GTP's Official Drink Thread!

[livemusic]

I thought 'surely someone's thought of this before, it's just a variant of a Screwdriver'. But if not, I think I'll name it.


M

Screw///M-Spec?

 

[V1P3R]

Oh wow... I thought this said GTP's official DONK Thread for a minute there. Unfortunately, I can only claim lack of sleep and not being drunk.

 

[///M-Spec]

Screw///M-Spec?

I'll serve it when she has a bunch of her MILF girlfriends over, then


M

 

[Slicks]

Yep, purple bag. It's a very nice and smooth sipping whiskey. Plus, it looks much classier sitting on a counter than a bottle of Jack.

I've got to say that I do prefer Crown to JD. Jack Daniels kind of 'bites', I've found, where as Crown Royal is smoother, and I like the flavour better.

Sacrilege aside, I'll fiddle around with it a bit more tonight if I'm home - I'll use up a bit more Crown Royal and see what I can come up with.

 

[exigeracer]

Anyone have any experience with Everclear (190-proof alcohol)?

Taking a shot of straight Everclear, although highly unrecommended, is quite the experience. You feel the burn all the way to your stomach right away, then tingling in your extremeties after that. It's quite something.

 

[V1P3R]

What's it like when it comes out of your ass?

 

[FoolKiller]

Anyone have any experience with Everclear (190-proof alcohol)?

Taking a shot of straight Everclear, although highly unrecommended, is quite the experience. You feel the burn all the way to your stomach right away, then tingling in your extremeties after that. It's quite something.

Everclear is just a brand name for pure grain. Why, oh why, would you take a shot of that? Would you drink kerosene? It is flammable because it is as pure as you can get.

Not to mention the dangers of ingesting that much alcohol all at once.


That said, mix it with some grape juice and you can drink on that all night long and you won't have a hangover the next morning.

 

[Slicks]

I've got a boot mickey of Everclear under my bed - I got it about a month ago when I was out-of-province (You can't buy it in BC) and haven't cracked it yet.

I will eventually, though.

 

[Keef]

Canadian Club a good mixer?

Erm, no. I can sip Crown straight, but this stuff is like medicine. I've got a cup with 1/10 CC and the rest Diet Coke sitting right here, and it's still awful. I haven't slept well all week and have been working a lot, so I decided I needed a good rest.

Or maybe it was that 3 day sickness a few months ago that's gotten be making bitter faces...

 

[Boundary Layer]

Canadian Club a good mixer?

Erm, no. I can sip Crown straight, but this stuff is like medicine. I've got a cup with 1/10 CC and the rest Diet Coke sitting right here, and it's still awful. I haven't slept well all week and have been working a lot, so I decided I needed a good rest.

Or maybe it was that 3 day sickness a few months ago that's gotten be making bitter faces...

I'd say the problem is the Diet Coke, and not the CC...

Although, as Canadian whiskeys go, I also prefer Seagrams/Crown Royal (incidentally, the distillery is an hour drive from here), or Wiser's.

 

[Diego440]

IN college we once made a drink out of anissette, Loganberry, condensed milk and ice, in the blender! Pink poison it was!

We called it Marine Sadness... don't ask why.

 

[Danny]

Anyone else like Grande Marnier?

 

[Touring Mars]

It's OK...Funnily enough, they don't have it in Wetherspoons... I think...

Had a couple of Johnnie Walker Black Labels last night. Nice, but I was feeling the pain this morning a bit

 

[Diego440]

Had a couple of Johnnie Walker Black Labels last night. Nice, but I was feeling the pain this morning a bit

Johnnie Walker Black doesn't give you hangovers... you got duped with some mixed up stuff.

 

[exigeracer]

Anyone else like Grande Marnier?

Most people have those horror storeis of certain liquors that they can't even stand the smell of because of some bad experience. When I was younger, I still didn't know my limits and absolutely blew them apart with Grand Marnier. The next time I had it I didn't mind it at all. No memories, no flashbacks, no fuss. Quite tasty, a bit sweet, but still tasty.

 

[V1P3R]

A long Island and about 3 or 4 jack and cokes and I got a really good buzz going to the point I didn't feel it would be safe to drive. Went to Denny's had some grease and felt like hurling after wards. I wake up the next day no problem.

