[Eee Pee]

Totally a beer person, but I love Jim Beam or Woodford Reserve straight up.  Then after a few, throw an icecube in there.
 
Also Tanqueray and Sprite, instead of tonic.
 
Cheap vodkas and everything from Tang to V8.  And Kettel One martinis.

 

[mark2410]

Hendricks Gin & Tonics

 

[CEE TEE]

Mixed?

• Manhattan (at Original Joe's- as a well drink.  Or, with one of my ryes/bourbons + I have about 9 different vermouths.)
• Blood and Sand (with a very peaty Islay Malt such as made at Nopa SF by Nea)
• Gin and Tonic (Tanq Ten)
• Beautiful (Cognac/Grand Marnier, in a snifter + heated)
• Killer Mai Tai

 
Blood and Sand:
 
3/4 oz Scotch whisky
3/4 oz rosso vermouth
1/4 oz cherry brandy
1 1/2 oz orange juice


Shake over ice cubes, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve.


[size=small][size=small]Something to try:[/size][/size]
 
There’s nothing girly about this frozen daiquiri. Hemingway used to down these at the famed Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba. Legend has it that he once put away 16 of them in one sitting, each served in a glass the size of a vase. So the next time you’re sitting pool side thinking of mixing up a frozen cocktail, make it a Papa Doble. And in a nod to the man himself, serve them in vases.
 
Hemingway Daiquiri (Papa Doble)

1-1/2 oz 10 Cane or Bacardi Rum(easy to get).  Rhum Barbancourt, white rhum agricole, Banks 5, or USE Havana Club if you can get it.
¼ oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
½ oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
(1/2 oz Bar Syrup if you find the recipe too tart for your tastes)

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker. Fill 1/3 full of ice. Shake for 15 – 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

As a side note, Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur is sometimes difficult to find locally, but can easily be found on the internet. Accept no substitutions as this is a one of a kind liqueur in a one of a kind bottle.
 
 
Oh, for summer-  Campari and Lillet over muddled orange and ice with Angosturra bitters.
 
(I really should be working right now and posting this is making me very thirsty.)

 

[Uncle Erik]

Beer definitely.  Wine on occasions - good NZ Savignon Blanc, or Pinot Noir - love the French Bordeaux - have had the chance to try some really good ones in my travels
 
As far as spirits go - am normally a bourbon and coke drinker - but got the chance to visit Catalina a few years ago.  Introduced to frozen margaritas by one of our clients.  Had the best day - sitting in the sun - listening to a live jazz band, and proceeding to get horribly burnt, and very 'merry'.
 
Next day was painful - head, and sunburn - but totally worth it.  Whenever I go back to the States now, I always end up having at least one margarita.  Great memories!

I didn't know that frozen margaritas were uncommon - they're always available on the west coast here and I always have a few in Mexico. There's a nice plaza in the local border town that usually has live music and large $3 margaritas and $1 tacos. It's an easy place to pass an afternoon.

I've also spent more than a few days drinking over on Catalina. Being from LA, I usually go over a few days each year. Something about the place leads to having a few too many. I especially like that you never have to drive anywhere.

 

[Spareribs]

I drink just about anything that's good. My favorite mixed drink is the martini hands down. It must be a good gin. However, I have discovered a good high end cucumber flavored vodka and there's other good vodkas out there too but over all, a gin martini is the best cocktail. Sometimes a mixture of quality vodka and gin is great too.
 
In the cold months, I like straight single malt Scotch or Irish whiskey the best. No ice please. Just traditionally served straight from the bottle. In my opinion, good whiskey should be sipped in a small glass. A shot glass to me is sacrilege.
 
I also love the French calvados straight up-which is kind of like tastes like cognac. 
 
Other mixed cocktails like the traditional old fashioned, Rob Roy and some of the new 21st century cocktails are fine too. 
 
I can't not mention good beer and wine. Even good champagne is nice but my experience knowledge of wine and champagne is limited even though I love the stuff. For beers, I tend to think Germany and Belgium makes the best stuff. In America, the west coast seems to have the best micro brews for my taste buds.
 
My turn offs are the cheap sweet cocktails that taste like spiked artificial kids drinks. They are terrible.
 
Lastly, when it comes to drink, I usually like to have food involved, even a snack like a bar pickle.

 

[WNBC]

Greyhound or Hoegaarden are my go to drinks nowadays.  Throw in some cold, dry sake while you're at it.

 

[cifani090]

Water is the best, its smooth, yet very complex.

 

[Brooko]

Quote:

I didn't know that frozen margaritas were uncommon - they're always available on the west coast here and I always have a few in Mexico. There's a nice plaza in the local border town that usually has live music and large $3 margaritas and $1 tacos. It's an easy place to pass an afternoon.

I've also spent more than a few days drinking over on Catalina. Being from LA, I usually go over a few days each year. Something about the place leads to having a few too many.

I especially like that you never have to drive anywhere.

I'd never tried one back then (just counted back - it was longer than I thought - about 15 years ago).  For a simple kiwi boy on one of his first global trips it was a new (and very good) experience 

.  Have since been around the globe I guess about a dozen or so times - definitely expanded my horizons!
 
I know what you mean about the island though.  I've only been once, but would go back in a heartbeat.  Boat trip back was a trifle 'rocky' though - but then again, my recollections were a little hazy.  After we got back, I remember getting to a bar close to the waterfront (the taphouse or something like that?).  All I remember was that it had a huge bar with the most beers (different types/flavours) on tap I've ever seen.  Oh - and some great waitresses !
 
