, Goslings Black Seal, to the U.S. by carrying bottles back in their boats. 

It was the official drink of America’s Cup when Bermuda hosted in 2017. 

There was even a canned version of Dark ‘n Stormy all the way back in the 70s, decades before canned cocktails were really even a thing, to make it easier for folks to get a couple of those bad boys out into the waves with them. 

Everything about a Dark ‘n Stormy screams saltwater, sand, and sunburned feet. The great thing about a DnS, though, is that it tastes just as good at home too. Toss some dark rum and ginger beer and ice in a glass, and bam, you’re ready to start limin’ wherever you may be. 

But, um, just be sure that the dark rum is Goslings Black Seal, or else… 

Booze Basics:

The original Dark ‘n Stormy recipe, as offered up by famed Bermuda rum maker Goslings, is a perfectly simple “build in glass” drink made by floating Goslings Black Seal rum on top of ginger beer and then stirring “until it looks like a storm cloud.” 

Many modern versions of the recipe will also call for a half ounce or so of lime juice to brighten things up a bit, but I find it unnecessary, especially with a really dynamic ginger beer like Fever Tree. Part of the highlight of this drink is the lack of effort required to make it. Save the juice squeezing for your daiquiris. 

So yeah, if you stick to tradition, it’s two ingredients. The Goslings Black Seal Rum offers rich dark caramelized molasses flavors with notes of vanilla, warming spices, and oak. The ginger beer brings forth a sweetness, acidity, and that classic spicy ginger bite. The ginger rips its way through the dense, heavy rum, softening it, while the rum counters by tempering the ginger beer’s electric spiciness. And of course, the ginger beer’s carbonation brings the whole rum vs. ginger cage match right up into your nose. 

There’s really not much more to say about the technicalities of the drink itself, but there is some interesting history around the rum and its maker, Goslings. So let’s get into that real quick.

Goslings Black Seal Rum

Black Seal is a blended and aged dark rum produced by Goslings in Bermuda. Goslings blends three different molasses-derived rums, both pot and column-still, and then ages the blend in charred American oak for about 3 years, ending up with flavors of stewed fruit, sweet spice and vanilla, and aromas of fruitcake, butterscotch, and banana. The end product is a full-bodied dark rum primarily intended for mixing in cocktails.  

The history of Goslings starts in 1806, when James Gosling set sail from Gravesend, England towards America, schlepping along crates of merchandise he planned to sell when he got there. The boat was at sea for 91 days before the ship’s charter ran out and it was forced to dock at the nearest port, St. George’s, Bermuda. 

Gosling, apparently a pretty adaptable dude, decided to just stay where he landed, and he and his brother eventually opened up a store in Hamilton, Bermuda, I would presume, to get rid of that excess merch they’d lugged all the way from England. 

Shortly after, Bermuda began receiving its first shipments of rum distillates. The Gosling bros decided to try their hand at the rum game, and focused on blending the imported rums until they landed upon a deep dark mix that would become their signature rum blend. 

The rum wasn’t originally called Black Seal, however. That name came to be years later, during World War II, when the dark rum was sold in old reclaimed champagne bottles from the British officers’ mess, and the corks were sealed tight with a black sealing wax. Folks began asking for rum with the “black seal,” and the name was born.

Why is it so dark, though?

It’s worth nothing that the deep dark color is not an indication of the rum’s age. While a typical spirit starts out clear in color and then darkens as it spends more time in the barrel, this is not the case for many rums, including Black Seal. Rum does not have the same exacting regulations and standards around aging and ingredients as a lot of other spirits out there, such as, say, a bourbon. And that dark color you see in the Goslings bottle, and other black rums, is partially from barrel-aging, but much more so from the rum maker adjusting the color with ingredients such as caramel. It’s not a bad thing, necessarily, it’s just a rum thing. And a reminder not to judge a rum’s age by its color.

That trademark thing…

As I vaguely alluded to at the top of the post, there’s another little tidbit around Goslings and the Dark ‘n Stormy. Goslings owns it. When you pour yourself a glass of dark rum and ginger beer, you best not call it a Dark ‘n Stormy unless that dark rum in your glass is Goslings Black Seal.  

In 1980, Goslings registered Dark ‘n Stormy in Bermuda, and in 1991, they secured a trademark in the U.S. for it.  

Their rationale is around brand consistency. As they tell it, you should be able to order a Dark ‘n Stormy anywhere and expect it to taste just like a Dark ‘n Stormy.  A reasonable argument from the brand that has been tied to the drink since its birth. And of course, it’s fair to assume there’s a bit of a profit motive with that decision, too. 

Astute fans of booze I.P. law may be reminded of the trademark that another rum maker, Pusser’s, filed for the Painkiller just a few years earlier; a move that was considerably more controversial since Pusser’s had no involvement in the actual creation of the Painkiller. They just created their own version (which required Pusser’s rum, of course) based off of the original and then trademarked it later.  

Worth pointing out that Goslings’ trademark only requires that a Dark ‘n Stormy use Gosling Black Seal Rum, by the way. There’s no requirement around using a specific ginger beer, although I’m sure Gosling would highly recommend their own brand. So, my usage of Fever Tree in the recipe above ain’t gonna get me sent to jail. 

Not this time, feds.

Origin Story:

Well, we’ve covered a good chunk of Dark n’ Stormy’s history with our little Gosling sidebar, so I’ll make this quick…

Around 1920, British soldiers from the British Royal Naval Officer’s Club, who were running a ginger beer factory in Bermuda, decided to toss a splash of the local Bermuda dark rum from Goslings into their product and realized that they’d just unlocked a heavenly pairing. The new mixed drink became a hit. A local fisherman commented on the dark rum swirling around in the ginger beer as the “color of a cloud only a fool or dead man would sail under.”  Or something like that. And that quote somehow transformed into the namesake “Dark ‘n Stormy.”  

Yeah, it’s a bit of flimsy history, I know. But I pulled it from the Goslings website, and that’s the story they’re telling, and they own the trademark on the name, so what do you want me to do about it, man? I’m not a lawyer, asshole.

Recipe Rationale:

Gosling Black Seal Rum: As mentioned repeatedly, trademark law deems that a Dark ‘n Stormy is only a Dark ‘n Stormy if it uses Gosling Black Seal.  And who am I to mess with the law? I’m just a little guy, I can’t go to prison! 

Fever Tree Ginger Beer: I always have a stash of various Fever Tree products on hand. They’re great and easy to find. And just to state the obvious: make sure you use ginger beer, not ginger ale. Two very different mixers. 

Lime Garnish:  If you have a fresh lime wedge on hand, go ahead and throw it in the drink. Or maybe even squeeze it over the drink if you’re feeling wild. If you don’t have a lime, screw it, go minimal, bro.

Verdict:

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