Old Fashioned. It’s one with a huge variation in flavor from bar to bar, so it’s always interesting to see how they do it.
gin and tonic – safe, easy to make (doesn’t piss off the bartender), and isn’t sickly sweet
Bartender expects 25% tip on a grossly overpriced drink. They can make you whatever the fuck you want, and shouldn’t bitch.
This is mine
Beer. I'm boring.
And also I don't want to get wasted, so something long with low alcohol does it for me.
Same. I'll very occasionally do an Old Fashioned, Manhattan, or Mojito, but usually just an ale or lager
A gimlet, an old fashioned cocktail that a lot of bartenders have never even heard of before. Its a fun litmus test of the knowledge and skill of the bartender, and really tasty and refreshing if made right.
Its just gin and lime syrup, about a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio, shaken with with lots of ice and served neat.
Hail my gimlet brother! I've gotten back into these in a major way over the last couple of years for the exact same reasons.
That sounds delightful!
Isn't this more of a litmus test of whether or not they have lime cordial in stock?
Should be made with lime juice and simple syrup. Both ingredients every bar will have.
You can make it to order with just lime juice and sugar. Never had a complaint.
I think its pretty standard stock in a bar, I've never had someone not have it. There are other drinks with lime flavor too.
Water because I'm a raging alcoholic
Water because anything else is too damn expensive
That too, I can't believe some of my friends bar tabs. Who drops a couple hundred bucks a night in this economy? Many people, that's who.
I usually stick to beer, but I love a fruity wheat beer.
Soda water. Because getting drunk isn't on my agenda. But it fits the vibe and people think your having a vodka tonic or something
Pro tip- you can get soda water with lime for the same price in most bars. Still looks like a g&t but with that vitamin C.
My go to alcohol impersonater is a non alcoholic beer. Gonna have to try your method though. Cheers 🥂
Old Fashioned, Whisky Sour, Gin and Tonic.
Or beer. Then usually wheat beer if they have it.
But I so rarely drink that’s literally once a year maybe; my dad is an alcoholic so it’s difficult to look at alcohol as something harmless.
Kamikaze, because somehow I almost always get it made differently (usually completely wrong). It's comedic at this point watching a drink that simple turn out that weird. I've seen over a dozen variations, with the inclusion of muddled cherries being the weirdest.
I asked for a scotch "neat" and the waitress brought it to the table and said "I put ice in it, just in case"
If it's a brewpub or similar, I tend to go for darker beers. And since the "All Craft Beers Are IPAs Now Act Of 2018" was signed into law I have just stopped going to brewpubs entirely.
If you're going to open a bottle or can for me it's probably going to be cider, though I notice the ciders that bars tend to stock are trending in an acidic and heartburn inducing direction so I don't walk in there as often anymore.
I'll order a neat bourbon unless it's hot/I've been working hard then I'll order a whiskey and coke.
Diplomatico or Plantation rum neat. As to why, I just like it.
Diplomatico is so good!
I prefer Plantation XO myself, diplomatico is really nice, but it is my second choice.
I don’t drink much because I get red easily, so I don’t know a lot about drinks. What I do is ask the bartender to make me a fruity drink with half the alcohol (usually vodka), then nurse that drink as long as I can. It’s nice because I get a different kind of drink every time.
Nice bar: whatever menu cocktail or specialty product looks good.
Okay bar: Amaro/mezcal if they have it, gin/rum if they don't.
Not very good bar: beer or cider
Bad bar: bottle beer. No cans, mixers, or taps, and well pours only if truly desperate.
Sour cherry juice probably the most feequent. Though if there's food, I'll probably pick the food option.
As for why, well, I don't really go the bars for the drinks, but instead for the company, to talk with my friends and have fun. I buy a drink or food as "entrance fee" and I use the calories to keep me from starving. If there's any fancy non-alcoholic/non-caffeinated drink (or food) I may pick it as a change. I also dislike alcohol and its culture which society tries to push so hard to everyone (especially younger people), thus it's my way of acting agaist this. For me it doesnt taste well, it's literary cancerous poison that helps mask social anxiety without solving the issue, only extending it and there are companies making huge profits by harming so many people out there. It's sad. I want to be the one having fun, not alcohol. (Btw I'm not in favor of banning alcohol, this may only cause more issues. A proper approach would probably be to teach people for the issues and (possibly the hardest part) to have a better society without so many struggles which tend to push people to drink alcohol.)