 

[Thiele]

I drink a bit (like 1 sip from my parents bottle a month). I can't wait till i'm old enough to have some gin.

 

[///M-Spec]

Anyone else like Grande Marnier?

I made a variant of a Black Russian last night with Grand Marnier.

2 parts dry gin (Bombay)
2 parts Kahlua
.5 parts Grand Marnier
a splash of triple-sec (forgot what brand we had)

..shake in cocktail shaker with ice
..add some chocolate sprinkles from ice cream condiment shaker and serve cold

A little on the sweet side, but not bad!


M

 

[Diego440]

Wait a second... the original Black Russian is called like that because it has vodka in it, right? But this... creation of yours has gin instead of vodka...

Shouldn't it be called a Black Dutch instead? Or Black Brit, Ghetto Brit?

Sorry, no more boozing during lunch hours.


Sober note: Being that Grand Marnier is a triple-sec, and you added an additional triple-sec, do I want to add two brands of it, or more than one measure of one?

 

[///M-Spec]

Yeah, a Russian would have vodka in it. I didn't know what swapping gin for vodka would make it... never heard of a White Dutch before.

I think I'll call it a Black Zambian, because I feel Sub-Saharan Africans are under represented in the world of mixed drinks.

EDIT: whatever suits your taste. Grand Marnier isn't as sweet as your usual triple-sec (in my experience, anyway) so I used more of it. I supposed it's somewhat redundant, but I have this thing about using more than 3 ingredients in a drink.

EDIT2: So I looked up gin in wiki and it says the Dutch invented gin.. which would make the White Dutch name make perfect sense.


M

 

[TheCracker]

I drink a bit (like 1 sip from my parents bottle a month). I can't wait till i'm old enough to have some gin.

What ever you do - don't drink it straight - always with tonic.

 

[FoolKiller]

..shake in cocktail shaker with ice

You just inadvertently watered it down.

When you shake with ice it breaks and cracks the ice, causing it to melt faster, that is why there are special stirring devices for mixed drinks, to prevent breaking the ice, thus slowing the melting.


So, when James Bond orders his martinis shaken, not stirred he is ordering a watered down drink and being very snooty about it.



So, unless you are tossing your drinks back you are watering them down by shaking.

 

[///M-Spec]

You just inadvertently watered it down.

Meh. Not enough for me to really care. The ice is just an expediency. The drink is better cold and the alternative is to chill everything before hand. This was a spontaneous thing.


M

 

[FoolKiller]

Meh. Not enough for me to really care. The ice is just an expediency. The drink is better cold and the alternative is to chill everything before hand. This was a spontaneous thing.

You can add ice, but stir, or add after you shake.


My wife thinks I'm too picky when it comes to my drinks. Maybe she's right.

 

[Diego440]

I think I'll call it a Black Zambian, because I feel Sub-Saharan Africans are under represented in the world of mixed drinks.

I just laughed out loud in a silent office full of people working hard (or at least pretending to) while the boss walked in.

EDIT2: So I looked up gin in wiki and it says the Dutch invented gin.. which would make the White Dutch name make perfect sense.

So did I

 

[///M-Spec]

You can add ice, but stir, or add after you shake.

Fair enough.

But you should believe me when I tell you that no drinks mixed in my house are ever in danger of being too weak

And you call James Bond snooty... here you are stirring your drinks with a cocktail spoon because you're concerned about some water getting into it

I just laughed out loud in a silent office full of people working hard (or at least pretending to) while the boss walked in.

Quick, mix him a drink!


M

 

[FoolKiller]

And you call James Bond snooty... here you are stirring your drinks with a cocktail spoon because you're concerned about some water getting into it

At least I'm not specifically ordering it in a way that waters it down.

 

[///M-Spec]

At least I'm not specifically ordering it in a way that waters it down.

Alright.. you've peaked my curiosity enough to do a search on it. I've never heard that shaking is undesirable when mixing a martini. But then again, I'd hardly consider myself an expert.

Here's what I found: there are at least as many sites that instruct the user to shake a martini as there are sites that instruct the user to stir.

This site offers the most detail into the pros and cons of it.