I envy you with proximity to Mexico.  My wife and I both love authentic Mexican food.  Coupled with the margaritas ..... and some live music ..... yep - I could definitely do that.

 

[AmanGeorge]

I can almost always find something to enjoy. I love beer, particularly stouts (Duck Rabbit Milk Stout is one of my favorites) and some IPAs (many are too bitter for my tastes, but Dogfish Head makes some fantastic ones... the 120 minute IPA is hands down my favorite beer on the planet).
 

(This stuff is the nectar of the gods...)
 
I enjoy red wine more than white (my favorites tend to be slightly sweeter and fruitier reds, such as California reds, particularly Zinfandel; I also really enjoy Australian Shiraz and South African Pinotage, ), but there are whites that I like a lot too (Viognier, many Italian whites):
 

(One of my favorite wines - Gundlach Bundschu Zinfandel)
 
I love a good cocktail, particularly gin-based. My current cocktail of choice is a Negroni (equal parts dry gin, sweet vermouth, and campari, stirred with ice and strained into a martini glass, can be garnished with a lemon twist... it's bitter but incredibly crisp and delicious):
 

(A tasty-looking Negroni)
 
I also enjoy the various gin-cucumber cocktails that you see sprouting up at many cocktail bars (usually using Hendricks, which is wonderful stuff). If any gin lovers have never sampled Hendricks or Old Tom's gin, I recommend getting your hands on them at some point... they're very different, but just incredibly wonderful and offer an opportunity to taste what great gin can do. The tastiest cocktail I've ever had was a Spicy Tomato Basil ("house gin infused with a cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, pepper corn, habanero bitters, fennel-himalayan salt rim") at Apotheke bar in New York (but I'm not sure this place is still around). I also enjoy bourbon a lot, and will never turn down an Old Fashioned.

 

[Ultrainferno]

I do love my occasional Rusty Nail (scotch & drambuie over ice)
 

 
 

 

[CEE TEE]

Since this thread is not just mixed drinks...my vote for the single, most perfect libation ever created:
 

 
Chartreuse V.E.P.
 
 
From Wikipedia:
 
VEP stands for Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé, meaning "exceptionally prolonged aging" in English. It is made using the same processes and the same secret formula as the traditional liqueur, and by extra long aging in oak casks it reaches an exceptional quality.
 
 
According to tradition, a marshal of artillery to French king Henry IV, François Hannibal d'Estrées, presented the Carthusian monks at Vauvert, near Paris, with an alchemical manuscript that contained a recipe for an "elixir of long life" in 1605. The recipe eventually reached the religious order's headquarters at the Grande Chartreuse monastery, in Voiron, near Grenoble. It has since then been used to produce the "Elixir Végétal de la Grande Chartreuse". The formula is said to call for 130 herbs, flowers, and secret ingredients combined in a wine alcohol base. The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The recipe was further enhanced in 1737 by Brother Gérome Maubec.

The beverage soon became popular, and in 1764 the monks adapted the elixir recipe to make what is now called Green Chartreuse. In 1793, the monks were expelled from France, and manufacture of the liqueur ceased. Several years later they were allowed to return. In 1838, they developed Yellow Chartreuse, a sweeter, 40% alcohol (80 proof) liqueur, colored with saffron.

The monks were again expelled from the monastery following a French law in 1903, and their real property, including the distillery, was confiscated by the government. The monks took their secret recipe to their refuge in Tarragona, Spain, and began producing their liqueurs with the same label, but with an additional label which said Liqueur fabriquée à Tarragone par les Pères Chartreux ("liquor manufactured in Tarragona by the Carthusian Fathers").

At the same time, a corporation in Voiron that obtained the Chartreuse assets produced a liqueur without benefit of the monks' recipe which they sold as Chartreuse, but all attempts to reproduce real Chartreuse failed. Sales were very poor, and by 1927 the production company faced bankruptcy, and its shares became nearly worthless. A group of local businessmen in Voiron bought all the shares at a low price and sent them as a gift to the monks in Tarragona.

After regaining possession of the distillery, the Carthusian brothers returned to the monastery with the tacit approval of the French government and began to produce Chartreuse once again. Despite the eviction law, when a mudslide destroyed the distillery in 1935, the French government assigned Army engineers to relocate and rebuild it at a location near Voiron where the monks had previously set up a distribution point. After World War II, the government lifted the expulsion order, making the Carthusian brothers once again legal French residents.

Today, the liqueurs are produced in Voiron using the herbal mixture prepared by two monks at Grande Chartreuse. Other related alcoholic beverages are manufactured in the same distillery (e.g.Génépi). The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the two monks who prepare the herbal mixture. Chartreuse is also used as an addition to other drinks.

 

[Ultrainferno]

I remember drinking a couple of 55% Green Chartreuse a few years back in France after skiing. Tastes so so but man it sets you on fire

 

[CEE TEE]

^So that explains your HEad-Fi name! 
 
The V.E.P. version is just the oiliest, most fragrant and flavorful drink.  There is so much going on in it that it is basically a food.  Hope you get to try the aged version sometime. 
 
But yes, it is quite strong <with not just the effects of the alcohol> so it's more of a sipper... 

 

[CEE TEE]

^So that explains your Head-Fi name! 
 
The V.E.P. version is just the oiliest, most fragrant and flavorful drink.  There is so much going on in it that it is basically a food.  Hope you get to try the aged version sometime. 
 
But yes, it is quite strong <with not just the effects of the alcohol> so it's more of a sipper... 

 

[strannik]

Same, amazing drink.
 
Quote:

A White Russian!