I have never tried Grey Goose vodka.
I did see a print ad for some vodka, forgive me, but I can’t remember the brand, that bragged about being the second best after Grey Goose though.
Vodka tonic.
Vodka cranberry. Girlie? Maybe. I wouldn’t drink it, but I don’t necessarily think it’s girlie.
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a few more…
Scotch + club soda = Scotch & Soda aka
Whiskey + ginger ale = Highball
Gin + Vermouth = Martini
Gin + Grapefruit + salt on rim = Salty Dog (I’ve never had it with vodka)
Gin + Grapefruit = Greyhound (May also be made with vodka, but IMHO, gin mixes particularly well with bitter mixers like tonic and grapefruit juice.)
Whiskey + Sour Mix = Whiskey Sour
Vodka + Sour Mix = Vodka Sour
Gin + Sour Mix = Gin Sour
Vodka + Kahlua = Black Russian
Jack Daniels + Coke = Jack & Coke
Seagram’s 7 +7-Up = 7 & &
Oooh, no. Thanks for the rec, Hunter. I’m going to have to try Buddha’s hand and kaffir lime. They sound spectacular. I do loves me some good vodka.
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Reeder**, do try it. My vodka journey started with Stoli, then Absolut, then I discovered Grey Goose. Next will be Hangar One. I like the flavored vodkas for mixed drinks, but you also gotta have a good ole plain one, too. Oh, and I’ve never heard of a brand comparing itself as only second-best to another brand. Weird.
Eva Luna, doesn’t a Mangotini sound good?
I have issues with the whole concept of Finnish mango vodka; those three words were not meant to go together.
It was a nice idea, though.
Rum mixes beautifully with all kinds of juices. Its very nature is sorta tropical, and if you’ve got a coconut rum like Malibu, so much the better.
Gin and any kind of citrus juice = yuck. The aromatic agent in gin (juniper) is completely incompatible with sweet flavors, IMHO. Think brushing your teeth and drinking a big ol’ glass of orange juice. Bleeeah.
If anyone’s tending bar and you get an old fella who orders “bourbon and branch,” that’s just bourbon and water.
Now, I’m not saying that I think a vodka cranberry is “girlie” but, after being told this particular (temporary) casino bar wouldn’t make a Long Island tea, it’s the very first thing the bartender recommended to me, a girl.
Just sayin’.
And apparently, the effects of those girlie drinks have yet to wear off. Woo, coding fuck ups!
Oh, btw, vodka + kahlua = coffee martini, according to this post by QuickSilver.
They aren’t great, IMO.
I dunno. I do think it goes well with grapefruit (which isn’t too sweet anyway.) Personally, I don’t drink it except with tonic. Not much of a gin guy myself. It doesn’t give me pleasure like a good bourbon, rye, or cognac do.
I’m not much of a vodka drinker anymore (I guess I just don’t understand its appeal. At least gin has a flavor) but one oft-neglected vodka which is good is Tanqueray Sterling Vodka. It’s easily one of the cleanest, smoothest vodkas out there, and my personal favorite straight vodka. (It also seems to be the vodka of choice of the Southwest Side Chicago Polish community.)
There are two more flavored vodkas I need to share. These are the only vodkas I drink with any degree of regularity. First, there’s Zubrowka, a Polish vodka flavored with bison grass. Each bottle contains a tall blade of this grass, supposedly known for its aphrodisiac qualities. Anyhow, it’s a wonderful vodka with an herbal flavor.
The second is Smirnov Pepper Vodka (Pertsovaya). The Ukrainians are also pretty well known for their similar pepper & honey vodkas. This vodka has a light whiskey color to it and a relatively smooth taste with a sharp hot pepper finish.
Here’s a fun little trick: Drink the bottle of Grey Goose yourself, then the next time you have/go to a party, fill the bottle with some random $20 vodka. All your friends will exclaim “how smooth it is!” and exclaim that “you really get what you’re paying for!”
Yeah, once you get out of Gordon’s and Winner’s cup territory, most vodkas are a scam. By law they can’t contain anything but alcohol and water. Some have better filtering processes than others, but none of them are worth much more than the pretty bottles. Vodka is 99.99% marketing, but if you want to pay sixty bucks a bottle, go right ahead.
I know plenty of guys that drink vodka with cranberry juice. I’d hesitate ordering it in a den of old men smoking cigars, but in a mixed group it should be fine.
A Lemon drop is vodka, lemon juice and suger syrup. Definitely girly.
A *Tom Collings is a good summer afternoon drink. It’s gin, sour mix and soda.
If you pay attention, there is a bit of a code in drink naming. “Hairy” means to add half a shot of vodka. “Wall” or “Wallbanger” impies Galliano, used in harvey wallbangers. “Screw” or “Sex” involves orange juice.
Wow, I totally failed to code that. Sorry.
