The Dark and Stormy as Medicine

     Berumda’s national drink, the Dark ‘n’ Stormy cocktail, has hidden health benefits. Traditionally made with Gosling’s Black Seal rum, it also features ginger beer and lime.   The  drink has an interesting naval history.   In the 1800s it was common practice for the British Royal Navy to give rum rations to sailors from navy bases on rum-producing Caribbean islands including Bermuda.

     Ginger beer was first brought Bermuda by William John Barritt.   Barritt’s Ginger Beer was created in Bermuda in 1874 and still being sold today.   Sailors started adding ginger beer to their rum.   Ginger Beer,  a well known cure for sea sickness and rumored to ward off flu, aid digestion and facilitate blood circulation, adding the lime to the drink was added to help prevent off scurvy.

     "The name Dark ‘n’ Stormy came about when a sailor held up the drink, which looks like a dark cloud gathering in the glass when the rum is added, described it as the color of a cloud 'only a fool or a dead man would sail under'”.

 

     Alcohol consumption in quantities over  weeks of parties, tends to irritate the lining of your digestive system. This is just the medicine you need. Research conducted at the University of Michigan discovered  ginger can helps settle the stomach, by blocking the serotonin receptors in the stomach.    For years, I've given bar customers Ginger beer with a few dashes of bitters in it to settle their stomachs.  I call it a bartender's antacid.