What kind of a spirit would NyQuil resemble?

Weird question. I almost couldn’t figure out how to phrase the question.

Anyway, kaylasmom been battling a cold for the past week and a half. I had it first, and I knocked it down by using up all the NyQuil in the house. So, I went to the drug store and picked up a two-pack of the big bottles. kaylasmmom remarked today that she wishes I was able to pick it up in larger quantities, not (in her words) those piddly-assed two packs.

My rejoinder was: “Well, we have a bottle of tequila in the house, if you want to have that instead” (you know, because it has alcohol in it, just like NyQuil). She didn’t want tequila. But she did ask the strangest question: “What kind of booze is in NyQuil?”

I thought just answering “ethyl alcohol” would be a cop-out. The preparation itself has the consistency of a cordial, or a liqueur. I know the green one tastes kind of like licorice, but it’s almost certainly not ouzo (although, to tell the truth, I haven’t checked to see if it turns white in water :cool: ). The red stuff tastes kind of awful, like Southern Comfort (although not quite that bad).

But, how is the stuff made/brewed/distilled? Do they make cough syrup, and add grain alcohol, like Everclear? That strikes me as unlikely, but I’ll be happy to learn otherwise, if I’m wrong.

Thanks for any knowledgeable responses.

I always thought Southern Comfort tasted like NyQuil.

Why would you find that difficult? Massive amounts of 190 and 200 proof alcohol are shipped and used all over, both denatured and not. Nyquil, AIUI, contains alcohol primarily as a solvent for the active ingredients, which means that it’s added in portions, or else it’s actually the water that’s added at the end.

Hey! Why y’all hatin’ on my SoCo?

I heard somewhere that most alcohol-laden cough medicines are made with a ‘tail-end’ brandy, like Grappa.

…And here, I was thinking that this would be some weird animism thing. Like, the God of Helping you Get your Zzzs.

Chartreuse.

If you want a spirit that can actually be confused with NyQuil when tasting it, go for Jägermeister. It will have none of the (purportedly) medicinal ingredients, but the taste is pretty close to identical, as is the syrupy texture.

If you have enough cash to buy Charteuse, you can probably afford NyQul by the case.

Jagermeister does not have a syrupy texture.

But after a hit, you can’t tell that.

I am willing to bet that 90%+ of people who have ever drank a shot of Jagermeister would tell you that you are dead wrong, and indeed “syrupy” would be one of the very first adjectives that would be used to describe it.

So I’d be in the 10% that agree with me, then. I would use the term “syrupy” to describe the flavor, second only to “nasty as shit,” but the texture is pretty liquidy. SoCo has a syrupy texture.

If it’s worth anything, I agree 100% with you.

Sooo, that’s 110% for “not syrupy,” and 90% for “syrupy,” on the Jägermeister.

I guess the true test of that would be to overfill your shot glass, and see if there’s a sticky ring on the table the next morning. Probably be a good idea to write down your plan before you start, so you don’t forget the next day.

Hell, go to the bar and order a shot of Jag yourself. Look at it, swirl it around, get to know it, and you tell me if the texture is syrupy or not. Ignore the flavor; it most certainly has a syrupy sweet taste to it. Tell me if the texture alone is syrupy. I’ll let you be the boss. If you say it’s syrupy, I’ll give you $10*.

*No, I won’t.

I just sniffed a bottle of Tylenol Sore Throat, which is the closest I’ve got to hand. I reckon a 50/50 mixture of Creme de Menthe and Midori might do the trick.

Yeah, I would say Jager kinda tastes like NyQuil. Chartreuse (both green and yellow) tastes nothing like NyQuil. (And it’s not really that expensive. About $40-$50 a fifth.)

A Flaming Moe?

That or you could cook up a batch of waffles and start experimenting.

That’s the kind of science you get when you don’t write down your plan before you start doing shots…