Bright and Sunny

We are in our home away from home in Northern Michigan, and lucky for us there are plenty of local products to use to create new cocktails and plenty of inspiration to create new artwork!

We are huge fans of Cherry Republic - home to all things cherry. If we haven't already schooled you on this, the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula is the cherry capital of the United States, and Cherry Republic produces a huge array of products that utilize the local crop. This year we discovered their Cherry Ginger Bear - a ginger spiced cherry soda. We decided that this would be perfect to use in our Northern Michigan cocktail of the season, and the result did not disappoint. This soda is similar to ginger beer, but with the addition of cherry notes.

So what better to do with ginger beer than make a Dark and Stormy - that classic highball made with dark rum and ginger beer. We were lucky to find a local white rum from Iron Fish Distillery to work into our drink, and the results gave birth to our "Bright and Sunny" cocktail.

We love to drink local wherever we are, and this cocktail does it completely for our Northern Michigan location. We highly recommend these ingredients, but encourage you to work with what you have on hand to make a cocktail that gives you a sense of (your) place. We paired our drink with a Cocktail Artist painting of a Lake Michigan sunset - done right here in his Northern Michigan studio. Now we're sitting back and enjoying life at the lake.

Cheers!


Bright and Sunny

2 ounces White Rum (Iron Fish Distillery Michigan White Rum)
4 ounce Cherry Ginger Beer (Cherry Republic Ginger Bear)
squeeze of fresh lime

Pour ingredients into a highball glass or goblet, stir briefly and add ice cubes. Garnish with lime wedge.

Sunset on Lake Michigan - original watercolor by The Cocktail Artist

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