(I recently found out that there is a "straight edge" community inside punk community and I seem to kinda align with them :) (I'm not talking about the hardline community, I think this may not even be considered punk).)
Lol, I don't know if you expected a text-wall when asking this, but well, there you are.😅
Thanks for replying! In my city of Long Beach, California there is a non-alcoholic "bar" that opened up. They have a whole menu of mocktails and it's really a cool concept for those that don't drink alcohol.
Oh that sounds fun!
Pint of cider
Happy cake day, fellow cider enjoyer!
Depends on mood, but one I have been getting quite a bit recently is Glenfiddich with apple juice.
Jungle Bird if they have Campari. I recently went to Miami and had the best one I’ve ever had. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and bitter, I highly recommend.
If no Campari then I’ll usually do an old fashioned or manhattan.
In summer White beer not too much alcohol, and pretty refreshing
Depends. At a meh bar with bar food, probably an IPA. Mexican place with Mexican food, probably margarita or tequila sunrise. At a cocktail bar, I'll pick a signature cocktail, probably one with a whiskey of some kind. If it looks like they know what they're doing but they focus on botanical type stuff (which I don't really like), then I'll usually go for something like an old fashioned or a Manhattan, and if it's not too busy I might request it with the bartender's choice of unique flair on it. Or I might order a carajillo if they have an interesting one on the menu and if I see an espresso machine.
Vodka sprite or whiskey diet
Good bar: Old fashioned or Wine
Medium bar: Whiskey Sour or Mohito depending on mood/weather/company
Cheap bar: Something sweet with rum or simply beer
Gin & Tonic. Feels like a drink. Bonus if I get a cocktail onion.
Manhattan, Old Fashion, or draft
Mojito. Because I like it and I am a creature of habit.
Either vodka with cranberry and lime or gin on the rocks usually. Both are delicious and I know it'll turn out good no matter what bar I find myself in lol
Draught Beer
probably a Pale/IPA of some sort
ideally a hazy with Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic and/or Amarillo hops
definitely something from Cloudwater, Sureshot, Verdant, Deya, Track or Lerwig if I happen to be somewhere with it on tap.
Though often for those breweries, I'd take a can over an alternative draught
Either the "girliest" drink they have, or (more likely) a soft drink. I'm intrigued by cocktails and want to like them, but I never acquired a taste for alcohol.
In 2003, The Onion had an “article” with no text that was just the headline “Taste Acquired” and a picture of empty beer cans.
If you want to get into cocktails, I can think of a couple ways in.
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White Russians. Pleasant sipping cocktail if a little heavy because of the cream.
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Crown and coke. Crown Royal is technically a whiskey. Many of its fans don't identify it as such, and neither do many whiskey fans. A shot of crown stirred into a glass of cola will present as a glass of cola with a little bit of an interesting flavor added. From there you can graduate to bourbon and coke, Jim Beam or Jack Daniels are common enough and pair well with cola. If you survive this long, maybe try this experiment: order a whiskey and cola, and then a rum and cola, find the differences in those flavors.
If you're up to those shenanigans, maybe try going to a bar on a Tuesday afternoon when it's a little slower, talk to the bartender tell them you're wanting to explore cocktails and see if they'll mix you smaller portions of a couple drinks like that, so you can test A and B. You would be amazed what that can do to open up your palette. If I handed you one glass of neat scotch, it might as well be a goblet of gasoline. If I hand you two glasses of different whiskies you'll find some flavor in there.
It might be weird, since I've never seen it recommended as a "beginner" thing, but the spirit I come closest to liking (aside from overtly sweet liquors like Kahlua and Midori) is actually gin.
As for a White Russian, I'm more inclined to just mix Kahlua and milk and skip the vodka entirely, LOL.
I do happen to have some spirits at home, including some Montego Bay light rum and some "Red Stag by Jim Beam honey tea bourbon." I had some of each with (store-brand) coke to refresh my memory, and yep, I can confirm that I don't care for either. The rum and coke was worse than the honey tea bourbon and coke, though: I was able to at least get through the latter, whereas I had to resort to diluting the rum and coke with extra coke.
Wanna really know how terrible I am at liking the kind of drinks people are "supposed to" like (as opposed to the ones folks are "supposed to" find way too cloyingly sweet)? I tried making a "triple sec and coke" and actually kinda like that one!
