Name: Grog
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Navy rum (ideally 54.5% alc./vol.); 15 ml Lime juice; 15 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 45 ml Chilled water; 2 dash Aromatic bitters

Grog
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Photographed in a Libbey DOF 14.25oz

Ingredients:
2 oz	Navy rum (ideally 54.5% alc./vol.)
¹⁄₂ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₂ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Chilled water
2 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Double old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of lime wedge.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass.
Garnish with lime wedge.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

31st July 2025 is Black Tot Day

Review:

Strong, flavoursome navy rum with a splash of scurvy-inhibiting lime. Properly mixed at the right dilution, this is a great drink. However, too many and you'll be groggy in the morning.

Previously, I had chosen to use Muscovado or Demerara sugar syrup in this cocktail, but on reflection and retrial, I now find that the assertive flavours of dark sugar overly dominate the nuances of the Navy rum. Hence, I now favour bog-standard cane sugar syrup or even cane juice sugar syrup.

As per Chris Lamb's comment below, you may want to scale your daily tot back a tad to a mere 18.5 grams of alcohol, in which case, to fill a standard 12oz old-fashioned or rocks glass, shake:
40ml (1⅓oz) Navy Rum
10ml (⅓oz) Lime juice
10ml (⅓oz) Sugar syrup (2:1)
30ml (1oz) Chilled water
1 dashes Aromatic bitters

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Variant:

Grogs were probably originally sweetened with honey, and you may want to try a Honey Rum Grog with honey in place of the sugar syrup. I've tried both and prefer sugar to honey in this cocktail, although I'm partial to a blend of both sweeteners in my Grog. Also also try the Tiki classic, Navy Grog

History:

For over 300 years, the British Navy issued a daily 'tot' of rum, sometimes with double issues before battle. In 1740, as an attempt to combat drunkenness, Admiral Vernon gave orders that the standard daily issue of half a pint of neat, high-proof rum be replaced with two servings of a quarter of a pint, diluted 4:1 with water. The Admiral was nicknamed 'Old Grogram' due to the waterproof grogram cloak he wore, so the mixture he introduced became known as 'grog'. Lime juice was often added to the grog in an attempt to prevent scurvy, lending British sailors their 'limey' nickname.

The 'tot' tradition, which was started by the British Navy in Jamaica in 1665, was finally broken on 31st July 1970, a day known as Black Tot Day, although by then, the 'tot' had been reduced to a meagre two ounces.

I hate to let the truth ruin a good story, but historians now say that grog emanates from an earlier period than Old Grogram.

Nutrition:

One serving of Grog contains 232 calories

Alcohol content:

1.7 standard drinks
17.88% alc./vol. (17.88° proof)
24.2 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 15 comments for Grog.
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Benjamin Kay

30th March at 15:25

Made it with Mount Gay XO, I can't believe how good this is. I can't wait to try it with a navy rum. Highly reccomend!

John Hinojos

22nd June 2024 at 01:53

Substituted guava puree/syrup for the sugar syrup. With the strong rum flavour it was not obvious, but there was a hint of guava at the end of the sip.

John CARR

24th May 2024 at 13:15

Rich, tangy, and deeply flavoursome. You definitely need to get the balance of ingredients and dilution right. Good limes are a must, as I quickly found out! My first experiments with Pussers rum are, as they say, most satisfactory 😊.

John CARR

24th May 2024 at 13:17

Also with thanks to Chris lamb for the slightly more abstemiously proportioned version!

Avery Garnett

22nd April 2024 at 19:06

Did it with 3:1 worthy park 109 (for the proof) and el dorado 8 (for a little demerara body) and a muscovado syrup. Like yeah, this is good but...it's just watered down, black-just-like-my-soul rum. I can appreciate simplicity, but I don't think this one holds up. It's not as raw? honest? as an old fashioned template is, but it's not as deep and interesting and layered as modern Tiki.

John Doe

25th February 2024 at 11:43

I unfortunately can't get any Navy Rum where I live, so what would you say is the closest substitute? A 2:1 mix of OP and aged rums is around Navy strength, but how would it compare in terms of taste?

Simon Difford

25th February 2024 at 16:42

For the aged rum, if you're able to get hold of some Demerara rum, that would give you some of the weight and body of a proper Navy rum.

John Hinojos

27th October 2023 at 02:07

Made with 1/2 Coruba Jamaican Rum and 1/2 overproof Smith and Cross Jamaican Rum. Added a float of 151 Demerara rum. Wonderful, but not for the faint of heart.

Chris Lamb

7th August 2023 at 08:34

Thanks for including my alternative recipe in the description. However, I think I either communicated it badly, or there was an error in its transcription. I think it should read:

40ml (1 1/3oz) Navy Rum
10ml (1/3oz) Lime juice
10ml (1/3oz) Sugar syrup (2:1)
30ml (1oz) Water
1 dash Aromatic bitters

As in, I promise simply making a smaller drink (in a regular rocks glass); and crucially one with a total of 18.5 grams of alcohol (down from close to 28!)

Simon Difford

9th August 2023 at 15:58

Many thanks, Chris. I've amended accordingly.

G. M. Genovese

26th June 2023 at 17:29

I've had versions of this many times. Haven't had navy-strength rum in house for awhile. But whoa I do have Hamilton Zombie Blend... Be careful if you use that. Spice and funk much accentuated... It went down too quick. (26 Jun 2023, 1:28p)

G. M. Genovese

20th March at 18:43

Finally getting around to trying Pusser's Gunpowder. Read the specs, watched the video, then made this with cane syrup - a fortunate choice. Demerara syrup might have made this too overwhelming. Excellent showcase for this brand.

Chris Dimal

4th May 2023 at 12:03

Tried it yet again, this time with a split base of sugar and honey. Not as good as sugar in my opinion. It's the Grog you give to really young palates (myself included), but not something a discerning bone-dry drinker would love. Great eitherway for me. Both are better than the brown sugar version though.

Chris Dimal

30th March 2023 at 08:14

Retried this drink. Turns out it is just the sugar syrup as to why it feels underwhelming. Now with the standard sugar syrup, the lime comes through so much more, the pungent burnt caramel of the rum is so much more prominent. Really nice now. Gotta try the split honey and sugar version next time.

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