Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

A consequence of cucumbers

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

It’s a doggy dog world.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Cocktail Recipe Needed

Cocktail Recipe Needed

by | 150 Comments

This post is in: 

To get you in the mood for a cocktail, this should be the new Lincoln Project ad (via my daughter):

Second, I think it’s about time invent a new cocktail, called the “Karen“, after the woman who would call the bar manager to complain about her drink. It should be, in the words of the great poets Big Head Todd and the Monsters, “more sweet than bitter, more bitter than sweet.” Please put your suggestions in the comments.

Here’s mine: Naturally, I start with the White Lady, which is two parts gin, one part lemon juice and one part orange liqueur, shaken and served up. (Some versions add egg white for some froth.) It’s a perfect cocktail, but is there a way make it a homage to the bitterness of the complaining soccer mom without ruining it? Adding some bitters – say Fee’s Barrel Aged Orange – would be one way to go. Another would be to make it 3/4 part lemon juice and 1/4 part Campari. (Or maybe 1/4 part Fernet Branca?) I think I’ll try the Campari version tonight and report back.

Update: The Campari version is quite good. I’ll take the Cynar suggestion from the comments and try that, too.

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    Ooh, I have everything for a White Lady. Surprise surprise. Will use Gran Marnier.

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’ve been enjoying my Campari cocktails recently, Negronis and Boulevardiers. More bitter than bitters.

  4. 4.

    dlw32

    My suggestion for a cocktail. Get a glass. Pour out a measure of a good spiced rum. Drink. Ice is optional.

    The only change I’d make for these horrifying time is the size of the glass…

  6. 6.

    scav

    Something with Cynar?  Somehow the artichoke (spiney thistly thing!) seems appropriate.

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic:   You remind me, I need more Campari.  Finished the only bottle I ever had a while back.  Think it was more than 10 years old.  Negronis are superb.

    And our state ABC stores are considered “essential.”

  10. 10.

    geg6

    I don’t drink cocktails.  Yuck.

    However, I do drink wine (and beer, but prefer wine) and have some knowledge of wines.  I’m pretty sure a Karen would drink Pinot grigio.

  11. 11.

    Randolf Hurts

    Throw some Pimm’s in there. Is there anything whiter than drinking Pimm’s?

  13. 13.

    geg6

    @Randolf Hurts:

    I’m so white I’m fully 1/2 of British descent (and Irish and German for the rest) and I had no idea what Pimm’s was.  And now that I do, it sounds disgusting.  Which is par for the course for many of the things the people of my grandparents’ native land are known to love.  Kippers, kidney pie…and now Pimm’s.

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Make an Aperol spritz, but cut back on the prosecco while adding in some orange juice and barrel aged orange bitters.

  15. 15.

    J R in WV

    Favorite fancy drink is the French 75, named for the famous French field cannon which saw a lot of use in WW I. Drink was devised in Paris, perhaps by news reporters resting up between visits to the front. Simple syrup, fresh lemon juice and gin (or cognac, big controversy over which is authentic… I suspect cognac because French, but gin is great) over ice, shake or stir, strain into a champagne glass, fill with your favorite sparkling white wine.

    Be careful, these taste light and frothy, but with the gin it packs a punch.

    Much more often, gin & tonic with fresh squeezed lime juice on the rocks in a tall glass.

    My own margarita recipe, equal parts ( a good sized shot) anejo tequila and orange liquor over ice in a tall glass, squeeze in half of a juicy lime, top off with tonic. Makes it fizzy, not quite as strong.

    Those are the drinks we make most often! Neighbors have started doing Old Fashions with Jamison Irish whiskey, haven’t tried it myself yet. They showed us how good a French 75 can be!!

    I guess my favorites are the margarita with tonic and the French 75 — both delicious on a hot summer day, or on a cold winter day with a fire. Or just champagne, but the gin, etc really make it an experience!

  16. 16.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: wait what? There’s a free beer and wine cart where you are?! I want a Margarita truck Like the ice Cream truck except for grownups. I miss the taco trucks at  Long Wharf

  17. 17.

    I'll be Frank

    suffering bastard – 2 oz gin, 2oz bourbon, 1 oz lime juice, 4 drops bitters, ginger ale to taste

    Paloma, eh (said like a stereotypical non-Quebecer Canadian for substituted ingredients) – 1/2 cup ginger ale with 2 heaping teaspoons frozen grapefruit drink concentrate, 1/4 cup tequila, teaspoon lime juice

  18. 18.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    My brother and I go with the motto, “Vodka: It’s not just for breakfast anymore.” It’s our natural reaction to the Trump Error. Even more so in this rotten year.

