Spicy Dark and Stormy Cocktail

Day 6 of Drinkmas. One more day to go. Today's cocktail creation is a Spicy Dark and Stormy with calamansi lime juice. I fell in love with calamansi limes when I went to Kauai this past summer and I have been using them and their juice in cocktails since. They are perfect in these cocktails I made with Koloa Rum Company spiced and dark rums.

The "IT" drink of this year has been the Moscow mule which I think is awesome because not only is it delicious, it is a simple cocktail. Not a whole lot of fuss. Something easy to sip on year round. Vodka, Lime and ginger beer. The Dark and Stormy is the carribbean version of that using dark rum, lime and ginger beer. Although I do love a fancy fussy cocktail, hello Mele Kalikimaka Mai Tais, I prefer a more simple cocktail when at home, mostly for the sake of  time. And since I am a rum girl more than a vodka girl, these cocktails are the way to my heart. And of course I hawaiian-ify them with Koloa Rum.

I adore Koloa Rum Company's Kaua'i spice rum. It smells and tastes like spice cake, reminds me of holiday baking and so much more. It adds a touch more sweetness, warmth and spice to these spicy dark and stormy cocktails. As much as I love dark and stormy cocktails as is, I had to bump up the spice factor with the spiced rum for these holiday cocktails.

We always watch the weather before we head over to Hawaii, not so much to figure out what to pack, that is always the same - bathing suits, flip flops, shorts, tanks and sunscreen. But to keep an eye out for any impending hurricanes. Eye. Hurricane. Get it? Ok no more bad jokes. I will stick to cocktails. Any way. There was a hurricane headed straight for Hawaii the week and a half we were to be there. Actually two. But the first one passed north of the islands before we got there. But the second one was headed straight for the islands.

Hurricane Darby. We watched the weather daily while there and one of the days the storm had hit the Big Island and Oahu, but had been downgraded significantly. They still got a good amount of rain and wind so we prepared ourselves. Buy buying a few bottles of Koloa Rum. Because that is how we prepare for disasters. With rum. I would have been an excellent pirate.

We watched and waited. Started to get a little darker and stormier. It began to rain a little so we cut our snorkeling trip short and went shopping and out to lunch instead. Then the rain stopped. Darby was oh so kind and decided to completely skip Kauai. It took a 90 deg turn to the north and our vacation was hurricane free. This spicy dark and stormy is dedicated to hurricane Darby as a way of saying thank you for not raining on our parade. Literally.

On our last day on island we had a couple of bottles of Koloa rum leftover, there was no way we were drinking them all while we were there so I saw a condo complex neighbor walking across the lawn and offered them up to him. I could have taken the bottles on the plane but risking spillage since they were opened wasn't worth it. I didn't want to come home with everything soaked in rum. I did the Aloha thing and gave them up another vacationer whos eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas when I handed him the bottles and told him to enjoy. I hope he made some awesome cocktails with it, perhaps he made some spicy dark and stormy cocktails too.

 

I only had the calamansi lime juice for these drinks and not the actual limes. The limes in the photos are your basic lime you can get at any grocery store. If you can't find calamansi limes regular limes work just as well.

Thanks again to Koloa Rum Company for supplying me with a few bottles of their rum so I could create all these Drinkmas cocktails for you all.