One Drink, Five Ways: Rum and ginger beer

Botanica | Dark 'n' Stormy

As downtown Manhattan condo-izes and Whole Food-icates, this underground tavern remains dependably divey and affordably intoxicating—a twenty will transform you into a blubbering, blissfully content wreck. Along with lowbrow intoxicants, Botanica keeps scrawled on a mirror a trim list of classy cocktails, including a superlative Dark 'n' Stormy. With rock and hip-hop cranked to nine, a bartender effortlessly blends Rose's lime juice, a stiff shot of Gosling's dark rum and Regatta ginger beer. The frothy head is decorated with a dainty lime wedge. ($7)

Verdict: 3 stars. Sweetness takes a back seat to spicy effervescence, which dangerously—and delightfully—masks the rum's alcoholic depth charge. Toward the bottom, the drink grows gritty and saccharine.

Botanica Bar (47 E Houston St., 212-343-7251)