National Rum Day at home

Dark and Stormy

Just this week, my friend Pilar–a beautiful brown haired Spaniard (whose picture is featured in my previous post)–scratched her cornea while getting dressed for work. The result: an hour in the emergency room, a quick application of medicated eye drops, and a big eye patch.

A doctor prescribed eye patch would have been enough to mortify most people in this city. But not Pilar. She rocked that eye-patch like a fashionable, Spanish pirate.

So, inspired by Pilarrrrrrrrr (think pirate speak) and the fact that today is National Rum Day, I bring you the recipe for a Dark and Stormy—a refreshing drink made with spicy ginger beer (a kind of soda), fresh lime-juice and dark rum. Careful pouring of each ingredient will create a two-toned sea of deliciousness, that ultimately inspired the drink’s name.

Use Gosling’s dark rum if you want to impress. Or go the cheap route and buy a $10 of Whaler’s rum from Trader Joe’s. Use a good ginger beer–the best are made by Bundaberg and Blenheim. These sodas are available at the Soda Pop Shop, Bev Mo, World Market and other fine liquor merchants.

Dark and Stormy
Makes one drink

1.5 ounces of dark rum
One bottle of ginger beer
Juice of half a lime

Fill glass with ice. Add lime juice and ginger beer. Pour rum over the back of a spoon to create the layer of dark rum on the bottom of the glass. Garnish with lime.

I raise my glass to Pilar and her quickly healed eye!