The Strong One was the third and most popular of the signature drinks that I made for Jesse’s pastry party. It’s the flavors that are strong, not the alcohol content, which confused many of the guests. But the popularity was more due to the fact that the list of the ingredients for this drink just sound cool – black rum, ginger beer, chocolate nib bitters. It has a lot of familiar tastes spun in a new direction. This drink is actually just a slight spin on a Dark n’ Stormy, which I don’t normally think of as a hot weather drink, nor do I usually pair it with food.

I was thinking of strong spice flavors common in baking and pastry, like ginger and clove and cinnamon. I got hung up on ginger – ginger wine, ginger infusions, etc. when the Dark n’ Stormy struck me. A Dark n’ Stormy is usually 1/2 a lime (or less), black rum and ginger beer. Black rum has a sweet molasses taste, and with the tart lime and spicy ginger beer it strikes a great balance.

So in an effort to make it a bit more culinary, I pushed the black rum in the Pimento Dram direction by infusing it with just over a tablespoon of crushed clove and allspice for about 4 days. That added a nice earthy spice, but the whole effect was a bit flat. So I decided to add my homemade Valrhona cocoa nib bitters. Made with overproof rum, they added a bittersweet chocolate note that really pulled the drink together.

In a lowball glass…

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

2 oz. Clove & Allspice infused Gosling’s Black Seal Rum

4 ml (1/2 eyedropper) Valrhona cocoa nib bitters

3 oz D&G Old Jamaican Ginger Beer

Add the ginger beer last, serve with ice and a lime wedge.

Really, this was my favorite drink as well – although if I had been able to get muscat grapes, the Sweet One would have knocked it out of the park.