Not that I’m a professional drinker or anything, but:
I learned to drink vodka with Absolut. I then went to Russia for 2 and a half weeks and drank my weight in vodka (mainly Stoli, Moskovkaya, and very nice Siberian brands). I am decidedly unimpressed by Belvedere and Grey Goose when it compares to Stoli. I can tell a difference if I drink them neat, but the way to do that is with the vodka chilled and bartenders don’t usually keep it that way. Perhaps Stoli is a sentimental favorite for me, but I think because it has been around forever and a day, people underrate it.
The thing about any spirit, IMHO, is as soon as you start adding mixers, or even water or ice, most people won’t be able to tell Absolut/Stoli from Grey Goose and Belvedere. I think once you go to Smirnoff, which is an excellent mixing vodka, you can start to tell if you are drinking it on the rocks, but not with mixers.
I think the same is true of gin. I can’t tell Beefeater from Bombay Sapphire once you add the tonic and a twist. I would venture the same is true about premium versus standard rums, bourbons, tequilas, whiskeys, and other spirits. Note that this doesn’t mean to use McCormick’s or Popov in your screwdrivers, but that the standard (not cheap) liquors are just as good once you add anything else. It is why serious whiskey drinkers will tell you to at most add only a splash of water to your single malt in order to appreciate it fully. Putting it on the rocks destroys the subtle flavors and you may as well be drinking a blend by that point.
Now to the OP – I think there are several ingredients that you all are forgetting that are only stocked because they are key ingredients of popular mixed drinks. There are probably 20 or 30 of these that most bars cover. Bloody Marys (tomato juice & tabasco or mix), margaritas (triple sec and lime juice), Manhattans (bitters and all other kinds of garbage), martinis (vermouth), amaretto sours (sour mix and amaretto), gimlets (lime cordial), grenadine cocktails, contain non-standard ingredients.
Singapore Sling. 'Nuff said! 
'Course, a Sling has another alchohol to mix tastes with, so maybe that helps. But it’s the only gin drink that I like now (I used to be really big into gin… huge Bombay Saphire fan… but my tastes have worn off).
As for “girlie drinks”, I just say that if it gets me drunk, who cares? My typical trifecta of orderin’s (this I deem the proper amount to have in a light night of hanging at the bar) includes a White Russian, a Singapore Sling, followed by a Strawberry Daiquiri. Great stuff.
Not so much with tequila… it’s realy easy to tell a $15 bottle of Jose Cuerva from a $50 bottle of Patron… but tequila is kind of the odd one out among liquor, anyway.
Translation: “I don’t have a refined palate.” 
Seriously, though, at any one time I’ll have somewhere around half a dozen different kinds of gin, rum, tequila, etc. in my home bar because they all have different flavor profiles that I like. Sure, if I’m going to have a mixer with an overwhelming flavor I’ll use a cheaper spirit, but not all drinks kill the taste of the main ingredient that way–and while I won’t drink gin straight, I will drink other spirits straight, and you can definitely tell the difference then.
**Aesiron ** wins for ‘least girly’ drink! Jagermeister and tequila–what do you call that one, Grievous Bodily Harm? 
Which leads me to a most pressing question…
How do YOU make a Long Island Iced Tea?!
I’ve seen more than a couple of varieties online, and I’m perpetually confused - I’d hate to commit a social faux pas when I’m next entertaining (let’s overlook the fact that I’m entertaining myself), so…is there a definitive ingredient list?
Are there favoured brands of the liquors involved?
A Long Island Iced Tea consists of one half ounce of the following liquors: vodka, gin, triple sec, clear rum and clear tequila. Top these off with coke, stir and garnish with a lemon wedge. Enjoy your basic LIIT.
This is exactly it. Five whites: vodka, gin, triple sec, rum, tequila. I’ve always been taught to put in one part sour mix (or lemon juice and sugar syrup as well) and just a splash of coke. Serve over lots of ice. The acid is particularly important for cutting through the sharp alcoholic taste of the drink. Without it, I think Long Islands are too aggressive.
I would agree with you. Straight alcohol is different, of course. You can tell a Knob Creek from a Jim Beam, but once you start mixing, most of this distinction is destroyed. (Not that I would ever in my life mix an upmarket whiskey with anything.)
Never claimed that I do – I have little sense of smell and this severely limits me in progressing as a gourmand. Although it is great in my hobby of traveling to each wastewater and sewage treatment facility in the US.
Again, I’m not talking about a) cheap liquor and b) liquor straight or with little mix. Your standard bar G&T (1/3 gin if you are lucky, in a highball glass topped with tonic and ice with a healthy squeeze of lime) is what I’m talking about. Yes there is a reason to avoid cheap tequila in a margarita, but I don’t think there is a reason to use Patron in a margarita. The difference is minimal, IMHO. I’m not talking shots of Don Julio versus tequila that comes in a plastic bottle with a sombrero on the lid. This especially applies to vodka – so many people get the vodka & Sprite or the vodka tonic or the screwdriver with Grey Goose. IMHO it is foolish, when Smirnoff will do equally well. But I think the same is true for mixed drinks with most other liquors.