  19. 19.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @geg6: Karen would drink a cheap Chardonney with ice cubes in it because she is too impatient to chill it properly.

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @geg6:

    I picture Franzia Chardonnay in a box. The complete lack of subtlety would be overwhelmed by the injection of more of a woody flavor, like drinking lukewarm white wine from a cup fashioned from oak barrel staves glued together.

  21. 21.

    frosty

    @dlw32: Good suggestion, except for the spiced rum. I’d substitute bourbon. Good, bad, cheap, expensive, it doesn’t matter. As with your recipe, size of glass can be variable.

  23. 23.

    JustRuss

    Second, I think it’s about time invent a new cocktail, called the “Karen“, after the woman who would call the bar manager to complain about her drink.

    I have an old friend who was famous for doing that back in the day.  Well, she wouldn’t go so far as to call the manager, but she would get into it with the bartender.  She was a Trump delegate at the 2016 GOP convention.

  25. 25.

    frosty

    @J R in WV: Just got hooked on French 75s this year, after having one at Tujacque’s in New Orleans. I prefer gin, my wife prefers cognac.

    Old Fashioneds are good too. I skip the sugar and every time I had one out in the Olden Times I told the barkeep no sugar. The muddled cherry and orange are all the sweetness it needs.

    Usually with rye, sometimes bourbon. I don’t generally keep Irish around, I may have to try it that way.

  27. 27.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Come on now. The key ingredient of a White Lady clearly must be Bailey’s Pumpkin Spice Liqueur.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    I’d just like someone to make me a nice cocktail. Sit down by the river on this summer afternoon, drink that cocktail and relax an inch.

  32. 32.

    randy khan

    Every time I watch the video of Trump in front of the church, I am struck by how vapid it is.  He just stands there with the Bible, moving it around so people can get the best angle.  He couldn’t make it more obvious that it’s a prop.

    I mean, I know that a lot of public politics is stagecraft, but every other politician I’ve ever seen goes to some effort to hide that.  Trump makes no effort at all.  (Probably the epitaph of his Presidency, assuming we have historians in the future.)

  33. 33.

    Kay

    Jon Cooper Flag of United States
    @joncoopertweets
    ·26m
    FUN FACT: Trump’s disapproval rating has climbed to 54% — the highest disapproval for any president in U.S. history.

    I so enjoy that. Delightful.

  37. 37.

    Spanky

    Speaking of undrinkable swill (T-bird. Sorry, frosty), I see by my crappy liquor store’s signage that they now make “Bud Light Seltzer”. Wtf? What Ann-Busch exec said “we can’t make this shit taste any better, so make it fizzy” and had leadership agree?

  41. 41.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Management has sent the beer/wine cart around two days a week while we’ve been locked down. It’s partly to make up for them not sending the housekeeping our monthly fee is supposed to cover. I think they figure that if you liquor the old people up, they won’t even remember what they’re mad about today.

  42. 42.

    Redshift

    @Elizabelle: That makes me wish I wasn’t lactose intolerant.

    I had a lovely cocktail in Belfast last summer, a recipe that was served on the Titanic, Punch a la Romaine. Rum, champagne, whipped egg whites, sugar, and orange peel and juice, all in layers.

  43. 43.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Cocktail recipe needed.

    I’m a local government agency employee. My department was just told to expect to work from home though next fiscal year. That’s JULY 2021. I’ve already been doing this for three months and I fucking hate it.

    I know, I know – it’s a good problem to have, indeed a white lady problem to have. I still hate it. I miss people.

  44. 44.

    theturtlemoves

    Upvotes for the Big Head Todd reference.  I’ve seen them live 6 times now.  Very, very good band.  For the cocktail, Cheeto-infused Zima?

  45. 45.

    Miss Bianca

    ooh, I’ve heard of a “Pink Lady”, (which is apparently all or most of the above, plus grenadine), but never a “White Lady”. Sounds pretty tasty, actually!

    Should I be changing my name to “Karen” now?//

  47. 47.

    Martin

    @randy khan: And yet with all of that time trying to figure out what to do with it, he couldn’t figure out how to hold it right side up.

