I am far from being an expert on cocktails as I mostly drink highballs and beer (though not at the same time…although I do admit to drinking shandies in my teenage years when I hadn’t yet got used to the taste of beer! :o). On a whim I decided to make a random cocktail out of stuff I happened to have on hand, namely whisky (Scotch in this particular case but I have Canadian as well), triple sec (Cointreau in this case) and ginger ale. I was just wondering if there is a name for such a thing?
My googling has resulted in various names for drinks that involve two of these ingredients and/or something else so I suppose my drink could be considered a modified Sidecar, modified Presbyterian or just modified Scotch & Dry. But I haven’t been able to find anything with all three in the ingredients. Just wondering if there is a semi-official name for such a combination? Or perhaps I am just a weirdo and no one would dream of combining such liquids except me…
The right principle to keep in mind is, changing out any ingredient (liquor, mixer, or garnish) in a cocktail makes a different drink. It might be a variation on a more established one, and the name can reflect that (or be totally different), but that’s still a different drink.
A corollary to that is, indeed, if nobody has named your drink, you can make one up and put it out there.
How about a Whisky Margarita. As disgusting as that sounds. Keep in mind, some people use beer in their margaritas. If you’re subbing whisky for tequila, why not use ginger ale instead of beer.
ETA, come to think of it, I think you may have something a little closer to a Rusty Nail spritzer.
Perhaps I should not be surprised this came from thelurkinghorror…