My favourites:
[ul][li]gin & tonic[/li][li]rye & ginger ale[/li][li]whiskey sour[/li][*]squashed strawberry alleycat[/ul]
Uh, “on the rocks” does not compute with “straight up.”
I ordered a mojito at a fancy bar last year and it seemed to take the guy for-ever to make it. Isn’t that a pain in the ass too?
It’s a delicious drink, tho.
For a proper mojito you need to muddle the mint leaves. This is an extra step that not many drinks require.
Mojitos are tasty but a bit too sweet for me. Once a year, maybe.
Um, that is most definitely not a Cape Cod; a Cape Cod is vodka and cranberry with a lime garnish; you described a Seabreeze.
Mint julep does. It’s basically pure bourbon with some mint, sugar and a bit of water.
Mr Excellent: Scotch and milk is the time-honored drink of the ladies of the evening. Think ‘Drambuie’, but not as good.
Oh, I just remembered a drink I got very ill on: a Brave Bull, which is tequila and Tia Maria.
People can tell you drinks they like, but these will be a small subset of the posibilities. You really need to try a whole lot of them yourself, properly made by someone who knows what they’re doing, to find what you like. There are literally hundreds of classic cocktail variations invented between 1870 and 1940.
I’m either too young or too poor to have ever frequented a restaurant where table staff knew anything about cocktails. I have seen seriously good bartenders at work, though they’re not exactly common either.
A knowing hand behind the bar should not only know singular classics like the Manhattan, but should not be slowed by any of the following terms: cobbler, collins, cooler, daisy, fancy, fix, fizz, flip, mist, rickey, sling, smash, sour, swizzle. Each of these is a standard but versatile recipe or technique that can be applied to many liquors (i.e., vodka collins, gin fizz, whiskey flip).
Also, real bartenders use fresh-made, quality mixers and garnishes, never commercial prepared mixes or other shortcuts. Muddling is a standard bar technique and there’s nothing wrong with ordering a single drink at the bar that needs muddling. Blender drinks, on the other hand, are something for parties where big batches can be prepared for groups of people.
We made a big batch of something called a Porch Swingthe other day.
Perfect for a hot summer afternoon.
Back when I was working as a home nurse, I had a female patient who was 88, and very disabled by many strokes. Her hubby was 89, in very good health, except for an ulcer. Every afternoon, around 4PM, he would pour himself a tall glass with four fingers of Scotch, filling the rest with milk. He claimed the Scotch made him “feel better”, and the milk kept it from bothering his ulcer!
Winston Churchill made his Martinis by first pouring the gin, then glancing briefly at a bottle of vermouth.
Oops. It’s been 10 years…and I’d already started pickling my brain in scotch for the night when I made that post… 
I’d always made my martini’s with a splash of vermouth swirled inside the glass until it completely coated the inside with any remainder poured out before pouring in the chilled gin or vodka, unless they were specified “extra extra dry” in which case I would glance meaningfully at the vermouth while pouring the gin or vodka into the glass.
I like to use vermouth-soaked olives (or better yet, mushrooms, when I can find them) in my martinis. This adds just the right amount of vermouth flavor, and eliminates a step in the preparation.
The OP is a woman, so AskMen’s list of manly drinks might not be appropriate.
But here’s their list:
*Manhattan (Dry version)
*Sidecar
*Martini
*Scotch & Soda
*Rusty Nail
*Old-Fashioned
*Trinity Cocktail
*Typhoon
*Bloody Bull
*Beer Buster
They also listed ten drinks a man should never order:
*a drink with a name you can’t pronounce
*Malibu and Diet Coke
*Fuzzy Navel
*a non-martini “tini”
*“What she’s having.”
*whatever you want
*Sex on the Beach
*any alco-pop
*Appletini
*Cosmopolitan
I kind of like the various flavored vodka martinis.
I suggest replacing all gin based drinks with their equivalent vodka based drink. Gin tastes very strongly of pine needles. Unless you are into that.
Campari and freshly squeezed orange juice.
And we all know what kind of a drunken slut he was!
I find that gins vary greatly in flavor from brand to brand. To the OP, if you want to explore the world of Gin, may I suggest trying Plymouth, Hendrick’s or (if neither are available) Bombay Sapphire? All three are very good. Beefeaters is surprisingly good too, but has a sort of kick you in the teeth aggressiveness to it that might take some getting used to.
So, what’s wrong with just drinking what you like? If you happen to like the same drink that a “21 year old bar whore” (:rolleyes:) likes, who gives a shit?