Sailor’s Delight

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning.” – Proverb

It’s long been said that the manner of sky that tucks sailors into bed, as well what greets them in the morning, harkens to the weather they can expect to deal with during the day. Countless blogs, podcasts, books, and articles have been written about whether or not these weather myths really mean anything. (They’re pretty sure that, yeah, they do.)

More than anything, however, we wanted a clever name for one of our newest favorite rum drinks during this hot, humid summer. It takes a long-established rum base (rum, pineapple juice, orange juice) and gives just a few subtle tweaks.

Sailor’s Delight ® Cocktails, 365 2015

Sailor’s Delight

• 3 oz Brinley Gold Shipwreck Vanilla Rum
• 2 oz fresh-squeeze oj
• 2 oz fresh pineapple juice
• 1 quick dash grenadine

Place all of your ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with cubed ice.

Shake the drink well – at least 30 seconds – and then strain into a chilled margarita glass.

It’s really, really important that you focus on simply a dash of the grenadine, as any more you’re going to end up with a drink that pushes away from the realm of “sweet” and lands firmly in “diabetes.”

The darkness of the Brinley Gold, mixed with the orange and pineapple juices gives an absolutely brilliant sweet tartness to the cocktail. Because the Brinley Gold is so dark and sweet, you want to make sure that you’re not using a sweetened version of either of your juices. It’s the same theory behind the grenadine – too much sweet and you ruin the drink.

Mark Vierthaler is the founder and Editor of Cocktails, 365. His work appeared in The Tasting Panel Magazine, Savvy Host, Liquor.com, and countless other websites and blogs. He is Bar Smarts certified, and works with bars and restaurants in cocktail creation and pairing. To contact him, e-mail cocktails365@markvierthaler.com