What to drink?

February 7, 2015 11:42 AM

My friends and I would like a drink we haven't tried (i.e. not a screwdriver or other widely consumed drink). We're none of us big drinkers so we each contributed stuff that's been hanging around in a cupboard unused. Here's a list of what we gathered:

Bacardi's Spiced Rum
Kirland's Tequila Anejo
Jose Cuervo Especial
Jim Beam White Ghost
Triple Sec
Amsterdam Berry Vodka
Sweet and Sour Mix
Sauza Tequila Gold
Ginger Beer
Cranberry juice
Pink lemonade
Mixed fruit juice
Tea
Lemons
RumChata

Bonus points for including the ratio in the recipe.

posted by Ik ben afgesneden to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

You should check out cocktailbuilder.com.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 11:44 AM on February 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you could put your hands on some lime juice I'll bet the spiced rum would work just fine as the spirit in a Dark and Stormy. You could even forgo the lime juice and the rum and ginger beer would probably be quite tasty.

Replace the rum with the berry vodka and you've got a berry-infused version of the Moscow Mule.
posted by firechicago at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Rum and ginger beer gets you most of the way to a dark and stormy. Tea and lemonade with rum, tequilla, or vodka is an adult arnold palmer. Try all three, like a flight. Let me know which is best.

Rumchata is strange.
posted by vrakatar at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes! Dark and Stormy! You'll never look back.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:01 PM on February 7, 2015

Variant Moscow Mule is frozen ginger beer and lime zest, crushed into slushy, and vodka to cover with lime juice.
posted by jadepearl at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would do equal parts Triple Sec, Lemonade, Sweet and Sour and Tequila, serve with a lemon wedge. Kind of like a Margarita, only lemon instead of lime.

I do a take on a Sea Breeze that I call a Ruthie. A shot of Berry Vodka, equal parts cranberry juice and lemonade. If you had grapefruit instead of lemonade, it would be perfect. If your fruit juice is citrus fruit, throw that in there instead of lemonade.

Long Island Iced Tea: Ingredient in equal parts, Tea (technically not in the real deal, but we can work with it,) white, unflavoredliquors, triple sec. Serve with lemon wedge.

But yeah, I'm a huge fan of the dark and stormy.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2015

My favorite drink in the entire universe is Ray's Mistake. The recipe is a secret, but here are 13 pages of people trying to reverse-engineer it. There are theories and specific recipes and it looks like you have most of what people are playing with. I bet they're all good.

FYI, a Ray's Mistake tastes like baby aspirin, which is probably all you need to know to love it or hate it already.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:25 PM on February 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Rum, ginger beer, lemon twist. Not exactly a Dark n Stormy, but close enough.
posted by gnutron at 12:39 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

You don't need lime for a Dark and Stormy, but you do need dark rum, which Bacardi Spiced is not. I'd still mix it with ginger beer and drink it, but don't mistake it for the proper cocktail.

The berry vodka would work with the lemonade, assuming the vodka doesn't have a terrifying artificial chemical flavor (a problem I've encountered with flavored vodkas in the past), in which case I'd just throw it away altogether.

And the ratio for liquor to mixer in a cocktail over ice can vary anywhere from 1:1 to 1:3, depending on taste.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:23 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Berry Vodka and Lemonade garnish with mint! pretty awesome and deadly easy to drink.

The Harrison: 3 oz. Grapefruit, 2 oz. Tequila, 1 oz. Triple Sec, 1 oz. lime juice, splash of Cranberry juice. Shake and serve over ice. not my recipe but invented by a bartender friend, amazing; also deadly.

you should probably pour the Rumchata and Spiced Rum down the sink.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 1:34 PM on February 7, 2015

If you've never had a proper cocktail style margarita, make that! 2 parts tequila, 1 part triple sec, 1 part fresh squeezed lime juice, 1 part sugar/water syrup (easy to make.) Shake if you can, or stir, then serve over ice. It beats a mix-based margarita hands down.
posted by Wulfhere at 1:39 PM on February 7, 2015

If you've never had a proper cocktail style margarita, make that! 2 parts tequila, 1 part triple sec, 1 part fresh squeezed lime juice, 1 part sugar/water syrup (easy to make.) Shake if you can, or stir, then serve over ice. It beats a mix-based margarita hands down.

A classic Margarita doesn't even have the simple syrup. It's surprisingly delicious, even if you're used to the spiked fruit juice variety.
posted by mr vino at 2:43 PM on February 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Lot of good suggestions above.

I haven't tasted your specific rum but maybe a rum flip? 5 parts rum, 1 egg white, and a splash of simple syrup (or maybe the RumChata you have) shaken with ice. Strain into a chilled glass. Maybe a little nutmeg or cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Have fun, try making mini cocktails (tea or tablespoons instead of ounces) so you can experiment without wasting too much if it sucks.

on edit: I agree with mr vino, no simple syrup in the margarita—the triple sec/Cointreau should be enough.
posted by JackBurden at 2:49 PM on February 7, 2015

Spiced run + iced tea + simple syrup = Cajun Iced Tea. It's awesome. I don't remember the exact proportions but I think you use about a glass of iced tea, a shot of rum, and a dash of simple syrup. It goes over really well at parties!

You can either make your own iced tea or buy it by the gallon at the store.

Simple syrup is really easy to make you just boil equal parts water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
posted by radioamy at 2:55 PM on February 7, 2015

Best answer: Classic cocktail is 2 parts strong, 1 part sweet, 1 part sour.

Tequila, triple sec, lemon will be good.

Is the berry vodka sweet? If yes, tequila, berry vodka, lemonade. If no, berry vodka, triple sec, lemonade/lemon juice.

Is the Jim beam white ghost a kind of bourbon? If so, bourbon, triple sec, lemon makes a quite good cocktail.

For all these, shake over ice.

I'd try the spiced rum with lemon in ginger beer, too. No idea of oroportions, maybe 2 oz rum to 1/2 oz lemon, over ice, and fill the glass with soda.

Basically, 2:1:1 strong:sweet:sour almost never lets me down.
posted by leahwrenn at 8:03 PM on February 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

For pretty much any of the liquors, you can pour a shot of liquor and a squeeze of a lemon quarter on ice in a highball glass, and then top it off with ginger beer and garnish with the lemon wedge, and you've got some kind of a buck cocktail. For me personally, I like Dark and Stormies but I don't particularly care for spiced rum, so I would probably go for either the tequila or the white whiskey as a base spirit, but try them all and see what you like. Maybe grab a couple of limes too and see what goes better with lime juice as opposed to lemon.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 11:16 PM on February 7, 2015

What about alcoholic beverages from other countries? Makgeolli, Soju, Nihonshu, etc.

Maangchi has an unusual list of drinks on her website, including a dessert punch with persimmons.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:49 AM on February 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Make a Switchel!
posted by amoeba at 4:46 PM on February 8, 2015

I don't understand the hate for Rumchata in this thread. It's like a rice-milk, cinnamony version of Irish cream. Goes great in coffee, good with rum or whiskey. Not exactly what I'd use with tequila.

For a warm drink you could add an ounce of Rumchata, an ounce and a half of that berry vodka, and a squeeze of lemon in a mug of tea (assuming it's black).
posted by cult_url_bias at 6:13 PM on February 8, 2015