Cocktail of the Week #28: Roy Rogers

This is really just a cherry coke made with grenadine. Perfect if you're the designated driver of the evening.

If you order it at a restaurant or bar, make sure the waitstaff or bartender knows what it is; the Roy Rogers is often confused with the Shirley Temple, and vice versa.

Wish I'd drawn this the last time I got ill.

Oh, yeah: if you're watching your sugar intake, this works quite well with Coca-Cola Zero (and not so well with standard diet colas).

Scoreboard.
Hits: 20
Misses: 13

Cocktail of the Week #27: Tequila Sunrise

Never tried this drink before. I always had an aversion to it because of associations of the name with overrated countrified rock and a terrible Mel Gibson film I was forced to take my little sister to see back in the eighties.

Actually, it always struck me as a "touristy" cocktail, like a rum runner or pina colada (turns out it was developed at a hotel in Arizona - go figure).

So we whipped up a couple and tried it and... quite tasty! But sweet. I mean sickly sweet, especially when you hit the collected granadine syrup and orange solids that the bottom of the glass (which is what makes it look like a sunrise, supposedly).

The Mrs. liked it better than I did. I felt like I was drinking kiddie punch with a dash of agave. Frat boys should keep this in reserve for their high school senior girlfriends. As for me and my house, we shall serve the margaritas.

Scoreboard.
Hits: 19
Misses: 13

Cocktail of the Week #26: Cosmopolitan

Mrs. Wit holds this one dear to her heart. She used to drink them all the time until Sex & the City made them all the rage. She still drinks them (preferably with frozen cranberries as a garnish), but not nearly as often as she used to.

The recipe given is so-so. Experiment to your liking. I'm neutral on them, but the Mrs. can't be wrong.

Scoreboard.
Hits: 19
Misses: 12

Cocktail of the #25: Seven & Seven

Remember my entry about the presbyterian?

The 7 & 7 is what I was thinking of when I wrote about that favorite drink of mine in college. The presbyterian is, in fact, a watered-down version of the venerable 7 & 7. The name comes from the original ingredients: Seagram's 7 Crown Canadian whiskey and 7-Up. Any blended whiskey and lemon-lime soda will do (except scotch... unless it's really bad scotch...)

Try it today!

Scoreboard.
Hits: 18
Misses: 12

Cocktail of the Week #24: Gimlet

This drink is a favorite of one of my dearest friends. She always orders one when at a bar or restaurant.

As for us? We found it a variation on the daiquiri, really. We tried both gin and vodka gimlets, and found while they were nothing to shout out about, neither were they terrible.

A miss, since I never put in a score category of "neutral."

Scoreboard.
Hits: 17
Misses: 12

Cocktail of the Week #23: Manhattan

I had been looking forward to this one since we got the deck. While the martini is considered the Classic Cocktail and the sazarac is the Original Cocktail, the manhattan is considered the quintessential Old School Cocktail. The Drinker's Drink. The Dean Martin Elixir of Life, as it were. (Can you tell I'm partial to this particular drink?)

The deck calls for "blended" whiskey because, technically, the original recipe calls for rye whiskey or Canadian whiskey. Later, when bourbon came to replace rye as America's Premier Hard Liquor, that became the primary component of Manhattans.

Verdict? You really can't go wrong with this drink... if you like whiskey. I personally would only use a half ounce of sweet vermouth. Three quarters of an ounce makes it a bit too sweet, for my taste. And, depending on the whiskey and the brand of vermouth, I may throw a dash of bitters in, as well.

A hit! (Could it have been anything else?)

Trivia: the manhattan was created for Jennie Jerome, an American woman living in London, to help remind her of home. Jennie Jerome would later become the mother of Winston Churchill.

Scoreboard.
Hits: 16
Misses: 12

Cocktail of the Week #22: Kamikazi

This is really just a margarita made with vodka instead of tequila. Unlike the deck's maragarita recipe, this one calls for double the amount of triple sec. I suppose it's to accomodate the missing bite one would get from the liquor of the agave.

We remember this one being decent enough, but would actually reduce the amount of triple sec... that's right: this is one drink that would work better if it were a bit more like a Cure for Scurvy.

We decree it a hit, but only marginally so.

Scoreboard.
Hits: 15
Misses: 12