The Dark ‘n Stormy is Bermuda’s National Cocktail and has been inducted into the Cocktail Hall of Fame. It’s also trademarked by Gosling’s, meaning a bartender (or other alcohol company) can’t market a Dark ‘n Stormy with any other rum besides Gosling’s. In addition, it’s said in Bermuda that the more Dark ‘n Stormys you drink, the better the weather gets. Find out for yourself.
“It was a dark and stormy day,” Malcolm Gosling Jr. says, starting off his tale like a ghost story. Eight generations ago his forefather landed auspiciously in Bermuda‘s British Royal Naval Base with a ship full of rum. More than 200 years later, the Goslings are still here, telling the legend that’s helped propel their company to become the largest importer and exporter of wine and spirits on the island.
“All the British Navy sailors were at the Royal Bermuda yacht club here in Hamilton (Bermuda’s capital city) because it was way too windy and stormy to go out to their boats,” Gosling Jr. says. “So they were at the bar, banging back black rum and ginger beers. And one sailor — who was very drunk — asked for a black rum and ginger beer.”
Malcolm pauses briefly to explain the normal way to pour a cocktail: first ice, then liquor and lastly soda. “But the bartender, seeing that this man was drunk, only served him a glass of ginger beer. The sailer then piped up, ‘Put some rum in my drink,’ and when the bartender did, the rum just sat on top. So the sailor kind of looked at it for a little bit and said ‘That looks like a storm cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under.’ Which was quickly followed by: ‘Barkeep, I’ll have another Dark ‘n Stormy’.”
The Dark ‘n Stormy
Serves 1 person
Ingredients:
