Ever wonder why every bottle of water you pick up has to say it has no calories, no fat, no sodium, no carbohydrates, no protein, etc. and yet alcohol, beer and wine — which clearly would not fill in those categories with all zeros — don’t have to tell you what you’re consuming?

According to the National Consumers League, which has petitioned the government to add such information to alcoholic beverages, a jurisdictional gap between the Food and Drug Administration and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has lead to inconsistent labeling. Wine and hard liquor have to list alcohol content, but beer does not; “light” beer and low-alcohol wines have to list calories, but regular beer and wine, as well as hard liquor, do not.

So let’s look at the nutritional facts. Bacardi regularly plays ads promoting that Bacardi and diet cola has no sugar or carbohydrates.

A little digging on the Internet returned impressive information about Bacardi’s nutritional impact. Bacardi Superior, their standard “white” rum, has only 65 calories per fluid ounce and no fat, cholesterol, carbs, sugar or protein; Bacardi Select, their standard dark rum, has 68 calories per fluid ounce, one gram of sugar and one gram carbohydrate with no fat, cholesterol or protein. Both are 40 percent alcohol by volume. Their flavored rums, like Bacardi Vanilla and Bacardi Razz, have similar nutritional information, though often a bit more sugar. It’s actually a wonder they don’t voluntarily include the nutrition information with facts like that.

On the other hand, two other popular brands, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Mount Gay Rum have similar nutritional information. Captain Morgan has 75 ounces with .4 grams carb per 1.25 fluid ounces, and Mount Gay has 32 calories per fluid ounces. Neither has any fat, sugar, cholesterol, etc.

Utilize this information as you’d like, but here’s my suggestion for a rum drink.

Hurricane

1 oz. light rum

1 oz. dark rum

½ oz. passion fruit juice

½ oz. lime juice

Mix rums and juices; pour over ice. Ideally, this should be made in a lantern-shaped glass.

Want to suggest a drink? The Sun's Mixology Editor can be reached at mixology@cornellsun.com. Please Drink Responsibly appears Fridays.