Unfussy and elegant, the Corn 'n' Oil leans almost entirely on dark, molasses-rich rum, sweetened and spiced by Velvet Falernum while several dashes of aromatic bitters lend depth over a whisper of citrus. Stirred over crushed ice, it drinks cold, dark and slow — like a Dark 'n' Stormy without the ginger snap, the bitters doing the talking where the fizz would be.
Garnish: Lime Wedge
Stirred · Rocks · Crushed
build
Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice.
add
Add the dark rum, falernum, and Angostura aromatic bitters (plus the lime juice, if using the modern build).
stir
Stir briefly to combine and chill.
garnish
Garnish with a lime wedge.
No inventor is on record for this Barbadian folk drink, which turns up in print in 1911 as "Corning Oil" in a recipe collection compiled by Mrs. H. Graham Yearwood — rum and falernum with Angostura, shaken over ice in that early version. For most of the century that followed it remained a Bajan local habit, seldom written down. Its revival came in Seattle, where bartender Murray Stenson championed it at the Zig Zag Café, and his bitters-heavy build on blackstrap rum is the version most bars now pour.