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    @geg6: Ah, now, I like a good Pimm’s Cup. And I don’t even need the excuse of Wimbledon to crave one!

    However, finding Pimm’s in any of the local watering holes or liquor stores has been a bit more of a challenge.

  51. 51.

    geg6

    @Martin:

    Somebody on FB was saying it was actually a hymnal.  I can’t confirm, but he wouldn’t know the difference for sure.

  53. 53.

    Martin

    If you can make a proper gin and tonic, you don’t need anything else in your repertoire.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Miss Bianca: Oooh. Pink Lady sounds delicious.

    I have a close friend named Karen, who is physically – but only physically – the epitome of the type: middle aged white lady with very pale skin, blonde, blue-eyed. Her Black teenage daughter delights in sending her every Karen meme she finds.

  56. 56.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Second, I think it’s about time invent a new cocktail, called the “Karen“, after the woman who would call the bar manager to complain about her drink. It should be, in the words of the great poets Big Head Todd and the Monsters, “more sweet than bitter, more bitter than sweet.” Please put your suggestions in the comments.

    Just so you’re aware, that “Karen” meme is misogynistic. It used to be used to mock entitled wealthy white women tormenting retail workers, but has since devolved to dehumanize any woman of a certain age and appearance

  58. 58.

    geg6

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’ve actually eaten kippers and kidney pie.  I won’t be trying the Pimm’s.  I despise gin.

    I know, I know…all my dead ancestors in Merrie Olde England are spinning in their graves.  I don’t like tea, either.

  59. 59.

    Martin

    @geg6: It was a Bible, and I stand corrected, it’s right-side up – the page marker is just in wrong. Finally found a better photo of it.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    Ok, fine, an actual mixed drink.

    Green River (it’s a soda) and vodka.  Deeeeeelicious!

  64. 64.

    zhena gogolia

    @randy khan:

    I’m going to post this again. Everyone praises Sarah Cooper, and rightly so, but this guy does the impression and makes up the words, and it’s sad and hilarious:

    Donald Trump would not even let Jesus Christ stop him from taking the photo in front of the Church. THIS IS REAL LEADERSHIP!(Subscribe to the channel in the thread below) pic.twitter.com/6r7atDwvc9— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) June 2, 2020

  65. 65.

    Miss Bianca

    @frosty: Back in the day in Detroit, my ex-husband and some of his friends had the “Fine Wine Club”, which one of them would host perhaps monthly in one of their parents’ backyards (they were all underage, natch). Let’s just say that their idea of “Fine Wine” was ironic and hipsterish back before most hipsters were even a damp gleam in Daddy’s eye. They’d feature a new one every week – and then they would rate them like connoisseurs. Thunderbird EHQ! Night Train! Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill! – the hits just KEPT ON COMING.

    How they managed to choke any of that swill down without becoming so violently ill they’d swear off drinking forever is a mystery to me. Even at that age, I had much more finicky tastes.

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI…

    Gov. Ralph Northam on Monday denied a request from the Trump administration to deploy Virginia’s National Guard to “dominate” protesters in Washington, D.C. https://t.co/R9bpURmSfD

    — Times-Dispatch (@RTDNEWS) June 2, 2020

    Elections have consequences.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s not been my experience. Karen always assumes white privilege. That’s why the Central Park women got so strongly branded a Karen. The customer at Starbucks berating the barista because there’s too much foam is  a Karen. Trump is a Karen.

  70. 70.

    Miss Bianca

    @cliosfanboy: And see? This is making me want to hurl just *reading* the words “Mountain Dew and peppermint schnapps.” Probably because the one time I ever became genuinely black-out drunk was on Rumplemintz. To this day, just the smell of the stuff makes me queasy.

  71. 71.

    PsiFighter37

    I’ve been ordering in cocktails from Patent Pending, a speakeasy in the basement of the Radio Wave Building in NYC. Much more reasonable prices than drinking at location ($14 per drink), and they are always delicious. I’d love to learn how to make cocktails, but it’d be terrible for my health, and I don’t have the time, attention, or freezer space to do a good job.

  72. 72.

    Capri

    There are quite a few books of cocktail recipes specifically formulated for the Trump years. My favorites are Cocktails for Survival, Surviving the Trumpocalypse Volumes I and II by Drunk Publius

    You can laugh while you drink.

