Post #301244 by DemeraraDrinker on Mon, Apr 23, 2007 11:45 AM

On 2007-04-23 11:14, finkdaddy wrote:
I don't have a video, and I simply couldn't bring myself to try the drink, but check out the Mai Tai I once found at a completely over-priced, over-rated Milwaukee place called Monsoon.

All there other drinks were equally as crappy. All the "Martinis" are served in cocktail glasses with dry ice in the bottom. :roll:

I rail against stuff like this. It feels like a losing battle, cause there is this kind of classic drink perversity all over the place. The restaurant can't just find out how the drink is supposed to be made, then improve on it by using the best ingredients, staying with the original recipe, and maybe making a slight tweak or two. No, they have to do THEIR version of the ____________, which is always a simplification (can't have the bartenders cutting fruit!?!?!) and usually a sugary mess. Like the Blueberry Mojito. Or the Southern Comfort Hurricane. I lose my mind in those places.

One of the most common crap drinks is their

Original/Special/Made From Scratch/Tonight Only/I Climbed A Tree To Get The Ingredients For This/I Flew To A Secluded Island In The Caribbean To Get This Authentic Recipe From An Old Island Villager/We Risked Jail To Get This Recipe Out Of Cuba (or whatever else the menu proclaims)

Rum Punch or Planters Punch

which almost ALWAYS is just

Some combination of white and/or spiced and/or flavored rum (just Bacardi white if you're lucky)
Orange Juice
Pineapple Juice (please not from the gun)
Grenadine (1 oz to 4 oz)
Squeeze of lime (possibly sat out all day in the garnish tray so it is unsqueezable)
Serve in a pint glass

Then, every once in awhile (like that one golf shot you hit that keeps you coming back to the course), you meet a bartender who really wants to learn something new. This happened a few days ago when I ordered a Sidecar. Once we got past "But I don't have lemon juice...","You can just squeeze a lemon", he made it, it was good, and he said he would keep it in mind from now on.

And there are still good places to go, but you have to look. I was at a place that is 100 years old. I ordered an Old Fashioned. The guy topped it with a little club soda out of a BOTTLE. I said, "You probably don't have a gun here." He said, "That's right. Never have." That was kind of cool.