Tag Archives: rum cocktails

Drink of the Week: Dark and Stormy

Who knew Bermuda had its own national cocktail? Its name, Dark and Stormy, implies the weather due east of Georgia can leave a lot to be desired, which is probably why the locals are hunkering down and tipping back a drink light on the ginger beer but heavy on the rum.

Please excuse the Gurgle Pot -- I promise it doesn't make me drink like a fish.

Please excuse the Gurgle Pot. I promise it doesn’t make me drink like a fish.

To even things up in the beer’s favour I poured in some more beer, mostly because I just really love tasting the ginger in this drink and Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, an alcoholic version out of the U.K., is so good I could almost do without the rum. I could also almost do without the lime (as could most “Bermudians,” according to Esquire), so I cut down its amount. The result: a spicy, rummy drink that tastes great no matter the weather.

I promise you can weather this storm!

I promise you can weather this storm!

Dark and Stormy

  • 2 oz dark rum (I used Appleton Estate Reserve)
  • 3 oz ginger beer (I upped the amount to 4 oz so its taste wouldn’t be overpowered by the rum)
  • 1/2 oz lime juice, or to taste (I used 1/4 oz)

Build the drink in a Collins glass filled with ice cubes. Stir and serve.

Drink of the Week: Rum Punch

Dear readers who suffered through reading about a large batch (nine gallons) rum punch I made for a fundraiser last spring and the fallout from the ensuing “rumaway,” I bring you a much more manageable version of one of my favourite cocktails: the single-serving Rum Punch.

It's strong but so yummy. And it's not often you get to  put nutmeg in a drink!

It’s strong but so yummy. And it’s not often you get to put nutmeg in a drink!

It was not my intention to blog about rum punch tonight — sometimes I worry I give Barbados’s No. 1 cocktail too many shout-outs. No, I had intended to create and then sample a different recipe entirely, a yummy-sounding number called It’s Fig’n Cold Outside. Appleton Estate sent me a bottle of the Appleton Estate Reserve along with a cute little recipe card for the fig drink. Sadly, they did not send me the star ingredient — fig juice — and it’s fig’n impossible to find it in Calgary (I tried Community Natural Foods and The Cookbook Co. No fig’n luck).

But that’s okay because I got excited thinking about trying the rum in my favourite rum drink. Besides, with nutmeg and Angostura bitters adding spice, I think this makes a great holiday cocktail. Blake and I sipped them after trimming the tree a couple weeks ago, and I think we’ll shake up a couple up on Christmas Eve. Just beware making a large batch for Christmas dinner unless you’re angling for a rumaway.

Rum Punch

  • 2 oz Appleton Estate Reserve
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1 oz Demerara sugar simple syrup
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Pinch nutmeg

Shake all ingredients with ice and then strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Add another pinch of nutmeg as a garnish.

Drink of the Week: Cuba Libre

My husband spent a week in Cuba with his dad and brother last November on a trip I like to call “Father’s Week.” What happened was this: they bonded over rum. Sipping rum, shooting rum, rum in mojitos and rum in that most manly of Caribbean cocktails, the Cuba Libre. A distant cousin to a Rum & Coke, just add lime juice and you’ve got yourself a more cultured quaff.

I serve the drink, which translates as “Free Cuba,” in a Collins glass from Vietnam (hence the Communist star and gun-toting peasant).

I like to think that the three men — all fathers — toasted fatherhood with rum while relishing their freedom from it on the sandy beaches of Cuba. They were libre, man! Libre to drink a lot of rum, shop for guayaberra shirts and ogle the 1950s-era cars crusing the streets of Havana.

So, in honour of Father’s Day, pour Dad a Cuba Libre and may he drink enough of them to wax nostalgic about the highs of fatherhood, while simultaneously forgetting all about the lows. As they say in Cuba, “Salud!”

Cuba Libre

  • 1-1/2 to 2 oz dark rum (Appleton Estate Reserve is nice)
  • 1/2 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • Top with Coke
  • Lime wedges garnish

Add ingredients into an ice-filled Collins glass, stir. Squeeze in a couple lime wedges for a nonchalant Cuban garnish. Enjoy in adult company on Father’s Day.