    My favorite quick, lowbrow cocktail is the Revolver. 4 parts bourbon, 1 part Kahlua, and 4 dashes orange bitters. The Kahlua smooths out the bourbon in a very pleasant way.

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    @geg6: Err…*feebly*…when there’s no other alternative?

    TBF to myself, tho’, it’s been a while since I’ve drunk any wine of the boxed variety. Or any wine period, come to that. I’ve reached the unfortunate stage of life where the slightest bit of mixing wine with anything else – whether in a cocktail or just in the course of a convivial evening out – will give me the mother of all headaches and render me useless the next day. So I have tended to treat all wine warily these days, even the good stuff, alas.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    @hueyplong: I can just see the pitch:

    “The marketing exec says you’re not a good enough actor to convince people to drink Thunderbird”

    Hold my anything-but-Thunderbird

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @geg6:

    An r/circlebroke2 thread commenting on it and linking to a sexist Karen meme

    A Guardian article about it: The Karen Meme is Everywhere and It has Become Mired in Sexism

    Unironic Karen Marvel

    An r/moviescirclejerk (satire of r/movies and other subreddits they mock) thread about the “Captain Karen” thing. A bunch of reactionary neckbeard nerds online complain about women (and non-white people) in pop culture that don’t meet their specific “standards”. They try to hide behind nickpicks such as “forced diversity”, to provide cover for their bigotries. The Karen meme has fallen prey to the same forces

  78. 78.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Not sure how a large a protest is expected at 4, but in CA, little ol’ Redwood City (on the SF Peninsula) is boarded up from downtown to the Little Michoacán neighborhood a mile away.

    Since I’m at heightened risk for Rona, I’m going to have to be there in spirit only, since there’s unlikely to be any way for me to safely social distance. But I wanted to stop by beforehand and bear witness to those getting the message out by painting murals, slogans, and the names of those killed by police on the boarded up storefront across from City Hall.

    Hope we don’t have yet another police riot, like all too many of places have, and that everyone stays safe (and hydrated, it’s over 90 and hot as Satan’s balls right now).

    #BlackLivesMatter, and because it’s Pride month, a reminder that #StonewallWasARiot (mostly by POC who were fed up with police harassment, and sparked by two Black trans women and a Latinx butch lesbian).

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    @geg6:

    I’m pretty sure a Karen would drink Pinot grigio.

    I beg your pardon ma’am. That happens to be my preferred varietal. Karen drinks chardonnay or merlot.

  80. 80.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    Damn, a little bitter really makes a White Lady into something more interesting.

    I agree with @Martin above on whether “Karen” is misogynist, btw.  I did think about it before posting this.  Also, if you follow the Karen link in the post, there’s a CNN article with some good-natured Karens quoted.

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    @PsiFighter37: Are they still allowing take-out cocktails in NYC? They shut that action down right quick here in CO as soon as “Shelter At Home” turned into “Safer at Home.” Which is a shame, because there was something sort of fun and naughty-feeling about being able to get a to-go margarita with my burger from the joint down the street from the theater.

  82. 82.

    Duane

    @randy khan: He held the Bible like it caused him pain. And the church’s sign behind him, “ALL ARE WELCOME.” It would be comedy gold except for the criminal part.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @geg6:

    Chablis is just an un-oaked chardonnay.

    Strictly speaking, Chablis is a region in Burgundy where they make a lot of white wine that relies heavily on chardonnay grapes.  Back in the old days, Americans tended to name their wines after the places they were copying, so American wines made in that style were called “Chablis”.  Since then, they’ve changed the labeling laws so that kind of place name can only be used for wines made there*.  American wines started calling themselves after the primary grape they used rather than the place they were copying, and those wines rebranded themselves as chardonnay.  Of course, now that there are famous American wine growing areas, the wineries there brag about being from Napa or Sonoma or wherever, but they still include information about the grapes they use.

    *There are some exceptions, e.g. you can apparently still call something Port even if it wasn’t made in Portugal.

  84. 84.

    BigJimSlade

    Please. Enough with the Karen stuff – let’s just go with Entitled Whitey.

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JustRuss: in a hotel bar in Chicago a year or so ago, I think it was the Westin, a couple sat next to me and after making a great show of tasting a couple reds, complained when the bartender poured the  last one bottle and then topped off the glass with a second. I think it was a cabernet, the kind that costs about $20/bottle retail and $20/glass at the Michigan Ave Westin hotel bar.

    we chatted amiably, but I was glad they were on their way somewhere else before my dinner came

  86. 86.

