Every once in a while I like a G & T. Refreshing, nice flavor. In the course of a year I probably drink 3 bottles. I like to try different ones at times too.
Yesterday I stopped at a nearby liquor store and it is under new ownership and they changed the shelves and merchandise. In the gin aisle, they had 52 different gins.
Of the 52, I've already tried about 10. Of the remaining 42 there are about six I have no interest in. That leave 36 different gins to try.
At 3 bottles a year, I'm going to be tied up on this project for the next 12 years!
This is in addition to the four bourbons and two Scotchs in the house that have to be finished. I'm going to be a busy man.
They've learned from the vodka folks. Couple decades ago, there were just a dozeb vodkas. Even 10 years ago, what? Maybe 20? Now the liquor store has a whole aisle, not only vodka, but flavored vodka. WTF? The whole point to vodka is that it's pure alcohol. Now you can buy toasted marshmallow, wedding cake, God knows what. I don't even know how a store sells enough of them to keep it on the shelf. I can see toasted marshmallow for a martini bar, but enough people want to buy that at a store?
When I was 19 and in the Navy, stationed in Jacksonville, I went to a roadhouse because they had a girly show. I got there early, had a few Tom Collins, was down to just enough money left to get back to the base.
Since it was still an hour or so until the show I figured I'd best just leave. As I was doing so, a swarthy gentleman in a double breasted suit appeared and, in a NY accent, asked, "Hey kid, where ya goin'?". I explained that I was tapped out and he says, "Eh, sit down, it's on the house".
I sat down. Two good looking young ladies appeared and also sat down. I proceeded to drink many more Tom Collins while enjoying both their company and the show. I drank so many that I puked in the bathroom. I haven't been able to stand gin since. Scotch - especially The Glenlivet - is fine, rum too.
When I was 22 and in the merchant navy I had a drinking competition with the Huge radio officer. It was Gin and something else chucked in. After the best part of two bottles between us I found myself on my back and went to my bunk. He was still standing.
LOL.... In the past decade or two there has been a product explosion with all food and drink. In some ways, I find it a pain in the ass, because how many brands of potato chips do we really need? Do I really have to look at all the brands, check the price, read the label, etc... I used to just toss a bag of chips in the cart and move on....
For Gin or any liquor, how much can they really change it? Sure, there's the cheap stuff, which is usually not the best for flavor, and there's the ultra expensive, which is usually just paying for the brand name. So I tend to look somewhere in the middle. Actually, not for Gin though. I never much cared for it. Beer is usually what I prefer anyhow, and I tend to like the old names in beer, like Pabst, Hamms, Old Style, etc. All these lite and ultralite beers are watered down flavorless crap.
But when it comes to hard liquor, I do occasionally like to buy a few of those sample bottles. Usually 1.5 to 2 oz. (a shot). For a buck or two, you get to try the stuff, and if it's bad, you dont have any left. I recently tried those samples for some new creamy liquor called "Tippy Cow". So, Painted Cow had to give that a try. :). I liked it. Comes in 4 flavors, and I tried all 4. Quite flavorful, and actually quite low in alcohol content, which is fine with me, because I dont drink to get drunk, I drink what tastes good.
Of those flavored vodkas, I like the UV blue (raspberry) or UV Red (Cherry), mixed with Mountain Dew. On the rare occasion I have a mixed drink, that's what it is. Or a shot of Fireball, which has a really good flavor.
But then again, once something like that comes out, 10 or more companies make some sort of similar thing. Soon a liquor store will need to be as big as a Walmart in order to have enough shelf space.
There's still "Absolut Peppar". Jalepeno vodka. I'd like to try that, but no local stores have it. I look forward to trying that one.... Maybe mixed with tomato juice or bloody mary mix...
Either way, if they keep making so many products, we will soon need grocery stores and liquor stores, where we can drive our cars down the aisle, or we wont be able to get thru the snack aisle without collapsing from exhaustion, from all the walking.... I guess that's why I do most grocery shopping at the dollar stores. They have limited items, so I can get done quickly and not spend a lot either. Potato Chips are Potato chips.... Most are all the same....
But when it comes to soups, I avoid all those dollar store generic brands. I never understood why they sell salt water and call it soup. n that case, I stick to Campbells.
See how many you can find in miniatures. That makes the test go faster with less choking down gin you don't like (although it all tastes about the same to me)
I once drank so many hot chocolates, that I got a chocolate mustache. I had to go home and use a warm wet wash cloth on my upper lip. Good thing my Bishop never found out.
Can't do Scotch . Three times in my life I drank Scotch . Three nights of my life I don't remember . I can remember the first drink , maybe part of the second , after that it's blackout city .
If you'd like less water, in Mexico, they used to sell bottles of what I remember being called "aquardiente" which were in the range of 180+ proof for $0.50 per liter. Been a while :)
Have you any recommendations? As 'PaintedCow' says in a parallel followup:
I usually try to keep my liquor cabinet stocked with one each of the major beverage groups (rum, whisky, tequila, etc.) because you never know who might show up. I should get a gin too, but I don't have a lot of experience with gin. Is it something that is ever downed 'straight up', or does one really need to mix it with tonic water?
I am partial myself to just about any kind of liqueur. Most of them are too sweet to get drunk on without getting sick as well, so I will only have one or two shots. Some (Chartreuse, Jagermeister, Benedictine, etc.) are just too weird tasting to waste the space in the liquor cabinet after I have tried out a bottle.
Gin is the major ingredient in a martini. Otherwise tonic water is the main mixer for it.
If you want to pick up a bottle any of the major brands is a good start. Bombay, Tanquray, Hendricks. Beefeater, etc. There are dozens of premium gins if you want to expand.
Used to drink martini's (a/k/a "Blabbermouth Soup") but no more
Of those listed, Tanqueray was/is my favorite but no longer martini's. My gin drink of choice is "TNT" Tanqueray 'n Tonic.
That said, there was a new gin to come on the market (at least here in the Midwest) in recent years, called New Amsterdam. Quite a bit cheaper than the others but very smooth and makes a delicious TNT (well, actually, it would be a NANT I guess).
New Amsterdam also makes a vodka. Can't say anything about it one way or the other as I rarely have vodka other than in an occasional screw driver or Bloody Mary and I like the latter so hot, you could use grain alcohol and I'd never know from whence the buzz cometh.
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