Tip o' the Hat to the Brown Derby

Guessabout is all about where imagination and "real" life meet, and one place they frequently shake hands is in a cocktail glass.

One dark and stormy weekend, when a Dark and Stormy just wouldn't do, I discovered this earthy cocktail: Esquire Brown Derby. Created in the 1930s, it somehow slid under the bar and got stuck there for several decades. Thankfully, Esquire revived it.

Esquire cocktail columnist David Wondrich calls this New England's answer to the daquiri. He considers it a winter cocktail, but I find it incredibly refreshing in any weather. It's not nearly as sweet as the ingredients suggest. In fact, I don't like sweet drinks and I use more maple syrup than the recipe does. Specifically, I make this drink with the following ingredients, shaken hard with ice:

2 oz. Goslings's Black Seal black rum
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or to taste)

The name, Brown Derby, is confusing because there's another Brown Derby cocktail (from the famed restaurant chain). To solve this problem, some friends and I doffed that moniker and slapped on one of our own. Ours takes too long to explain, so I suggest that when you're about half way through this handsome cocktail, you rename it yourself. I'd love to know what your decide.