    Sphouch

    Maybe a Trump Karenov cocktail should consist of everything that he covets: 1 part well vodka, 1 part soju (or makkeoli if you really want to regret what you’re doing), grand marnier because it sounds rich, orange bitters, and 2 parts 7-up because $1,000,000 has 7 digits.  It seems strong but only because it’s propped up by foreign spirits with more authority than you. To really drive it home, it can only be served by the manager, and someone else has to pay in order for you to order it.

  88. 88.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Yutsano: Karen drinks chardonnay or merlot.

    I drink Merlot.

    My rationale based on my very educated palate is “I think that’s the name of the red wine variety that I found out I like so that’s the one I always ask for.”

    Once I finally figured out how to get wine delivered to my home in PA (the laws are a little odd), I ordered a bottle of Merlot and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Both of them seem to be the kind of wine I like, so when I run out of them (around the 4th of July at about 2 oz/week) I’ll repeat that order.

    So why is Merlot a bad thing to like?

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    A friend complained that she had stepped up her drinking since the lockdown, was even developing  a beer belly. Now she and her several friends on her street mix up new cocktails and invite  each other over to sample them (at a safe distance of course). She calls it her enablerhood.

  90. 90.

    randy khan

    @Roger Moore:

    There are some exceptions, e.g. you can apparently still call something Port even if it wasn’t made in Portugal.

    Fun fact – we were in Australia in 2018 and toured a winery that makes what everyone would call port, except they’re not allowed to call it that by the Australian government, so they call it tawny.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: It isn’t. But it, by itself, is frequently an uncomplicated red that tastes good and goes with many things.  As a result, a lot of people drink it for the reasons you do.

  93. 93.

    frosty

    @Miss Bianca: I did the same sort of thing for four years in college: Annual Last Day of Classes Fifth of Cheap Wine Drunk. Grossing out the beer drinkers. Boone’s Farm Apple for 2 years, then Mad Dog 20/20 down to T-bird.

    The go-to cheap wine though was Red Mountain Pink Chablis – $1.50 per gallon. With ice cubes or mixed 50/50 with cheap beer. It’s a wonder we ever kept it down.

  94. 94.

    hedgehog mobile

    I’ve gotten fond of Manhattans.  Either rye (if I want a bite) or bourbon.

  95. 95.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    So why is Merlot a bad thing to like?

    Not bad, just trendy. I think the movie Sideways gave Merlot a bad name, because the main character was a wine snob who was always running it down.

    On the other hand, that character’s preferred tipple, Pinot Noir, has never done much for me, and kind of in reaction to that kind of wine snob – yeah, I’ve known some and yeah, I’m petty that way – I pretty much gave up drinking it except when someone who actually liked the stuff recommended one they particularly enjoyed.

  100. 100.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): For me, any article that quotes notorious TERF Julie Bindle as an expert immediately lost any credibility it might have.

    To echo what others have said, the usage of Karen that I see and hear is a about a specific tied of entitled-feeling white woman, using her privilege and often her white privilege to bully others.

  104. 104.

    zhena gogolia

    I don’t use “Karen.” I don’t like calling people names. (Except trumpanzees, of course.)

  106. 106.

    hueyplong

    @Omnes Omnibus: If the latter had been available in college, I’d have downed Thunderbird + Red Bull pretty much every day.  Perspectives can change along one’s path.

  107. 107.

    dnfree

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: most merlots don’t have much complexity, or at least didn’t when they became the most popular red wine for a while. We had some my brother made recently though (he has a small winery in Sonoma) and it was good. I guess there’s just a lot of it made and most is kind of generic.

    Branch out and try a Pinot Noir or a (red) Zinfandel and see what you think. My brother is now making an old vine Zinfandel again and I can’t wait to try it. You wouldn’t think the age of the vine would make a difference in the taste of the grapes, but it seems to. 

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Van Buren:

    Cynar and Grenadine would be bitter and sweet. And utterly revolting.

    this cracked me up, I’m not sure why.
    Maybe because I always hear the word “revolting” in John Gielgud’s voice

  109. 109.

    Gravenstone

    @Miss Bianca: In college I would occasionally partake of peach schnapps and 7-up. Also didn’t mind a splash of cinnamon schnapps in hot cocoa. Now just the thought of schnapps just gives a headache.