From The Martini FAQ:

Preparation: First, secure your ingredients and tools. Ingredients include high quality London dry gin, high quality dry white vermouth, an ample supply of fresh ice made from good water, and a fresh lemon. High quality gin and vermouth are important because, unlike a long drink such as a Gin and Tonic or a Screwdriver, a Martini contains no additional elements to mask the flavor of the liquor. An inexpensive gin may make a perfectly decent Gin and Tonic, but is unlikely to succeed in a Martini. The quality of the ice is equally important. During mixing, the ice will partially melt, with the result that the final drink will be up to 1/4 water. This dilution is highly desirable: water is a hidden but essential ingredient in the Martini, serving to smooth and marry the flavors of the gin and vermouth.* If the ice is covered with frost, or has picked up flavors from other foods stored in the freezer, or is made from poor quality tap water, the quality of the Martini will be significantly impaired. If the tap water in your area is pure and flavorless, then the freshest ice from an automatic icemaker will suffice. Otherwise, use bottled still spring water in freshly frozen ice cube trays. The lemon will be used to prepare twists for garnish. It too should be fresh, preferably with a thick, stiff, glossy skin.

*=emphasis mine

And then...

shaking versus stirring is one of the great theological debates surrounding the rite of Martini preparation. The answer, too, is theological: "These are great mysteries."

Martini luminaries have weighed in on both sides of the debate throughout the drink's history. The two most famous pronouncements have literary sources. Author W. Somerset Maugham declared that "Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other." Ian Flemming, speaking through James Bond, required that a Martini be "Shaken, not stirred." Why not stirred? "It bruises the gin." (qtd. in Conrad 107; the second Bond quote appears to be apocryphal).

Maugham's description of sensuously lounging molecules is certainly a poetic attempt to describe a phenomenon arising from other physical causes, and while we should all defer to the inimitable Mr. Bond on matters such as high-tech spy gadgets, impromptu hand-to-hand combat, and retrograde seduction techniques, his reasoning on this matter is specious. To "bruise" a wine or spirit means to take some action that changes its taste. Agitating and therefore aerating a gin or vodka martini changes its taste: it makes it taste "sharper," it imparts a certain bite or zing. Given this, and given his dislike of a bruised spirit, Bond should insist that his drink be "Stirred, not shaken," since shaking "bruises" the gin more than stirring does.

Here are the facts:

* Shaking cools a drink more quickly.
* Shaking is more likely to chip small shards off the ice, some of which will make their way into the drink, no matter how carefully one strains and pours. Which may be part of the reason why...
* Although the gin spends less time with the ice when the drink is shaken, shaking a drink actually dilutes it more than stirring does.
* Very rarely, shaking can produce a chill haze (the precipitation of very small solid particles) from the vermouth, giving the drink a cloudy appearance.
* Shaking creates tiny bubbles in the mix, which temporarily impart a cloudy appearance to the drink.
* Shaking causes a certain class of molecules in the liquor (aldehydes) to combine with oxygen more than stirring does. The oxidation of these molecules also slightly alters the flavor, making it "sharper" (Miller and Brown 57, et al.).

So, shaken Martinis and stirred Martinis are different, but they are also equivalent, in that neither has a firm claim on being "better." Each Martini drinker will have to decide for him- or herself whether one method is "more equal" than the other.

*eHow's martini instructions states to shake ingredients over ice.
*..as does this site.

*But this site states that you should stir it.

*wikihow says you can do either.

So I think the bottom line is there is no 'right' answer and like most things in life, is a matter of taste.


M

 

[FoolKiller]

So I think the bottom line is there is no 'right' answer and like most things in life, is a matter of taste.

I prefer to think that I am normal and everyone else is wrong.

 

[exigeracer]

That's why you need the Nambe Twist Cocktail Shaker:

the shaker is made of thermal-retentive Nambé metal, it should be chilled before mixing up approximately one pint of your favorite concoction – the cold will transfer to the liquid, and your bartending prowess will go a very long way.

The metal keeps its temperature for a half hour after it's been chilled, so your drinks get served cold and fresh without ever coming in contact with ice. I'm still looking for it locally, I must have one of these. I don't buy impulsively online, so I have to hold it in person to waste that kind of money on a cocktail shaker.

As far as I'm concerned though, I don't mind if I dilute the drink a bit to get a decent taste and refreshing temperature. And like M said, there's no worries of my drinks being too weak anyways.