Dark and Stormy is a highball made with dark rum (traditionally Gosling’s Black Seal) and ginger beer (some recipes add lime juice to the mix). The drink purportedly originated among British sailors on shore leave in Bermuda after World War I (another origin story places the date earlier, in the nineteenth century), and in the intervening century the drink has served not only as a summer refresher but as a means to test the limits of copyright law related to cocktails. In 1991, the Gosling family—which founded Gosling’s in Bermuda in 1806—claimed a trademark for the cocktail’s recipe, and the family has repeatedly turned to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to protect its claim. In 2015, E. Malcolm Gosling Jr. and his brother filed a complaint in US federal court in Massachusetts, claiming that Pernod Ricard had committed federal trademark infringement for including a recipe for the Dark and Stormy on the company’s website, using Malibu Island Spiced Rum.
Recipe: Combine 60 ml dark rum, juice of ½ lime (note that Bermudians take their Dark and Stormies without the lime), and 120–180 ml ginger beer, to taste, in an ice-filled highball glass and stir to combine. Garnish with a lime wheel or lime wedge (or not).
See also Highball and ginger ale and ginger beer.
Fessenden, Marissa. “There’s Only One Way to Make a Dark ‘n’ Stormy Without Breaking the Law.” Smithsonian, June 8, 2015.
Haglage, Abby. “Will the Real Darn N’ Stormy Please Stand Up?” Daily Beast, September, 22, 2015. https://www.thedailybeast.com/will-the-real-dark-n-stormy-please-stand-up (accessed March 2, 2021).
Martineau, Chantal. “The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails?” Atlantic, August 31, 2010.
Miles, Jonathan. “The Right Stuff (by Law).” New York Times, July 2, 2009.
Volz, Michael. “A Courtroom Cocktail: Gosling Brothers and a Dark, Stormy Message.” Lehrman Beverage Law, November 17, 2015. https://bevlaw.com/bevlog/a-courtroom-cocktail-gosling-brothers-and-a-dark-stormy-message/ (accessed March 2, 2021).
By: Paul Clarke