Any place that makes them, I’ll order a mojito. A Cuban drink made with light rum, lime juice, sugar, fresh mint leaves, and soda water. Delicious, refreshing, and you’ll never know what hit ya! (In a pinch I’ll second the caipirinha, which is related to the mojito, but sans mint and, as mentioned, using cachaca).
For places without mint, I always go for an Alabama Slammer: Sloe Gin, Creme de Almond (aka Creme de Noyeux), Southern Comfort, and organge juice. I swear by it.
And as a bartender, there are some drinks listed on this thread I’ve never even heard of before. Perhaps they’re regional, but in my experience lotsa people who order drinks with stupid names have no idea what’s in them. I’ll make something wacky for ya if you tell me what’s in it, but will get ticked if you’re wasting my time with something you don’t even know the contents of. So try to make it at least moderately mainstream if you want to make it your drink, meaning you can order it hassle-free at any bar you visit.
I’d go for the ever-classic Manhattan (the drink, not the Mod, though both are quite classy). Two parts bourbon, one of sweet vermouth and two dashes of bitters. Go easy on the sweet vermouth if you want it tougher (I prefer just a dash), and you can substitute brandy for bourbon if, like as it is for me, it is a family tradition. Order it with olives instead of a cherry, too. Just say, “Manhattan, easy on the sweet vermouth, with an olive.” As manly as the borough that it took its name from, yet not quite as daunting as straight whiskey, and any bartender in any bar can make a halfway decent one. You want to go bad-ass, get a Rob Roy made with scotch and a smidge of dry vermouth and bitters, but it’s not exactly a standard drink since you’ll have to explain the recipe to nearly every bartender.
The Mojito and Capirinha are delicious for rum-drinkers, but good luck getting a decent one at your average bar. If you want a standard drink, it’s best not to rely on something that requires nonstandard liquours or “fresh” anything. The Cuba Libre is a wonderful variation on the rum and coke, with 1.5 oz rum, .5 oz. gin, and half a lime topped off with Coke. But all of these will be regularly butchered by most bartenders, so I wouldn’t pick them for a standard. Save them for a classy hotel bar, where the bartender displays his juicer and Cointreau prominently.
Just one note, beware the Captain! We have a saying amongst my friends and I. “Arrr! The Captain done shanghaied me!” I drank a liter bottle of Captain Morgan one weekend about two months ago. Holy crap was I fucked up! I woke up at 10:30 in the morning on my bathroom floor.
If you can regularly drink glasses (not shots) of Liquid Cocaine (Goldschlager, Jaegermeister, and SoCo I believe, but maybe Black Velvet? clarification would be appreciated if necessary) then you sir are a bigger man than I.
I take a shot and it hurts like hell. Good stuff though. Pleasant aftertaste. And if that’s not a “man’s drink,” I don’t know what is.
In a 12oz. ice-filled tumbler, load two parts Applejack, one part bourbon, fill with lemon sour. YUMMY!
And then there is the legal Rohypnol, the Washington Apple…in an 8oz. glass, pour two parts vodka, one part Sour Apple Pucker, fill with cranberry juice. This goes down smoother than water. Though, be prepared for vomiting, as nobody can drink just one.
Something I haven’t seen anyone post on yet: Vodka and… Musk.
I’m not sure what they would be called outside Australia, but Down Here we have small bright pink candies (Life Savers) flavoured with musk (called, oddly enough, ‘Musk’). For an interesting shooter, dump about 8 packets of this type of candy (they come in small rolls - like mints) into a bottle of vodka.
They take several hours to dissolve, but when they’re all gone you’ll have a bright pink, sweetly-flavoured bottle of vodka. Normally, I cannot stomach undiluted shooters of vodka… but musk-vodka - mmm-mmm!
Alternative: substitute the musk for peppermints, or anything else sweet and soluble. I’ve heard good thing about Mars Bar-vodka…
I’ve heard of this drink… but only as a prank to pull on first-year students at uni. I heard (I avoid anything with Baileys like the creamy-plague it is), when one does the ‘swish, swish’, the lime juice curdles the milky Baileys. Result: uni pub full of vomiting freshers :p.
This may not be exactly what you’ve asked for, but I’m guessing you’ll enjoy impressing the girls with your saviore faire at the next mixer with this:
In a new, big, rubber trash can—
fill halfway with everclear or some cheap-ass vodka;
add water to about 4/5 of the way to the top;
add several packs of the sugarless, unsweetened kool-aid mix.
Stir until everything is nice and purple. Just before the girls arrive, top off the container with a few boxes of Captain Crunch cereal. Provide big dippers, big paper cups, loud music, and barely enough light. Have fun.
Don’t try this at home–your parents will hate the vomit stains on the carpet.
When you tire of this, go to bloody marys or margaritas before 5pm; and in the evening, drink vodka tonics, or scotch on the rocks, or, if you like something sweet, a white Russian (vodka, amaretto, milk on ice).
Or, don’t worry about what “your drink” is. Just take a dozen years or so and try different things. You’ll wind up gravitating to a few that you really like best, independent of what anyone else thinks.
