The Caribbean

These rich rums get their dark color from added caramel, not necessarily aging. Flavors are caramel and brown-sugar forward. Common examples are Meyers's and Coruba (Jamaican) or Gosling's Black Seal (Bermuda). A key ingredient in many classic tiki-era cocktails.

Produced by moderate aging (3-8 years) of molasses-based rums. Flavor profiles vary: some recipes call for a lighter Spanish-style rum (e.g., from Puerto Rico or Cuba), while others call for a richer rum from Barbados (Mount Gay, Doorly's) or Jamaica (Appleton Signature).

A sweet carbonated soft drink produced by the Coca-Cola company since the 19th century. Some may consider using Coke as cheap flavor-shortcut for fratboys (Rum and Coke) and others a vital ingredient in a classic cocktail (Cuba Libre).

The second most common juice used in cocktails. This citrus juice is about 6% acid; 4% from citric and 2% from malic, with small amounts of succinic acid (this is what gives it a little bloody taste). Lime juice should be used the day it is squeezed, some like it freshly squeezed and others like it a few hours old.

A syrup made from dissolving granulated sugar (sucrose) in water. Regular simple is made by combining 1:1 sugar:water by mass, rich simple is 2:1 sugar:water by mass although only 1.5 times as sweet as regular. We always use 1:1 syrup unless otherwise noted in the recipe itself.

A syrup with ginger root flavoring. Make it yourself: Combine 120mL fresh ginger juice, 100g superfine sugar (about 2:1.5 by mass). Or you can also boil some ginger slices in a simple syrup mixture. We always assume a 1:1 syrup unless otherwise noted in the recipe itself.

A major producer of the French liqueur pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur. A successor of Absinthe, it was produced under that moniker until it was banned in france in the early 1900s. Henri Pernod, then focused its efforts on the lower-alcohol, wormwoodless, anise-flavored Pernod.