Northern Ontario Sunshine

- jim Young

(originally published July 21, 2020, revised July 9, 2024)

When most people think of Northern Ontario, they often think of cold and snow. But we get lots of hot days here in the summer too. When it gets really hot, I turn to something cold and refreshing such as this drink I came up with that I like to call Northern Ontario Sunshine.

I make it up ahead of time so no matter when the sun's out, once the work is done all I have to do is put the last few ingredients together and sit back and relax.

This is also a great way to make it when you have a few hot and thirsty friends over.

Calculating the conversions and costs of this became a real nightmare. It’s no wonder most of the world went metric and for the life of me I can’t understand why the United States, Liberia and Myanmar are the only 3 countries in the world to hold out on switching over.

It’s bad enough to make the conversions from ounces to ml and gallons to litres, but there are differences in even ounces and gallons depending on whether you are using the Imperial measure or U.S. measure.

And even then, although Canada is officially metric, not everyone uses the metric system in everything they do. I purchase my dog food by the kilogram but I weigh myself in pounds. I look to the Celsius thermometer to see how hot it is outside but I set the temperature on my oven to Farenheit. I can tell you that I’m about 5’ 8” tall, but I’d have to check my driver’s license if you want to know what that is in cm.

Although it’s rare to hear someone refer to purchasing their liquor in 26ers or 40 pounders anymore, mixed drinks are still measured in shots with 1 shot being 1 ½ ounces. At least I do. I don’t know for sure what unit of measure the bars use these days. I can only assume the 1 ½ ounces used for drinks is Imperial as my shot glass shows it was approved by the L.L.B.O. (Liquor License Board of Ontario.)

In the interest of consistency, while using Imperial measurements for this recipe I have also included the metric values for those post baby-boomers that might be more comfortable with metric.

And this is where the real confusion came. Technically a U.S. ounce is 29.5735 ml while an Imperial ounce is 28.4131 ml. That may not seem like a lot, but the confusion doesn’t stop there. A cup is 8 oz whether it’s U.S. or Imperial, correct? I just discovered that is not the case. While a U.S. cup is 8 U.S. ounces an Imperial cup apparently is 10 Imperial ounces.

Doing the math then, an Imperial cup should be 280.4131 ml. One online conversion calculator tells me an Imperial cup is 284.131 ml while another reports it as 250 ml. The numbers just don’t add up. A difference of 34 ml is quite significant when you consider that’s more than 1 full requirement of each of the rums in the individual recipe for this drink. 

So to end the confusion for the purpose of my recipe here, I have determined that 1 oz = 30 ml and 1 cup = 8 ounces. Afterall, like all of my recipes, you are welcome to make your own adjustments to appease your individual tastes anyway. Find a standard of measurement or even a combination of standards that works best for you and enjoy.

Northern Ontario Sunshine (Make It In Bulk)

Time Required: 5 min.

Yield: 7 cups / 1.68 litres

Servings: 8 drinks

Serving Size: 7 Cdn oz / 210 ml

Cost per serving: $2.70

Stuff Required:

• 1 cup / ~240 ml Coconut Rum

• 1 cup / ~240 ml Pineapple Rum

• 2 cups / ~480 ml Orange Juice

• 3 cups / ~720 ml Club Soda

• Crushed Ice

Do this:

1. Mix Coconut Rum, Pineapple rum and Orange Juice in one large container and refrigerate until needed.

2. Fill a Highball or Collins glass with crushed ice.

3. Half-fill the glass with Rum/OJ mix. (4 oz / 240 ml)

4. Top up with Club Soda. (~3 oz / 90 ml)

5. Serve with a straw.

Just want to make one? That’s okay too. Here’s the recipe to make your Northern Ontario Sunshine one at a time.

Northern Ontario Sunshine (Make It Individually)

Time Required: 5 min. (It takes about the same time to make one as it does in the bulk recipe above.)

Servings: 1 drink

Serving Size: 7 Cdn oz / 210 ml

Cost per serving: $2.70

Stuff Required:

• 1 oz / 30 ml Coconut Rum

• 1 oz / 30 ml Pineapple Rum

• 2 oz / 50 ml Orange Juice

• ~ 3 oz / ~90 ml Club Soda

• Crushed Ice

Do this:

1. Pour first three ingredients over crushed ice in a Highball or Collins Glass.

2. Top up with Club Soda. 

3. Serve with a straw.

Costs per Serving

SPECIAL NOTE: Please join my boycott of the Bacardi Company to protest their terrorist acts of aggression against Cuba and their continued attempts to infringe on the copyright of the “Havana Club” brand which has been awarded to CubaExport by the US Patent and Trademark Office.