I’m generally a scotch drinker, but I also like brandy. But to me, while scotch tends to get better as the price goes up, the opposite is with brandy. Ya’ll can keep the expensive turpentine. My favorite brandy is Korbel, about 10 bucks a bottle, closely followed by a mexican brandy, Presidente, also about the same price. And for cognac, I stick with A. Hardy, about 13 bucks a bottle. To me those are all much better than the expensive brands, which has the added benefit of giving me more cash to spend on decent scotch!
Also, brandy, like scotch, is meant to be sipped. I love good scotch, but even the best stuff tastes like hell if you just throw a shot down your throat. But if you don’t like it, don’t drink it. Keep it in your stock for visitors and get some stuff you like. Don’t waste good booze by mixing it with juice or soda. If you have to mix it, you shouldn’t be drinking it
If you can’t manage to like it following some of the advice here, mix it with ginger ale, that’s a mighty good tasting drink. Supposedly one of Keith Moon’s favorites, so you know it has to be good!
I grew up in a culture where Brandy was the domestically produced liquor. Scotch was imported, and too expensive for everyday consumption. Vodka was a communist plot to poison the brain, and Gin was for sluts (read Charles Dickens for roots to this belief). Consequently, I love a good VSOP brandy. It is smooth, has a great, heady aroma, and warms you all the way down.
Polluting brandy with anything is a travesty - like calling Scotch whiskey!
That’s my point - americans often call Scotch “whiskey” which in some way associates it with the paint-stripper that they produce in their chemical factories.:smack:
It sort of tastes like a white russian, although I can’t personally down a gallon of white russians…but brandy alexanders… .
Also I’m not a big fan of Kalua (sp?). I forgot to add, to the brandy alexander, after it’s all mixed, put some cinniman on it (or is it nutmeg?)
Yep, that’s what I thought. If I’d had to pay for it I never would have tried it. Like I said, he was a friend so it was gratis.
It was such an incredibly high concentration of alcohol that it was unlike anything I’d ever been exposed to before. Had I “known” how to drink and enjoy it I probably would have appreciated it more. Instead it made my eyes red, my nose run and I was instant blotto.
Scylla wonders elsewhere if an alcohol enhanced pee can ever be flammable. The stuff I was served certainly gave you an opinion on the subject.
Here (in Wisconsin) there’s an odd tradition of serving drinks that would be made with scotch or whiskey anywhere else but here they’re made with brandy.
Without asking, mind you. Order an “Old-Fashioned” and you’ll get a Brandy Old-Fashioned.
Which is a great way to enjoy brandy (and a comfort food by now, as my dad has been making them for many decades). Or a “Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet” if you have a sweet tooth.
Depends on what your own preference is. I’ve seen eggnogs that use brandy, rum or whiskey. (No, not combined in the same batch!)
I know someone who makes homemade eggnog, complete with letting that mixture of raw egg, cream, sugar, booze etc. ferment in the basement for a month. She makes separate batches using rum and brandy. No one has died yet.
I’m one of those Wisconsinites that grew up sneaking sips from my mom’s brandy and sour. Or brandy and any sour soda like 50/50 or Squirt. Tasty way to use up the cheap stuff.
Brandy alexanders are definitely best with ice cream. Alcoholic milkshakes. Num num.
And brandy ball cookies. Just use the bourbon or rum ball recipes.
Eggnog and Tom and Jerrys are made with 1 shot rum and 1 shot brandy. Up here, we do not mess around when warming up on cold nights. One shot might not be enough.
And the other night at Chili’s I actually had a marguerita with a shot of Presidente in it. What a good idea! Another way to use brandy.
And for sipping, E & J VSOP is pretty good. Just paid extra for a bottle of Korbel and it seems harsh in comparison.