  110. 110.

    M31

    My quarantine cocktails are starting to include items from the dusty back of the liquor cabinet that I forgot were there, like some kind of cheap ‘citrus flavored’ vodka that I found under the bed in my teenager’s room when they went to college. It smells like Lemon Pledge, but it’s been eyeing me lately now that the bourbon is gone.

    Or that old bottle I was given of some odd eastern european liquor that smells like mothballs and caraway? When that’s all that’s left I’ll restock.

  112. 112.

    Haroldo

    The W is the White

    The P is the Port

    The L is the Lemon, and

    the J is the Juice

    (Mix it up fine, you get a good, good wine.)

  113. 113.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @dnfree:

    I love the Sangiovese varieties, Aussie Shiraz and South African Pinotage for reds.

  114. 114.

    Gravenstone

    @Gaffer: Jolt, Everclear, Bacardi 151 and Jack Daniels. Affectionately known as the Black Mamba. College produced any number of interesting mixology experiments.

  118. 118.

    Gravenstone

    @Another Scott: I forgot to mention that we tended to augment damn near everything with a bit of Everclear. Octane booster, as we called it. Still tasted presentable if you didn’t have too heavy a hand.

  119. 119.

    MomSense

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Negroni is one of my all time favorites.  The first grown up cocktail I ever had prepared by and enjoyed with a remarkable person in a beautiful place.

  121. 121.

    MomSense

    If we are coming up with cocktails for a Karen, I’m going to suggest coffee brandy  and urine.  Fuck them.

  122. 122.

    M31

    my go-to lately has been juice of 1/2 grapefruit, gin, a bit of sugar, and bitters. Shake it up with ice, it’s good. Also good with rye or bourbon. Not making it with Becherovka though

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @MomSense: And perhaps, a little appetizer of tire rims and anthrax, hein? Bon appetit!

    @M31: My “Quarantini” recipe has been a wet one: 2-3 shots of gin with about a half-shot of good white wine vermouth from a local winery, and then a splash of fresh-squeezed orange juice with a double twist of orange and lemon peels. May not stave off the ‘Rona, but it does a fine job on any incipient scurvy.

  125. 125.

    laura

    Add White Claw to your original recipe and voila! You’ve got a Karen

    For me on a hot day like today, white vermouth, lemon peel, sparkling water. Ooh la la

  130. 130.

    geg6

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I pay no attention to neck beard types or anything on reddit or other unsafe spaces.  Fuck them.  Their misogyny isn’t dependent on whatever euphemism they are choosing at the moment and since it seems general audiences are unaware of and not interested in their garbage, I think I feel free to use the name that everyone understands means an entitled, middle aged white woman.

  132. 132.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @dnfree: I think I will try one or both of those. It’s not that I’m averse to new flavors, I normally think of myself as the opposite. Sometimes in foreign restaurants I just go ahead and order and say “let’s see what comes”.

    I know I like reds a lot better than whites, and dry wines a lot better than sweet ones. I just can’t be bothered to remember which are the names of the varieties that fit my general tastes. When I’m traveling I’ll often just ask for a house red or a recommendation of a good regional wine, and I don’t remember being disappointed with anything.

    I remembered the speech in Sideways about Pinot Noir but hadn’t remember that there was any discussion about Merlot.

  133. 133.

    MomSense

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Merlot is a classic.  I love it.  Lately all I drink is beer, though.  There’s a new local brewery that is doing curbside pick up.  I ordered on their opening day and was so enthusiastic that they keep throwing in samples with my order.  You have to love people who are bold enough to start a new business in these times.

  134. 134.

    geg6

    @Roger Moore:

    Thanks.  I’m aware of the history but not everyone is.  Chablis is still, basically, un-oaked Chardonnay for anyone who doesn’t know it.
    I learned about wine from a friend who’s restaurant has one of the finest American wine cellars in the entire country.  It was great to learn from a master.

  135. 135.

    geg6

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    It’s not necessarily. Depends on the winery.  Try a Pinot noir, especially for summer, since you like reds. It’s a little lighter than cab or merlot.  A nice, fairly inexpensive brand is Dreaming Tree.  It’s always in my wine fridge.

  137. 137.

    Taken4Granite

    I have had jalapeño pepper wine (made in Amherst, NH, of all places). You can combine it with tomato juice and some whole black peppercorns to get something resembling a Bloody Mary. I actually tried that experiment, but the main thing I learned is that I am not a mixed drinks kind of guy; I prefer wine.

