Cabin on the beach in St Barts
I was flown over to St Barts for a bartending gig with Misja Vorstermans (Global Bartending) and Dennis Tamse. Misja and Dennis are good friends and fatastic bartenders to say the least.
Anyone who has flown to the tiny French owned Caribbean Island will know that getting there is quite an adventure. You fly from St Maarten in a plane no bigger than a pack of gum, and land on what is reported to be one of the top three most dangerous landing strips on the planet. Pilots are good so thats not too much of a problem, unlike the lack of luggage room on the aircraft.
Tiny luggage compartments mean that 9 times out of 10, your luggage will not be on the same flight as you, especially when your fellow passengers are high maintenance, middle aged folk with six Louis Vuitton bags per person. All this meant we arrived on the Island and spend four days with no luggage.
When we saw where we were staying and how close we were to the beach (pretty much on the beach, as the picture shows) we decided that our luggage wasn’t that important. We were simply happy to be where we were.
Cutting the Outer Shell of the Lime
Well, that was until we realized all our bar gear was in our luggage and when in the Caribbean, one must drink rum! To be specific, Rum with Fresh Lime and Ginger Beer. Thats right…the Dark n’ Stormy!
The Dark n’ Stormy is actually the national drink of Bermuda and should be made using Goslings Black Seal but hey, sometimes you just have to improvise…
You would be amazed at the language when a bartender realizes he has nothing to cut open his limes for juicing. Being in the French part of the Caribbean , we found plenty of rhum, purchased a bottle of Trois Rivieres, a few cans of Jamaican Ginger Beer and found a few plastic cups. We had NO ice.
Ice was the last of our worries!
It was time to get back to those limes. I went for a walk on the beach to see what I could find and presto!
Mini Conch Shell being used to juice Limes
A broken shell with a sharp point proved to be quite the knife and another resembling a mini conch shell made an awesome citrus hand juicer.
We sat on the porch in the picture above, proud and content with our hunter/gatherer skills for the day. it was the warmest, most simple Dark n’ Stormy I have ever imbibed, but without a doubt, the most enjoyable.
The recipe for a more authentic Dark n’ Stormy is as follows:
50 ml Goslings Black Seal Rum
Juice of half a lime
Serve in a long glass with lots of ice and top with Ginger Beer.
Garnish with a wedge of Lime.
The recipe to our St Barts Dark n’ Stormy is as follows:
1 Caribbean Beach
As many friends as you like
Whatever you can use to drink from
No Ice
Whatever Rum/Rhum/Ron you can find
A shell for cutting limes
A shell for juicing limes
Ginger Beer
Juice of half a lime and drop the spent shell of the lime in the drink.
Method: Mix together in your own proportions and simply enjoy…
Ps. A few grains of sand add a bit of character.
