classic · built
Dark & Stormy recipe
Gosling's dark rum poured over ginger beer. Don't stir.
A Dark & Stormy is 60 ml (56.4 g) Dark Rum, 15 ml (15.5 g) Fresh Lime Juice and 120 ml (124.8 g) Ginger Beer, built and served in a highball glass. It pours to about 195 ml before ice, at roughly 12.3% ABV. Weighing the ingredients instead of measuring them is what keeps the balance identical from one round to the next.
- Glasshighball glass
- Methodbuilt
- Pour volume195 ml
- Strength (est.)12.3% ABV
- Time2 min
Dark & Stormy ingredients — in millilitres and grams
Grams are what the PourPilot coaster actually targets. They are not the same as the millilitres: a spirit is lighter than water, a syrup is heavier, so 30 ml of one is never 30 g. The right-hand column is the density we use, in grams per millilitre.
| Ingredient | Volume | Weight | g/ml | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Rum | 60 ml | 56.4 g | 0.94 | Weighed by the coaster |
| Fresh Lime Juice | 15 ml | 15.5 g | 1.03 | Weighed by the coaster |
| Ginger Beer | 120 ml | — | 1.04 | Top, pour rum over back of spoon |
How to make a Dark & Stormy
- Set your highball glass on the scale (or on the PourPilot coaster) and zero it. Every measurement below is given in millilitres and in grams, so you can use either.
- Fill the highball glass with fresh ice.
- Build Dark Rum and Fresh Lime Juice straight into the glass, weighing each pour.
- Top with Ginger Beer and stir once, gently, from the bottom up.
Dark & Stormy: the questions people actually ask
How strong is a Dark & Stormy?
Roughly 12.3% ABV as poured, before the ice dilutes it — typically another 15–25% water by the time you finish stirring or shaking. Medium strength. About the same as a fortified wine, poured short.
What glass should a Dark & Stormy be served in?
A highball glass. Fill it with fresh ice, not the ice you mixed with.
Can I make a Dark & Stormy without a jigger?
Yes — that is what the gram column is for. Put the glass or tin on a kitchen scale, zero it, and pour to the weight. It is more accurate than a jigger because nothing is left clinging to the inside of the measure. The PourPilot coaster does the same thing without you having to watch a display: it lights up as you approach the target and tells you when to stop.
Why are some ingredients not weighed?
Dashes of bitters and rinses are too small to weigh reliably — a dash is roughly 0.8 ml, well inside the noise of any bar scale. Count them instead. Everything else in this Dark & Stormy is weighed.
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