The quality of bartending seems to be down lately. Anytime I order whiskey and soda, I have to specify “club soda” because otherwise it’s 50-50 I get Coke. That pales against my cousin’s experience: a bar couldn’t figure out how to mix a screwdriver, so they sent him Bud Light as a substitute.
I’m fond of the Flying Dutchman - Gin & Triple Sec. I first had it when I ordered a Martini at the local dive (a mistake, I know) and they gave me this instead.
Shot of vodka, shot of Amaretto, shot of Melon liquor, fill almost up with cranberry juice, add a touch of 7-Up. Best cocktail ever.
Not mines, but I did witness the confusion when a couple asked for a whisky and “pickle juice” in Boston, a proper drinking city. Appears to be a regional thing.
A pickle back!! Yay!!
Back in my teen years, mixing beer with lemon soda was something teens did and which had no name. Eventually it became known as a “summer blonde” (rubia de verano), and it even started being sold premixed.
The last time my mother asked for a summer blonde in a bar, the bartender explained that they didn’t have any; they had a variety of flavored beers but were out of blondes. He looked really confused when I asked for a beer and a can of lemon soda. Apparently he was one of those people who think that selling drinks, computers or encyclopedias is all the same.
Back in the day it was the Champipple Cocktail, one chintzy bottle each of Champale (“the champagne of bottled beers”) and Ripple “wine”, any flavor you could stomach.
Great Caesar’s Ghost! Everyone knows that Miller’s High Life is the Champagne of Bottled Beers.
In English, that’s a shandy. In Germany, a Radler (or a Russ if it’s Weiss).
In French, it’s Panaché, and even in the middle of Switzerland, you’ll almost never here Radler, only Panaché. Good for a really hot summer day, but not unusual.
I was walking in a parade as a float Marshall & it was hot & thirsty out. One of the guys watching the parade offered me a drink. So good!! Ginger beer & vodka!!
What blows my mind is when they mess up neat whiskey. Pour it in the glass and you are done, it does not get simpler and I still get served whiskey on the rocks. Once even after explaining what neat meant it still ended up being served on the rocks (the look of confusion on the server’s face when I ordered prompted me to try and be proactive).
I hate to sound like a moron, but what is ‘lemon soda’? There is 7-Up and Sprite. There is lemonade. I don’t know of any ‘lemon soda’ per se.
All these bartender stories confuse the heck out of me. I mean, do these bozos not have cell phones? You can google up a recipe for ANYTHING in seconds. How can they fail to manage it?!?
Back when I was drinking, which was long, long, ago, my favorite thing was a Brandy Alexander. I mentioned this in the company of youngsters recently and they all just stared at me blankly. Once I explained it to them they agreed that they doubted any local bar would have full cream on hand, and if it did, they wouldn’t trust the stuff.
I dabble in amateur mixology (which means I have a bunch of books, a set of bar tools and a lot of liquor to play with) and there are 3-4 drinks I’ve found that are almost never on the menu at bars or restaurants, but that are VERY good that I like to make for my wife and myself.
[ul]
[li]Lion’s Tail - it’s basically a whiskey sour of sorts, but with pimento dram (allspice liqueur added)[/li][li]La Floridita Daiquiri - it’s rum, lime juice, sugar, grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur.[/li][li]Saturn (tiki drink) - gin, orgeat, passionfruit syrup, falernum and lemon juice.[/li][li]Last Word - equal parts green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, gin and lime juice. [/li][/ul]
That’s a Hemingway Daiquiri. A La Floridita doesn’t have grapefruit juice.
You’re right… I got them mixed up because in my copy of Dale DeGroff’s “Craft of the Cocktail”, there’s a photo of the La Floridita sign immediately preceding the Hemingway daiquiri recipe, and I tend to recall the sign photo and not the actual title.
Either way, it’s a uniquely tasty drink. Better, I’d wager than the no grapefruit La Floridita version.
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Happens to me all the time. After a nice dinner, I will order a coffee and a Drambuie…“neat.” The Drambuie will come in the coffee, in a glass with ice, in a glass with soda and ice, in a glass with water and ice, in a glass with tonic and ice, etc.
Fanta lemon. The bubbly, no actual lemon juice (well, the Coca-Cola Company says it’s actually got some), industrial cousin of lemonade.
In Spain, Shandy is one of the brands of premixed. It’s by Seville brewer Cruzcampo.