A Dark N' Stormy Riff
A Riff on a Dark N' Stormy
First off: Why a riff? Well, Gosling's rum has a trademark on the name "Dark N' Stormy" so if you want to call your drink that, you legally have to use Goslings Rum. This is a real thing people have gone to court over. To avoid this, a lot of places will call their drink a "Dark And Stormy" or a "Dark 'N' Stormy" with 2 apostrophes, in order to get around the trademark. In my case, I'm not selling this to anyone, so I should be legally clear, but I'll call it my riff anyways, just to avoid any issues. In addition to the name change. A "Dark N' Stormy" calls for a slice of lime, which I have omitted, it's served in a highball glass, not a double old fashioned. A "Dark N' Stormy" is also usually served with lots of ice chunks, or chips, or shavings or something, where as mine is with one large ice "sphere" (first time using the spherical ice molds, eventually I'll get some nice perfect spheres).
Second off: What's it like? Well, my version is over sweetened. It smells sweet, gingery, maybe a bit of some acid in that ginger beer, but its subtle. In the mouth it's light, slightly bubbly, but not too much. It's sweet and ginger forward, then some other rum flavors come through, but it is just very sweet. I sweetened it too much. I'll get into this more in the spec later, but I added a half oz of demerara simple because I knew my ginger beer was rather spicy, but I underestimated just how much sugar was in the ginger beer. The biggest problem with this drink being so sweet is that, I can't tell there's rum in it. Sure, there's some rum flavors, but none of those flavors are "alcohol". You could tell me this was non-alcoholic, and I'd slam down 5 of them before I paused. I'm only sipping on it because I know I put 2oz of rum in there. Because of how sweet this is, it is just incredibly great to drink, I mean it tastes like a dessert drink. I could easily drink these all night, but it would quickly leave you plastered. So I will have to give this a 8/10 as is, but I suspect that cutting back the sugar would raise that a lot.
Second off: What's it like? Well, my version is over sweetened. It smells sweet, gingery, maybe a bit of some acid in that ginger beer, but its subtle. In the mouth it's light, slightly bubbly, but not too much. It's sweet and ginger forward, then some other rum flavors come through, but it is just very sweet. I sweetened it too much. I'll get into this more in the spec later, but I added a half oz of demerara simple because I knew my ginger beer was rather spicy, but I underestimated just how much sugar was in the ginger beer. The biggest problem with this drink being so sweet is that, I can't tell there's rum in it. Sure, there's some rum flavors, but none of those flavors are "alcohol". You could tell me this was non-alcoholic, and I'd slam down 5 of them before I paused. I'm only sipping on it because I know I put 2oz of rum in there. Because of how sweet this is, it is just incredibly great to drink, I mean it tastes like a dessert drink. I could easily drink these all night, but it would quickly leave you plastered. So I will have to give this a 8/10 as is, but I suspect that cutting back the sugar would raise that a lot.
My Spec
My spec is:
2oz of mixed rum (I used Mount Gay Eclipse, Appleton Estate 12, and Smith and Cross)
1/2oz Demerara simple syrup (but I suggest tasting yours without sugar, and sweetening to taste)
1 light dash of angostura bitters
Top the glass with anywhere from 3-5oz of ginger beer (I have fever tree)
A lime wedge is certainly not out of the question here. The original spec calls for it, and I would use one, if I had any fresh limes.
As always, if you have any suggestions, recommendations, comments, or reviews, please leave them below in the comments. I'd love to hear from you, and see how I could make this better. -Sam
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