RE: Ice
Just watch out how much it dilutes. Ice melts (duh), so the amount of water mixed with the liquor will change as you drink it. Of course, you may actually be going for this effect or end up preferring it but it’s something to watch out for in flavor and subtle notes and whatnot.
Moved from General Questions to Cafe Society, our forum for [del]lushes[/del] sophisticated drinkers.
samclem, moderator
My personal experience is that there’s very little difference between say Smirnoff and ultra-premium (priced) vodka, particularly when kept in the freezer. YMMV, obviously. If you’re doing a chilled shot it’s very hard to tell the difference. I’m not talking rot gut stuff, but IMO you’re wasting your money on the very expensive brands.
I would get some really good whiskey and drink it neat. Any other way you can’t really tell.
If you are trying to decide what whiskey you like, I agree with Great Antibob, don’t do ice. In any form of whiskey a little bit of water is a good idea. A straw full is a good amount. Makers is a fine, if slightly overpriced for the quality, bourbon. But whiskey’s are a big ol’ world and even the little corner of it that is Bourbon has a lot of variety to it.
Try a bit of Makers, try a bit of Jameson (Irish Whiskey, Bushmills is good too) and try a bit of Scotch (start with a blend, Johnny Walker is fine for your purposes. The idea is to find out if you like the style. Single malts are like the same idea but with more flavor).
Ok, you get through that and you know if you like Whiskey.
Interested in tequila? Here quality is more important. If you are drinking it straight look for something that is called Anejo (with a ~ over the N, but I don’t know how to do that here). Try Don Julio or Herradura. Good but won’t break the bank. Bad tequila is awful though, so maybe find yourself a tequila bar where you can get a good margarita if you decide you don’t like tequila straight. Oh, and no water in tequila unless you are mixing it, which is totally legit and grown up. Many a fine cocktail is made with tequila (see the rocks margarita aka the finest mixed drink known to man)
Now how about gin? Gin is good and under appreciated, but there are more varieties of gin than there are of whiskey, and no two really taste the same. That said…a little bit of Beefeater will let you know if you want to continue your potential interest. If you like the bit of bitter and floral notes it has going on, go forth and explore. I like Plymouth, Hendricks, and Bombay. Some people like Tanqueray, it’s not for me. Try it yourself and find out. Almost all well stocked bars will have most of those (Plymouth might be a touch harder to find). Gin should be drunk very cold, over ice, with or without tonic, and with some form of citrus fruit. Gimlets and Martini’s are fantastic too. Good bars will make them well.
That should keep you set for the spring and summer. Post your results in the fall and we can set you up with some Rum drinks and more adventurous cocktails.
I don’t get Vodka personally. The goal is to have a drink that doesn’t taste like anything. That said, Tito’s does that job better than Grey Goose and at half the price. So, just get yourself some Tito’s and either drink it straight with a lime (very cold) or put it in some juice or something. Me, I would rather drink Gin. But find out for yourself. Note that this is the only time I am recommending one and only one brand. Trust me on this one. My wife is a vodka drinker and I have taste tested many of them, Tito’s is the way to go both for smoothness and price.
This has actually brought to mind a question that I’ve occasionally wondered: I’m over 30 and have never drunk any form of alcohol whatsoever. I have no idea what I’d like or how it would affect me. If (and I’m not saying I will) I were to decide to take up drinking, what would I be best off doing and (perhaps more importantly) not doing?
I would say one of the most important things to do in your case is go slooooooooooow. Like one drink in a night.
Scotch whiskeys have quite a range of flavors. I don’t think the blend suggestion is a bad idea. I would go to a bar and try the following, all neat: Johnnie Walker Black (or Gold or Green; IMHO, skip the red), Glenlivet 12, and Laphroaig or Ardbeg. Those are all affordable whiskies and give you a decent range of flavor of scotches. The Glenlivet and Laphroaig/Ardbeg are single malts and will give you quite different impressions of scotch. Glenlivet is a middle-of-the-road single malt, a bit on the sweet side, not peaty, the kind of scotch a bourbon drinker might like. Laphroaig/Ardbeg is quite different: very peaty, earthy, almost mediciney. That’s what people talk about when they talk about “peat” in the whiskey. Most scotch whiskeys are going to fall between these two, but that will give you a good idea of the goalposts.
ETA: Oh, and The Macallan. Try that one, too. That’s on the sweet, non-peaty side of single malt scotches, but a crowd pleaser. That’s probably a better example of a scotch a bourbon drinker might love.
Are you looking to decide if you would like having alcohol in your system or if there is a type of alcohol you would like?
If the former I suggest something like a vodka and cranberry juice at a bar with a friend. If the latter, do you want to try beer or wine? The taste of alcohol itself is something that might take you some time to adjust to but my previous post would still apply.
Don’t drink alone. Don’t drive if you have had even one. I will second the suggestion to go slow.
This is a brilliant post. If you want to really take a night and explore scotch, this is a great way to do it.
If you really want to round it out, I might also add Jura 10 (on the sweeter, light side) and Laguvulin 16 (on the smokier, peaty side) to the tasting list. Those will be more hit-and-miss to find, though. If a bar has single malt scotches, Glenlivet will almost always be there, and Laphroiag will usually be there, too, if there are more than two single malts (Glenlivet and Glenfiddich being the two most common, IME.)
I would add a bit to that advice. I’m not a bourbon drinker, so I can’t speak specifically about bourbon, but I do like Scotch.
Really inexpensive Scotches can be quite nasty, and might turn you off Scotch forever. You’re better off trying a name brand, but not a premium brand. So something like a bottle of Johnny Walker Red, or Dewar’s (rather than Johnny Walker Black, or single malts). You can get these brands in pint bottles (maybe even half-pints) if you just want to try them.
Gin and tonic is a wonderful summer drink. In my experience, the tonic is more important than the gin. I remember drinking some high-end gin (I forget the brand) with some horrible store-brand tonic, and the drink was a disaster. On the other hand, plain old Gordon’s gin, with decent (Schweppes) tonic is just fine.
And if you don’t care for gin (a lot people don’t), a vodka tonic is a pretty good drink, if a bit more boring.
I was going to say Scotch, with a Glenlivet or Macallan on one side an Laphroiag or Islay on the other, but you’d be better off to just print out what pulykamell wrote above and hand it to the bartender along with your credit card.
The first time I had an idea I had a consistent taste was when I went to a tasting and kept notes of which Scotches I liked and which I liked less and found that all my favourites were from a small stretch of the river Spey.
Whatever you do, do not drink body shots of mezcal with mexican hooker in a Progreso dive bar. You will regret it immensely. And the hangover will suck too.