    But I find that I don’t much like chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon (which for too many people are synonymous with white wine and red wine, respectively). Oaked chardonnays are too buttery, and most cabs are too tannic for my palate.

  140. 140.

    Miss Bianca

    @MomSense: Cheers – I gave up beer for quite a while there when I was actively doing the “low-carb, low-fat” diet lifestyle – drank wine, if I drank at all, almost exclusively.

    But then I moved into a baker’s house and started eating bread and biscotti again, and I got a little plumper and I stressed out about that for a while before I decided to say “fuck it, life’s too short”, and ever since I have been eating and drinking pretty much anything I damn feel like. Including beer – me and Brett K, that’s the only thing we have in common – we both like beer.

    Oddly, I then started losing weight again. ; )

  142. 142.

    Puddinhead

    @M31:

    mix it with slivovitz and sweet vermouth and you have a Moravian cocktail. Not bad, but slivo isn’t for the faint of heart.

  143. 143.

    Feathers

    Gin with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and crushed fresh sage leaves. This is a good drink not for Karen. Friend joked that it is basically “Gin and Juice” and I had to agree. Also love ginger beer drinks and Stone’s Ginger Wine. Excellent in a hot tea when feeling under the weather.

    As I am basically Karen age, I can say Karen drank Daquiris in college.

  144. 144.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Feathers: From my experience in college (being approximately of an age with you), Karen drank free beer at fraternity parties but complained that she didn’t like beer.

  145. 145.

    J R in WV

    @Puddinhead:

    mix it with slivovitz and sweet vermouth and you have a Moravian cocktail. Not bad, but slivo isn’t for the faint of heart.

     

    A friend from the next county over married a sweet young woman from that part of Europe. Once the party was authorized and her father came over, we learned that he made slivovitz from fruit from his orchards. OMG it was so good. I felt blessed just to have had a small glass. Don’t know how he got so much of it into the US… he didn’t speak much English, but was a good guy. Fit into rural WV really well.

    Then they moved to Rhode Island when out friend got a tenured position up there… was an intellectual communard. Plums preserved via fermentation and distillation — a gift from the gods and the farmers!

  146. 146.

    BigJimSlade

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Merlot got a bad rap in the movie Sideways because Paul Giamatti’s character shuns it (basically because merlot is more reliable) for the more dramatic highs of pinot noir, a grape which can be problematic (it’s pickier about its growing conditions)… like Paul Giamatti’s character.  So it works int the movie. Merlot is one of the main grapes in Bordeaux (Cabernet Sauvignon being the other main grape, there are other blending grapes – Cabernet Franc and Malbec are the best known, maybe Petit Verdot…., and a couple of white grapes, which are blended into wines that are quite nice and not too pricey). Merlot’s fine, sometimes fantastic.

  148. 148.

    BigJimSlade

    @Miss Bianca: I kinda repeated your comment because I hadn’t read it yet… anyway, yeah, I’ve had some lame Pinots, but one time a good store in the DC area (I lived there for a year) was selling a $60 bottle for “only” $40, and, damn, was it good. My other experiments with donating my money to Pinor Noir farmers is more hit-and-miss.

    Here’s my take on a relatively cheap ($14 ten years ago) California Pinot Noir (one, not all of them) vs a similarly priced French one. The California one was pretty, but kinda sweet and nothing else to it. On first sip it held promise, but then was just a sweet little bit of perfume and disappointing – just a bit syrupy. The French one was a basic “Bourgogne” (that means it doesn’t get the special designation of a smaller part of Burgundy, so the most generic) from Louis Jadot  (a major producer – probably buys grapes from many farmers), and it had nothing pretty/fruity about it, but it had a little acidity, a little bit of tannins… it was balanced. So it didn’t taste like much, but it tasted kinda right, and there was nothing wrong with!

  149. 149.

    BigJimSlade

    @Gaffer:

    Jolt Cola and Everclear

    LOL, man, how many people even know about/remember each of those! I feel a little less healthy just reading about them.

  150. 150.

    zeecube

    @I’ll be Frank: My Paloma shortcut is to use Pellegrino grapefruit soda as a substitute for simple syrup, grapefruit juice and soda, plus a few glugs of tequila and 1/2 fresh squeezed lime.

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