Halfway Home Rankings Post

So I'm officially halfway through the drinking process, and I thought it would be a good time to do a little retrospective -- a time to summarize what I've done so far and evaluate the overall drinking experience I've had. Here are some lovely lists for those of you who like to get to the bottom line. Obviously all lists are completely subjective and refer only to the opinions of my taste buds. I also don't vouch for these lists being consistent -- I am too lazy to cross reference them.

Best Well Drinks/Cheap and Easy Bar Orders:

1. Tom Collins

2. Cape Codder (vodka cran)

3. Gin Buck

Best from the Classics Section:

1. Gimlet

2. Sidecar

3. Black Velvet

Best Drinks to make for a Party:

1. Mulled Wine (winter)

2. Champagne Punch

3. Cuba Libre

(Caveat: I haven't made that many drinks for parties)

Pleasant Surprises:

1. Black Velvet

2. Alexander

3. Dirty Martini

Best Girly Drinks:

1. Matador

2. Sex on the Beach

3. Flirtini

Best Vodka Drinks:

1. Midnight Martini

2. Vodka Gimlet

3. New Fashion/Lemon Drop (tie)

Best Rum Drinks:

1. Strawberry Daiquiri

2. Mojito

3. Cuba Libre

Best Gin Drinks:

1. Leap Year

2. Orange Blossom

3. Gin Buck

Best Whiskey Drinks:

1. Southern Style Mint Julep

2. Quickie

3. Irish Coffee

Best Drink Photos:

1. Apple Martini

2. Mint Julep

3. Crantini

Drinks most likely to make you Drunk too Quickly:

1. Quickie

2. Mint Julep

3. Tequini (plus bad hangover)

Worst Drinks:

1. Blue Hawaiian

2. Gin and It

3. Classic Martini

...and the drinks where everything came together perfectly and life was brilliant.

Overall Best Drinks:

1. Matador

2. Strawberry Daiquiri

3. Metropolitan

4. Mulled Wine

5. Mojito

6. Gimlet

7. Sidecar

8. Midnight Martini

9. Mint Julep

10. Leap Year

There you go! Enjoy and bottoms up!

Bacardi Cocktail

Only one cocktail this evening, and it was a good one! Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 ounces Bacardi light rum

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Dash of grenadine

-Mix in a cocktail shaker over cracked ice and pour into chilled glass.

Now, since I couldn't really taste the grenadine, this pretty much tasted like the daiquiri I had awhile ago. Delicious, but pretty basic. Thinking about the better drinks I've had, I guess I just like lime with about any alcohol. Good to know. I should say that this is really supposed to have Bacardi rum in it, but I don't think it's that big a deal. I made it with Bacardi because that's what I had.

In other news, vote in my poll! Please? It's up there in the corner waiting for you to click on it.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Business Time

First of all, I went through and counted the recipes in the book, and there are 182 in 7 categories. So far the numbers I've completed in each category are such-

Classiques: 2

Martinis: 4

Urban: 6

Punches: 0

Tropical: 4

Naughty: 2

Dessert: 0

That's a total of 18. I need to average a drink every 2.005494505 days in order to make my goal. So far so good!

You may have also noticed that I added a poll to the blog. I think I need to invest in one of three new base alcohols: whiskey, gin, or tequila, but I can't decide which one. Help me please ;-)

I'm also trying to figure out what to do about the couple of drinks in the book that call for eggs. I'm vegan, so it's a bit of a problem. The egg nog I can just buy Silk's soy nog and add some rum. No big deal. But there are a couple others that are less cut and dry. Do I look to see if there are vegan recipes online? Do I suck it up and have the eggs and just make sure they are local and organic? Suggestions would be appreciated.