Here is my boyfriend’s family’s recipe for margaritas, and you can’t taste the alcohol, and they’re SO yummy:
1 small can (6oz) frozen limeade (Use the empty can as your measuring cup for the rest of the recipe)
3/4 can of tequila
1/2 can triple sec
1/4 can mixed amaretto and water
ice
Put it in a blender and blend it, adding ice while blending until the top gets a little vortex in it.
White Zinfandel is my standard dinner wine (unless I’m having Italian or something else that really calls for a red wine) and so far my favorite brand is Barefoot.
Pedro Domenq’s **Presidente ** brandy. For the price, there is no finer. It kicks American brandy right off the liquor store shelf.
Tequila begins with Hornitos and ends with Cazadores Reposado. There’s a place for Patron, too --but Cazadores, oooh, it’s like velvet. Stay away from Jose Cuervo though – it’s swill, strictly for frat boys.
Don’t be afraid to try mezcal, either – don’t assume it’s just an inferior tequila, either. There’s some incredibly smooth drinkin’ liquor there if you look for it (mostly from fairly obscure, smalltime Oaxacan distillers).
My brother back in West Virginia used to fancy George Dickel, but to me, good bourbon is defined by Maker’s Mark.
Why, yes, I am a booze snob.
I like sweeter wines - they have almost no alcohol taste. Rieslings are good. And Moscato d’Asti - mmmm.
Thirding Amaretto. I like Amaretto and Sprite (diet Sprite, actually). It makes a nice combination.
Amaretto’s great, just by itself for sipping. It ought to also be good in coffee or cocoa.
Thinking about this last night reminded me of something else we used to have in college: Galliano. Nice! And once in awhile if I’ve been a very good boy, I indulge in some drambuie.
Barefoot is good, and Yellow Tail has some nice, cheap wines. I like their Chardonnay and Riesling. Both Barefoot and Yellow Tail should be available at the grocery store for under $10/bottle. Barefoot has a picture of a footprint on the bottle (in the sand, I think), and Yellow Tail has a yellow kangaroo on it, 'cuz it’s Australian.
Such a pity that you don’t like Kahlua, Silver Tyger Girl! White Russians/Caucasians are pretty damn fine. Better if you’re wearing a bathrobe, though.
You can also deflower a Virgin Shirley Temple (7-Up + pomegranate syrup (grenadine) + a maraschino cherry) by adding vodka. Since you don’t like carbonated stuff, then I’d just substitute the fruit juice of your choice. Pomegranate juice with a twist of lemon or lime would work, or you could grab some Juicy Juice, if you wanted to stick with the oh-so-ironic children’s drinks theme.
I think since you don’t like carbonated drinks or strong alcohol flavor, you’re stuck mixing vodka with fruit juice or white/blush/rosé wine.
Oooh ooh! I just “invented” a great cocktail!
Orange Juice
Splash of grenadine
Splash of Rose’s Lime Juice
Dash of Angostura Bitters (I guess this is optional)
Shot of Triple Sec
Vodka or not, as much as you want.
Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
It’s fruity and yummy and a really pretty color!
I agree that you’re probably best off with vodka. You don’t have to spend a lot to get a decent vodka, particularly if you’re going to be mixing it with stuff. (Beware the really cheap stuff, though)
And if I had to choose only one additional thing, I’d choose Triple Sec (basic orange liquer). It tends to be used in a lot of fruity drinks where you can’t really taste the alcohol. Come to think of it, a shot of Triple Sec would be great in lemondade! And you can use it to make sangria. Yum! Oh yeah, and it’s inexpensive too.
Too bad you don’t like coffee. 'Cause a glass of milk with a shot of Kahlua and a shot of Bailey’s ROCKS.
Somebody on another board just pointed out this super-cool site with mixers: Stirrings. Heavy emphasis on the kinds of drinks had on hen nights (chocolate martinis, martinis in various varieties that do not have vermouth), but everyone who has used it enjoyed it very much. To make a drink, you measure out the mixer and add liquor to taste.
Apparently they’re available online and at Whole Foods, Pier 1, and Costco World Market, to name the three most prominent stores. A summary poking around reveals that the bottles are $10.95 each, and have about 11 servings. Not too bad, even for a cheapskate. 
I’ve never had galliano but it’s one of the liquers I’m most curious to try and I adore drambuie.
I like your taste.
Try amaretto or most any kind of schnapps in unsweetend iced tea. They taste like a flavored iced tea and the sugar in the liquour sweetens it up. Unless you have a heavy hand with the booze, you can’t taste it.
You said you don’t wanna get loaded (at this moment) etc.
