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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   465 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026

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What is everyone’s go-to cocktail? I tend to be a beer guy, and keep it simple with cocktails. Gin and tonic, whiskey sour, a martini if I’m feeling fancy, or a tropical rum drink if I’m really in party mode or on the beach. Anyone have anything a bit more adventurous? I like rum, scotch, gin, bourbon, not really a huge vodka fan.

Edit: A gin martini, just to clarify. Typically with Beefeater.

Quite frankly a Greyhound is as simple as it gets, but incredibly good with the right grapefruit and vodka.

If I can tolerate something sweeter that day, a Painkiller is something worth buying ingredients for. Homemade hurricanes are superior to the Bourbon Street product - combine with mail order mulfalettas and conecuh-jambalaya for the best time.

As other people have mentioned, an Old Fashioned is an excellent drink - it's what my grandpa would have every day after work. I use fresh black cherries over maraschinos and skip the sugar.

It's not my go-to cocktail but the best one I've had in the past five years was "Naked on a Plane". Impossible to get at the average home bar, but I may make it my signature: Lemon twist and a frozen raspberry with mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, and a combination of Amari, Aperol and Nonino.

I'm partial to an Aviation. My friends have a Bartesian device that mixes drinks for you and makes a very respectable Aviation, so it's mostly what I drink when I'm visiting, which is the only time I really drink.

Malibu and pineapple. Can get it most places, easy to make myself on the rare occasion I want to drink at home, tastes absolutely delicious. You can't ask for much more.

Paloma and/or old fashioned.

Manhattan. For the "adventurous" version, I like to use both rye and bourbon, add a dash of Angostura bitters, a dash of Cherry Heering, shake with ice and strain into a martini glass with a maraschino cherry or two skewered for a garnish, but the simplest "2 oz any whiskey, 1 oz sweet vermouth, over ice" is already pretty good.

If you like whiskey sours and you make your own sour mix, try reducing the sugar a bit and adding amaretto. Amaretto sours are too weak and too sweet, but if you usee whiskey to fix the one problem and tweak the mix to fix the other then it's a great flavor.

Gin and tonic with ice and a lemon wedge. Not precious about the gin though London Drys are my preference. Wilkinson tonic.

Yesterday I was given something called Framboise by a very wealthy Frenchman and it tasted as if would take the paint off a car.

Old fashioned.

Sidecar.

Okay, that's not true. I'm way more likely to make an old fashioned or something with gin (negroni, corpse reviver). But a good sidecar is a nice step between liquor-forward and citrus-forward.

It depends on the bar, but if I'm at my regular place during happy hour or the other place that can make it, a Hugo 75.

If it's my regular bar and the night bartenders are on (neither one knows how to make a Hugo 75, but then the happy hour bartenders can never get my house Collins right either), usually their house take on a Tom Collins (a Tom Collins with St. Germain instead of sugar and a few dashes of orange bitters).

If I'm a bar I don't know and/or at a work event where everyone else is drinking martinis I'll go for a Manhattan, fancy enough but hard to screw up. See also: the Negroni or Boulevardier.

Really though, it depends on context. If the bar is slammed or just a dive I'll order something easy like a shot and a beer.

As a Wisconsin resident I'm obligated to tout the virtues of the brandy old-fashioned, but since it's already obvious I will raise awareness of the Brandy Alexander, a delicious brandy drink that also incorporates dairy, for a Midwestern twofer.

As a former Sconnie, my grandmother whole heartedly endorses the brandy old-fashioned.

Lately I've become rather obsessed with Ranch Water and Old Fashioned.

The boilermaker is the perfect cocktail. It cracks the meta of alcohol usage. It rapidly spikes your blood alcohol in a way that feels good, but one or two aren’t going to keep you from going to work in the morning. Perfect for the two-hour evening drinking session of the working man.

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