have we ever had a thread about cocktails?

[grasswire]

I went to the latest hot restaurant in town the other day, which features street food a la Thailand. Little grilled skewers and bits and sauces for dunking and so on. Someone who was with me ordered a tamarind whiskey sour. I tasted it. I can't get it out of my mind.

And I'm not even a drinker!

Do you like cocktails? If so, what?

[Mind_your_head]

1. Bombay Sapphire & Tonic w/lime at the end of long day is sublime.

[Lorax]

31. On a hot day

I forgot, this is another of my favorites. But only on a very hot day. Or with Indian food. I love, love, love a good gin and tonic with Indian food.

[hippywife]

2. Back in the day

I was once a rusty nail gal and I did a short stint with Long Island ice teas when they were all the rage. (The tequila sunrises in my youth were a mere stepping stone, a gateway if you will before moving on to straight tequila shots. But that was way back in the beginning.)

Then I moved on to just scotch on the rocks and loved to experiment with different wines and a little Frangelico with cream on the rocks or in coffee after dinner. Really never went for all the mixed stuff.

Don't drink at all now but I still miss going to the wine shops and picking up a bottle or two of previously unknown vintage and giving them a whirl.

[grasswire]

4. what's in a rusty nail?

and oh lordy -- I had forgotten about tequila sunrises. Ha!

It was when I started frequenting a piano bar and needed a drink to just nurse that I picked my drink of choice: Tanqueray & Schweppe's tonic weith extra lime. Gotta be Schweppe's.

Now I might have one drink and just a few sips of wine per year. I don't know if that's a good thing, or bad. Red wine is supposed to be a benefit to one's health.

And here's a toast to your return, HW!

[hippywife]

5. It's scotch on the rocks

with Kahlua. I stopped the Kahlua when I figured out it was the sugars that keep the alcohol in your system longer and worsen the hangover.

Here's to you, too, doll.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

22. Blasphemy

Blimey. Scotch (as in whisky, at least, if not plain old whiskey) should only glimpse other spirits from across the room. You don't adulterate it with mixers, water (?!), or even ice. You just pour, inhale, and sip with gusto.



Kahlua, OTOH, is made for mixing. I made about a gallon from a kickarse recipe I got online because we always have to have White Russians (soymilk, please) when we watch Big Lebowski.

Just in case anyone wonders, recipe here:

• 6 cups sugar
• 6 cups water
• 20 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 gallon vodka
• 12 tsp pure vanilla
Mix sugar, water, coffee together and bring to slow boil. Turn heat down and simmer 1 hour. Remove heat, cover liquid with plastic wrap. Let sit for 12 hours, then remove wrap (it will pick up film from the top). Add vodka and vanilla, stir well. Bottle in dark bottles.
Notes:, Yield 3 quarts. Drinkable immediately.

You can get pretty colored bottles and this makes great gifties--if you can stand to part with any. I found that this is much stronger than the regular Kahlua--and depending on your vodka and actual measurements, stronger than the Especial.

[The empressof all]

6. I use to love the Tequila Sunrises when I was a "kid"

I drank them and Harvey Wallbangers....I remember loving those too.

Now I wouldn't choose a sweet drink and prefer my hard liquor neat or on the rocks with a twist. I had some lovely varieties of Polish vodka this past week. I do enjoy some of the flavored vodkas. Mostly I gravitate to the Scotches now.

I do enjoy a good bottle of wine; especially reds with beef. It's hard to truly savor Indian or Thai food without a beer.

I do enjoy alcohol in limited quantities and mostly with food. That being said...I rarely drink it now...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. A Rusty Nail

is NOT made with Kahlua. Scotch and Kahlua? Oh, lord, just the thought of it would send the world off its axis.

A Rusty Nail is made with scotch and Drambuie and a twist of lemon peel.

This is one of those cocktails that all booze, a real hard-core drink. Rough stuff..................

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I'm not much of a drinker.

When I do have a mixed drink, its pretty basic. Gin and Tonic, Bloody Mary. That's it, actually; just those two. Except when we go to a bar with the kids. They have a whole repertoire that I don't even recognize. Or when I am in Europe and drink on the continent with Brits. Brits are crazy people, you know.

I just enjoy my wine. And not a lot of that, really. A glass a day with supper, so a bottle lasts a pretty good while.

Or beer. I like dark, heavy stouts, porters, and ales. My current favorite is Old Rasputin. This picture is very typical of the head it forms and the color. This stuff requires a knife and fork. It can keep a spoon standing upright in its glass.

[japple]

12. Yeah, give me a Guinness any day. I love porters and stouts

as well, and had an Old Rasputin last fall when I was in San Francisco. It was lovely.

I haven't had a "cocktail" in a long time, but I used to love bourbon and water, or bourbon on the rocks. During the hottest days of summer, my husband and I used to make up a batch of frozen dacquiries, usually peach (my favorite), sometimes banana, then drink them quick until your eyeballs freeze. Oy!

[eleny]

17. Oh my god, Old Rasputin - he'll knock me on my ass

I think I still have one bottle of it in the spare fridge. It might not be safe to open. :rofl:

But it's tasty stuff. When I was younger I liked bock beer.