Hot Buttered Rum
Oh, you better saunter into a bar for a shot of Galliano, Aesiron!
Ever have drambuie + scotch (a rusty nail)? They’re great too.
Brandy slush is very tasty, but weak (perhaps what the OP is looking for):
Boil 2 c of water.
Add 4 tea bags…allow tea to steep for 15 min
Then add and stir:
1 cup sugar
1 x 12 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
1 x 12 oz frozen lemonade
2 cans of water
2 cups brandy
Freeze in 1 gallon container
When slushy, add 2 scoops slush misture to glass, fill with cold 7up (not Sprite b/c it’s too sweet).
Note: add more or less slush, depending on your taste.
If the 7up is cold, you don’t need any ice.
Alcohol content…
There are 16 cups per gallon
2 cups of brandy=1/8 of the mixture
Brandy is 80 proof, or 40%, alcohol.
1/8 of 40%=5%
But then you’re only using a couple of scoops per glass, diluting it further with 7up.
So the overall, finished brandy slush probably has 1% alcohol or less.
I’m also a girl who doesn’t like to taste the alcohol. I can’t stand beer at all.
On that note, I’ll enter another vote for amaretto. I went for the good stuff, but I only use about a shot at a time. An amaretto stone and sour is one of my favorite drinks.
Here’s my Grandma’s recipe. (Yes, my Grandma was a bartender.)
In a shaker mix 1 oz. amaretto, 2.5 oz. OJ and .5 oz. of Sweet & sour mix. Shake well. Pour over ice.
As someone said above, amaretto is also great in hot chocolate and many other things. It has a sweet almond and fruit taste.
Not cheap:
Bushmills, Kahlua, a half shot each. A half teaspoon sugar. half a cup of good coffee. Top with whipped cream. Some use a sprinkle of nutmeg, I consider that barbaric. (A few slivers of shaved chocolate is not bad, though.)
Sip it through the whipped cream.
You won’t fall asleep. In fact, you will be up late. You might be drunk as a skunk, but you will be up late. Don’t drive.
However, deciding not to bother drinking alcohol is a choice you should consider. Why acquire an expensive taste that undermines your intellect? Learn to relax your inhibitions as an intellectual choice. Drink fruit juice.
Tris
When I was a young lass, I couldn’t stand the taste of alcohol either - you know what, if you are sensitive to it, alcohol tastes like alcohol. As you drink more of it, you start to taste past the distinct taste of lighter fluid, and onto the woody, smokey, berry, piney (or whatever) notes of whatever you are drinking, until you can have conversations about the peaty taste of Scotch that an uninitiated tongue says “wow, $30 a shot for lighter fluid!”
In general sugar hides the taste of alcohol. So anything made with a sugar syrup tends to be more drinkable. Liqueurs tend to be very sweet, and therefore that hides the taste - if you like ice cream, try Bailey’s (or some other Irish Cream). If you like raspberries, try Chambord. Or really sweet wines - like muscats or iceweins - those usually are drinkable to people who don’t drink. The issue with most of this is its way more expensive than a huge bottle of cheap whiskey or rum. The whole “sugar hides the taste” is why many mixers are coke, ginger ale, seven up or some other carbonated sugar syrup. Since you don’t like the carbonation, make your own sugar syrup. A decent mojito like drink can be made with rum, water, sugar syrup and mint, for instance.
Slo Gin and Orange Juice was the choice of girls who didn’t drink during my college years. Slo Gin is sickly sweet and packs a punch - plus its cheap. And the orange juice makes it drinkable.
I’ll second Tris’ statement. Its a perfectly respectable choice to not drink. I’m glad I cultivated a taste for it, because I do enjoy a nice glass of wine - and honestly, find getting a little tipsy is sort of fun. But its expensive, makes you stupid, can be quite dangerous, and for certain people is playing with fire (my sister is an alcoholic). But I’d respect a different choice than mine, and in some ways, think it would be a smarter and more self assured choice.
I haven’t, but since it’s the name of my guild’s (non existant) ship, I should.
Some of these sound good and I’ll try stuff. I’m kinda afraid to buy a variety of stuff. That whole ‘I’m cheap’ thing again. My guild drinks bourbon and scotch and rum and stuff and I don’t know if I can foist stuff on them.
Anybody want to recommend something that I can just grab out of the fridge and drink? I can always let it sit out until it goes flat (what I used to do with Smirnoff ice after further diluting it with grape juice)
Although not my usual drink, a well made Margarita is a thing of beauty, appropriate for vacations, holidays, Mexican restaurants, and picnics.
Yeah. A Fuzzy Navel. It’s just OJ and peach schnapps. Very yummy and easy. You could pre-mix it if you want, but why bother?