Dark 'n Stormy Cocktail

This cocktail "supposedly" got its name from a sailor noting that the drink's dark cloudy color made him think of storm clouds. 

 

Naturally beverage companies want you to use their own specific products to make certain drinks, but we can't have all of the many brands of liquors, so use what you have or what you have access to; don't fret over having such and such a brand name of liquor, as it usually doesn't matter much to the actual taste of whatever drink you are making. 

Ginger beer seems to have been first brewed in England in the 1700s and it became a popular drink in all of the British Isles and in numerous (then) British colonies and possessions like Canada, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa. It is my understanding that the original fermentation process produced both an alcohol content, as well as the sparkling fizz of the drink, which was made with yeast; but that later, the process was altered to make an alcohol free brew, and later still, the carbonation process (injecting carbon dioxide under pressure) was used to give the drink its fizz. Ginger beer is made by using real ginger in the brewing process, and this imparts the soft drink's spicier taste compared to ginger ale, which is somewhat milder (typically made with ginger flavored syrup).     

 

Ingredients (per cocktail):

 

2 ounces dark rum

3 ounces ginger beer

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

(optional) candied ginger slice

slice of lime

ice 

Tall glass (10 to 12 ounces)

Fill a tall glass with ice, add dark rum and lime juice, stir to mix, then add the ginger beer, stir. Add a slice of lime and a slice of candied ginger for garnish. 

WORD HISTORY:

Span-"Span" is used both as a noun and a verb, and the word is related to quite a number of words, including distantly to part of "appendix," "dispense" and "expend," all Latin-derived words, with both "appendix" and "expend" borrowed by English directly from Latin, and with "dispense" borrowed via French, and it is more closely related to "spin," "spider" and "spindle," all words from the Germanic roots of English. "Span" goes back to Indo European "(s)pen," with the notion of "stretch, draw out," with implications for "spin thread." This gave Old Germanic "spannan," with the same meanings, and this gave Old English "spann," meaning, "the fully opened (stretched out) hand as a tool for measurement;" thus also, "the distance between the tip of one's thumb to the tip of the little finger." This then became "spanne," before the more clipped modern form "span." The hand measurement idea broadened (no pun intended) to a more general notion of "distance between two points or objects," but other meanings also developed, including, "an amount of time" (circa 1600)^ and "a span of animals" (mid 1700s), ^^ the 1700s also saw the use of the word for the distance between the arches for bridges, and the word has actually become almost synonymous with bridge, perhaps also because a bridge typically "spans" (the verb use) a river, creek, bay or ravine). Latin long ago borrowed the word from Germanic as "spannus," seemingly borrowed from Germanic Frankish via the Latin dialects in Gaul, which would later become the core of the Frankish Kingdom and then France. The Old French form was "espan," which was then altered to "empan." "Spanner," most commonly a type of tool that connects to something to tighten or turn it, a type of wrench;" borrowed from German "Spanner" in the first half of the 1600s. The German word is from the same source as "span." The verb form of "span" goes back to the same original Indo European and Old Germanic sources, and the Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "spannan," meaning "to fasten, to clasp, to bind," with a secondary meaning of even "to join in marriage" and "to hitch animals together," and the spelling later became "spannen," before the shortening to "span." The verb's meanings mirrored the noun, including about time (as in, "The diplomat's career spans three presidencies") and distance between point or objects ("The bridge spans the gorge near the highway").     

 

^ No set period of time, rather non specific, as in, "The line was long to get into the movie premier, but we only had to wait a span of 12 minutes," but also, "The storm knocked out our electricity for a span of 4 days."

^^ Two animals typically connected by some type of yoke to pull a cart or wagon.