Quarterdeck

Fino or manzanilla for the bright, saline version. Manzanilla is the sharper of the two and the one that makes the drink feel coastal. Amontillado takes it somewhere richer and nuttier, closer to a nightcap, and is the better call with a heavier rum.

It's deliberate. Sherry brings its own acidity along with the salt and the nuttiness, so a full 22 ml squeeze would stack sour on sour and bury both. At 8 ml the lime works as seasoning, lifting the sherry rather than competing with it. Push it to 15 and you have a thin Daiquiri with sherry in it.

Aged, if you want the drink to make sense. White rum gives the sherry nothing to answer with, and the glass comes out tasting of sherry and alcohol. Three to five years is enough. Go much darker than that and molasses turns up where the salt should be.

Yes. Build it over ice in a highball, top with 60 ml of soda, and you have a sherry-inflected rum rickey for a hot afternoon. Push the lime up to 15 ml if you do, because soda thins the acidity along with everything else.

A classic Quarterdeck calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Aged rum, 22 ml (0.75 oz) Dry sherry, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Fresh lime juice. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Quarterdeck is roughly 31% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.

A Quarterdeck is shaken — the rule of thumb is to shake anything with citrus juice. About 13 seconds with plenty of ice chills and dilutes it correctly.