[Lorax]

30. How have I never tried that?

That looks excellent. Exactly my kind of beer. I wonder how I have never tried that? I'll have to rectify that situation right away.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Wine goes a long way around here,

although when sitting around talking with friends, we can go through several bottles before dinner very easily - and nicely.

I enjoy a good cold beer now and then, and, of course, my favorite is the home-town Yuengling lager, but in the warm weather, I mix it with lemonade, to come up with a shandy. Half and half is my preferred ratio, although others may prefer it differently. There's no hard rule - some shady recipes call for ginger ale, but that's never appealed to me.

When I lived in South America, I grew fond of a drink called (Spanish pronunciation, please) "gin con gin. Half gin, half ginger ale. On the rocks. It was good for not-so-great gin, because the ginger ale concealed the harshness of the cheap gin. That's the time-honored way of getting rid of cheap booze - mix it with something.

Today, in fact, would be a great day for a shandy, but the corn-on-the-cob is the compelling item in mouths right now ..............

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MxyHrfRxaJ4/R_QoBtxO_ZI/AAAAAAAAAgs/DHpiEBNmYuo/s400/Leinenkugel%27s+Candied+Ginger+Shandy+Drink_Low.jpg

[grasswire]

9. no ice in a shandy, apparently? (eom)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. No, just as

you wouldn't put ice in beer.

Icy cold beer, icy cold lemonade, and you've got a summer drink that's out of this world.

A friend came over with these new products (new to us, anyway) today, and not only are they pretty, but they're mighty tasty, as well:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. Sometimes I like cocktails.

Mostly wine, but if it's really cold I like scotch & water. In the summer I like Tanguaray & tonic with two limes. I also like those lemon drops that became the rage a few years ago. My most favorite cocktail is a Perfect Manhattan, but I only drink them for the maraschino cherries.

[Lugnut]

21. Ah, Manhattans

I don't drink them often but when I do I like them with VO. I'm mostly a beer drinker - Rolling Rock - but I enjoy a glass of wine now and then.

[cbayer]

13. I like mojitos and make them whenever I get fresh mint.

Totally refreshing sundown drink.

:hi:

[grasswire]

14. what's your recipe?

I have a gorgeous bunch of fresh peppermint from the farmer's market. Of course I have no booze in the house except a bit of gin in the freezer. I do have limes, tho.

[cbayer]

15. I make a simple syrup, then crush the mint into a pulpy mash in it.

Then strain into some rum, lime juice and top with soda water. Add a few fresh mint leaves and there you have it.

I have never made it with peppermint, but it's a fun drink to play with. The amounts of alcohol, simple syrup, lim juice and soda water can all be adjusted until you get the taste you like.

:hi:

[grasswire]

16. what kind of mint do you use if not peppermint?

?

[cbayer]

18. Well, that's a very good question. Maybe it is peppermint.

I don't know. I just buy a bunch of what they label mint.

:shrug:

[grasswire]

19. it's prolly peppermint then

:-)

[Lorax]

20. Bourbon.

Bourbon, neat. A cube or two of ice if it's a bourbon I don't particularly like. Jack on the rocks if I'm in the mood for something lighter.

Everything else makes me really ill.

[yy4me]

23. Years ago, when I was dating my husband, we went to a bar

and restaurant in Boston called ---?--traders or Traders ----?-----. Can't even remember the name of the restaurant but it was Polynesian.

They served a drink called Falkland Islander. I think they are long gone now but I sure would love to know what was in that drink. I think one of the main ingredients was Drambuie. It was so good and very sweet. Maybe no-one will know, it was 45 years ago now and I have never forgotten how good it was.

[Arkansas Granny]

24. Looky here! Could this be it?

Falkland Island Warmer

1/4 oz fresh lemon juice (6 dashes, 1/16 gills)
1/4 tsp sugar (1 dash)
1 oz Drambuie (3 cl, 1/4 gills)
Fill with hot water
Serve in a rocks glass

http://www.cocktaildb.com/recipe_detail?id=764

[yy4me]

25. Amen, I know that is it. I remember the lemony flavor. I never

thought I'd be able to find out what it was. Bookmarking...heck no, printing!!!

Thank you

[grasswire]

26. trader vic's

it was a chain. There are vintage books of their cocktail recipes and food recipes available.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

27. I have Trader Vic's cookbook from 1946.

Here's the recipe which is pretty much the same that AG gave you.

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 oz Drambuie
Hot water

Mix lemon juice % sugar in an Old-Fashioned glass; add Drambuie & hot water & stir.

[Paladin]

28. Gin Martini

Bombay Sapphire gin, not dry, straight up, very slightly dirty, with a couple of big blue cheese-stuffed olives. Absolute heaven.....

[elleng]

29. Summer Drinks Issue

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/dining/index.html

[Lorax]

32. Pimm's Cup

How could I have forgotten a Pimm's Cup? Perfect summertime drink.



There are lots of recipes around involving muddled oranges, lemons, cucumber, even strawberry. I don't mess with all that fru-fru. I go for just 1 part Pimm's, 2 parts lemonade, topped with a bit of club soda or 7up. Even better if I have some lemon fizzy soda to use instead of the lemonade and soda. Must be garnished with a slice or spear of cucumber as this brings out the herbal flavor of the Pimm's.

At only 50 proof, it's perfect for when you want something to drink but don't want to be blotto after the first one.