Feel the burn!

Ginger is a plant whose root has been used for centuries as a spice and in folk medicine. The philosopher Confucius was said to eat ginger with every meal. Today we bake it into cookies and houses for the holiday season. We also make it into the soda ginger beer,which makes for a spicy Tiki drink. Here’s a few to enjoy.

Mix #101 Dark and Stormy

2oz Gosling’s Black Seal rum
1/2oz lime juice
ginger beer to fill

Pour rum and lime juice into glass with ice. Add ginger beer to fill and swizzle.

Invented over a hundred years ago at Bermuda’s Royal Naval Officer’s Club,this cocktail is found in many non-Tiki bars and is the national drink of Bermuda. The ‘correct’ way to make it is with Gosling’s rum and their ginger beer. If you don’t have Gosling’s,you can use most dark rums(‘black’ rums work best),but you need to use ginger beer and not ginger ale or it won’t turn out right. It’s simple and spicy and goes down smooth providing you can handle the burn.

Mix #102 Darth & Stormy

1/5oz Demerara rum
3/4oz lime juice
1/2oz cinnamon syrup
3oz ginger beer

Pour everything into glass with ice and stir.

BG Reynolds riff on the classic Dark and Stormy adds cinnamon syrup to the mix because ginger beer just doesn’t give enough burn. Sweet and spicy.

Mix #103 Suffering Bastard

1oz dry gin
1oz brandy
1/2oz lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
ginger beer to top

Shake everything except beer with ice and pour into mug. Top with ginger beer.

Not originally a Tiki drink,it’s been embraced by the Tiki world and even had a Trader Vic’s mug named after it(see above). It was supposedly invented in Cairo,Egypt as ‘hangover cure’ for British soldiers(hair of the dog plus ginger beer to settle the stomach). A 1947 Esquire article credits bartender Joel Scialom at the Hotel Shepard. He supposedly named it the “Suffering Bar Steward”,and it somehow morphed into Suffering Bastard. Trader Vic’s had a rum drink of the same name,but it wasn’t popular and faded into history. It has a gin start with a ginger burn finish. Drink enough of these and you’ll have to find your own hangover cure.

Mix #65 Fizzy Rum & Gin

1oz Plantation Isle of Fiji rum
1oz Citadelle gin
1/2oz lime juice
1/4oz simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
4oz ginger beer

Shake everything except ginger beer with ice. Pour ginger beer into tall glass,strain mix into glass,then top with some pellet ice.

From the 13 Nights of Tiki Frights in 2022,this is a riff on the Dark and Stormy that adds the classiness of gin.

Mix #104 Guardian Idol Cocktail

3oz dark Jamaican rum
4oz pineapple juice
1.5oz lime juice
1/2oz orgeat
2oz ginger beer

Shake everything except beer with ice and pour into mug. Add ginger beer and stir.

Created by Home Aloha for their Tiki mug of the same name,it’s sweet and pineapple-y with a ginger burn at the end. A big drink with lots of kick,I liked it enough to add to my regular roster of mixings.

So enjoy the burn with these delicious cocktails. There’s just something special about ginger.