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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.
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.
I had a discussion some years ago from someone who was from Wisconsin and we were talking about the economics of the industry. I’m from a region in the states that’s hugely known for its wine and alcohol production and I grew up knowing a shitload of people who work directly in this industry or have touched it; despite the fact that I don’t drink hardly at all, beyond social occasions. I remember as a kid my mother driving me by all the locations for these places.
If you want a basic idea of how the industry works it goes a little something like this. If you look at bourbon for example, the grain bill (which is the raw ingredients), the brewing (wort or bier), and barreling costs about $400-$850 for 200L of 60%/120 proof raw/white grain alcohol (better ingredients is going to be more expensive). Barrel aging costs about $1.30/mo and inventory/turning/rotation costs about $0.20, so that’s about $1.50/mo.
So let’s look at a 15yr aged whisky/bourbon. Maybe, $850 to start, plus ($1.50x12monthsx15years)=$270 plus the original $850=$1,020 liquid cost. But it’s at 60% alcohol (approximately, some alcohol ‘seeps’ as it ages, so this isn’t entirely correct) so you need to water it down to 40%/80proof. So you have about 275 to 310 liters of ‘finished’ bourbon out of a barrel depending on several different factors. Go ahead and call it 300 to keep it simple. That is about $3.75/L or about $2.80 per 750ml bottle.
In general, bottles, corkage, labeling and corkage are $3 to $15 per bottle. So you’re talking good bourbon, so it’s a minimum of $10 bottle, or probably more than that. So the bottle is about 4x-5x the liquid.
And all of this doesn’t touch the issue of taxation. In some states, the distiller pays taxes on the grain; and taxes on the materials; and taxes on the liquid; and you pay taxes when you buy it (and some of us pay ‘taxes’ when we drink too much and get arrested). Alcohol is taxed massively from the beginning of production all the way to consumption. But that actually speaks to how much of a massive revenue driver it is.
Another interesting factoid. For local craft beers in the silver ‘craft beer’ generic blank 16oz cans with a sticker label, the beer inside will cost about the same as the can and the label. Canning will take the processing cost to be more than the liquid. For liquors (even great liquors) the bottle will cost 2x to 20x the cost of the liquid. And actually, the more expensive the liquor, the greater the cost of the bottle (so you’re getting more ripped off the more you’re willing to pay). As an extreme example, look up 50 Cent’s champagne. It’s called “Le Chemin du Roi’” and the bottle costs about $20-25 and the Champaign costs about $3-$5. It retails for about $200 at start.
There’s about 4 huge producers that make liquors in massive quantities for everyone. About 99% of the ‘craft’ liquors you drink, are ‘brandicorns’ that have zero distilling assets and contract with these manufactures to make their spirits and then put a craft label on them. As a rule of thumb: if they don’t have a distillery you can visit, it’s made by a mega corporation, and so they are selling you a brand.
The economic value in booze is overwhelmingly marketing.
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As a former Sconnie, my grandmother whole heartedly endorses the brandy old-fashioned.
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