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The cocktail-averse I know all seem to like:
Margarita
Paloma
Pineapple, whiskey and lime
Mojito
You do not need to enjoy cocktails, there is plenty of other food and drink to build a palate, but if you want to learn to like the spirits and liqueurs in them, fizzy water is a way - I find whiskey & tequila in particular too strong to be able to taste and enjoy them, and most liqueurs way too sweet, but one shot in a glass of Topo Chico or other good fizzy water to dilute them? That lets me actually taste what people enjoy about them. Which then lets me think about what I might like them mixed with.
And I would like to plug !cocktails@lemmy.world we can make recommendations based on what you already like.
Yeah, I think fruity Tiki drinks and such are more my speed. I was also reading a thing the other day that mentioned a drink called a "lawn dart" that sounded interesting, although the Chartreuse in it is apparently difficult to get.
Bourbon sour, unless it's a good bar, then a margarita. If it's really not a good bar, like at a concert then vodka cranberry or whiskey pineapple.
But at like a restaurant bar, mid tier, a bourbon sour.
Four Roses or Maker's Mark old fashioned. Basil Hayden or Old Overholt Rye if they don't do cocktails.
Lemon drop martini! Love lemons, love sugar, tolerate vodka!
Something bitter and not too sweet, whatever they have. At home I make bourbon and soda with a splash of orange bitters or change it up with a different spirit.
I like bitter and don't really like sweet. Adding club soda makes the drink stretch farther and reduces dehydration. If I order drinks neat I drink them too fast, drink too many, and end up paying for it with my wallet and my headache.
A beer. I live in a movie.
Never had a beer that I liked. There are some I can tolerate, but none of them are actually enjoyable. So I usually go for cocktails, either a gin and tonic or a Moscow mule.
A locally brewed IPA and a Juttertje (Dutch herbal bitters, a bit like Jägermeister but much better)
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't know IPA was a beer and thought you were drinking isopropyl alcohol at first
Don't knock it till you've tried it.
Beer is for pussies. Nothing beats the after taste of pure blue spirits. /jk
IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale. It was brewed with and excessive amount of hops, so the beer would survive the long trip to India without getting a bad taste (so the taste would turn good after the long trip in different climates). It turned out, some idiots (like me) like the weird taste of the pre-travel beer to India. Bitter sweet. Weissen was invented because a monk forgot a keg outside the monastery during winter which partially frozen, but tasted surprisingly good. Champagne was invented because a farmer wanted to speed up the process and tried the wine during the fermenting process instead of waiting and discovered it had bubbles.
Quince cider if they have it, but typically they don't, and I end up buying it for myself at expensive prices, which one might argue is a good buffer. It has a natural tingy taste (for me anyways) and an non-static level of alcohol content, which is true of cider in general.
Long Island. They're made a variety of ways and can taste anywhere from just short of lemonade to dish soap.
A good pint of freshly spilled beer is better of anything you can find in bottle or (God forbid) cans. When you need something fast and strong two shots of tequilas. For the winter nights a good Baileys with some chocolate.
Weirdly craft beer judges prefer cans decanted into glasses than bottles. I personally prefer bottles over cans and draught above both. Speaking of tequila, my go to drink after beers is usually whiskey water (spelled that way as it's usually a bourbon), but thinking of making the move to tequila soda.
I think it's generally because glass bottles can let light hit the beer, and hops are photosensitive (light-struck beer will have a skunky aroma and taste). Brown bottles are the best at blocking light. Clear and green bottles are pretty bad. Cans obviously block all light.
I think most of the time, brown bottles are just fine, but the judges probably have a bit of bias here on their preferences.
Lagavulin 12y, double, neat.
Laphroig or Ardbeg will do in a pinch.
If they don't have any islay single malt whiskys, then usually cheap bourbon.
Just a lager idc
Bourbon and Coca-Cola Classic w/ice Sometimes a double.
Why: I want a cocktail that can get me drunk quickly. The coke is sweet and masks the disgusting alcohol flavour.
Try Dr. Pepper and bourbon. So good!
Beer, or if I don't want beer then I order a tequila tonic. It's easy for the bartender and it's like a light margarita.
My favorite drink is usually a crisp white wine like Pinot Grigio but I’ll order a Sazerac or Old Fashioned (or a specialty cocktail) at nice places. At a dive bar or music venue or whatever, I typically stick to gin and tonic or vodka soda, the main reasons being just that they’re simple for a busy bartender to make and also don’t make me as miserable the next day.
