Rage in Eden

A few weeks back, DW texted me while she was out with her BFF. She had tried a new cocktail and was excited about it.

"New cocktail for home—Dark and Stormy. Mmmm."

I replied that I had had one before, and that I too liked the dark rum and ginger beer concoction, with just a twist of lime. I couldn't remember exactly where I had enjoyed one, but I thought DW had been with me at the time.

Since then, ginger beer has been added to our grocery list. We've gone through one bottle of dark rum and have cracked open another.

Candy-corn vodka.

As Hallowe'en approached, DW was looking for some haunting cocktails to mix. We would be attending a party and she wanted something to add to the theme. She explored Blue Curacao, Grand Mariner, and Cointreau to add with the ginger beer. She even took a few cups of vodka and added a generous handful of candy corn to add to her witches brew.

In honesty, the candy-corn-infused vodka tasted best on its own.

I joined in her mixology venture, looking to make a drink of my own. I had already done my own take on a mulata and even modified it to make a mango mulata, so I looked at the ginger beer to see what I could do.

I've done a lot of experimentation, adding ingredients, removing others, and I finally came upon a drink that I liked a lot. It didn't seem related to Hallowe'en, but that didn't matter to me.

I looked to DW's current favourite, the Dark and Stormy, and thought I'd make it more tropical. Here's what I did.

• 1 mason jar, half-filled with ice
• 1 1/2 oz coconut rum
• 1/2 oz Kahlua
• mango nectar, filled to the halfway line of the jar
• ginger beer, filled the rest of the way

What this sweet beverage gives you is a coffee-and-coconut-backed fruit drink with a bite of ginger.

I've since modified the recipe, upping the alcohol but removing the Kahlua: it now has 2 oz of coconut rum and 1 oz of dark rum. The coffee flavour, which really stands out—almost to distraction—is now tempered with the warmth of the dark rum.

It's incredibly tasty.

I was looking for a name for this new cocktail and reached out to my Twitter friends, but in the end I came up with a name of my own. This drink retains some of the goodness of the Dark and Stormy but the coconut and mango give it a tropical touch of paradise. It's a mango mulata and D&S hybrid: stormy and heavenly.

Rage in Eden.

The name came to my head and gives a nod to my favourite album from my favourite 80s band, Ultravox.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. Try it with the Kahlua and try it with the dark rum and tell me which one you prefer.

With the weekend upon us and days getting darker sooner, a Rage in Eden just might shine a bit of light. Cheers!