A friend wants to take me out for drinks tomorrow for my birthday. She knows that I don’t like to drink and that when I do drink, I tend to go for the sweetest drink on the menu. In a playful way, she has let me know I should order more mature and sophisticated drinks now that I’m 40.
What would be a respectable “non-girly” drink that I still might enjoy? Also, is it stupid for me to sucumb to this kind of pressure? I should just drink what I want to drink, right? Yet I know I will feel weird if I order something that isn’t cool enough. (I feel ridiculous even admitting this.)
(Also, order whatever you want - it’s your birthday. Get what you like. They can get you non-girly drinks, for whatever that’s worth, on a different occasion.)
You say, “Fuck you! I drink what I want!” Repeat as necessary.
One of the benefits of being old is that you don’t have to succumb to peer pressure. Drink a diet coke if you want. Or milk. If your friends don’t like it, get new friends. They’re just insecure. If you’re not “cool”, then they aren’t “cool”. But by doing what you want, you now define cool. So they should follow your lead!
It’s your birthday, drink what you want. May I suggest an Amaretto sour? It seems up your alley, though it won’t get you off the hook for “girly” drinks. It sounds sophisticated though.
Maybe a sweet(ish) white wine like Reisling or Moscato? Is Drake cool? Apparentlyhe included Moscato in one of his songs. I think rose wines are kind of trendy now. Some of those are sweet. You can act like a sophisticated wine drinker and still satify your sweet tooth.
Another option is maybe a Seven and Seven. Order it light, and you’ll hopefully get a Seven Up with a little whiskey in it.
As far as whether you should cave to peer pressure, I dunno. Sounds like your friend is just kind of ribbing you and this is an opportunity to expand your horizons. Use it as an excuse to get yourself to try something new.
It’s human nature to want to fit in, though I think your friend is being rather rude. That said, a few drinks that I find restaurants and bars tend to make sweet are the French 95 which is a cocktail made with champagne or prosecco, Tom Collins which is made with gin, Mojitos which are rum and if you get it with Southern Comfort or brandy, Old Fashioneds.
How about an Old Fashioned? On the one hand, it’s sugar and fruit; but on the other, it’s enough bourbon that Frank Sinatra would’ve knocked back a couple.
Amen. I (not very)secretly think people who claim to enjoy drinking peaty scotchs like Laphroaig are a wee bit insane. But as long as they don’t get on my case for ordering a piña colada, I don’t bother them for drinking their tire-fire-ditch-water-and-denatured-alcohol-tasting drink of choice :p.
If they’re buying, feel free to try something they picked out for you and then regretfully decline after you decide it tastes like kerosene. Then good-naturedly order what you want with your money and ignore their sniffs of disdain thereafter. It is your birthday after all.
