Drink Questions

[elucreh]

Okay, so here they are. Even if you pick just one or two to answer, they'll be finished pretty quick!

Can you taste:

Gin
Tequila
Rum
Vermouth
Southern Comfort

How strong is:

Vodka
Gin
Tequila
Schnapps
Vermouth
Brandy
Everclear
Southern Comfort
Fruit Liqueurs

What is:

Galliano
Acerola
Absolut
Blue Curacao
Razzmatazz
Cointreau
Passoa
Campari
Triple Sec
Amaretto
Maui


Thanks to anybody who can help!

Comments

I used to be a bartender

[ari-o.livejournal.com]

Gin - tastes like pine needles
Tequila - tastes good
Rum - tastes warm
Vermouth - tastes like medicine
Southern Comfort - is very sweet

How strong is:

Vodka usally about 80 proof which is 40% alcohol
Gin is about the same as vodka usually ~80 proof
Tequila - has a greater range of proofs - but good Tequila should laso be about 80 proof
Schnapps - is stronger - about 100 proof
Vermouth - is low like 32 proof
Brandy - is about 25% alcohol (more than wine - less than hard liquor)
Everclear - is ridiculous - like almost 100% alcohol.
Southern Comfort - 76% I had to googe that one!
Fruit Liqueurs - depends.

What is:

Galliano is a sweet Itaina liquer made from herbs, flowers and anise
Acerola - is um a nutrient... ??
Absolut - Vodka
Blue Curacao - is maily used to make drinks blue. I think it s Hawaiian
Razzmatazz - raspberry liquor
Cointreau - orange liquor, a little bitter
Passoa - passion fruit liqour
Campari - is an aperatif made from herbs. You drink it before dinner and it whets your appetite.
Triple Sec - orange liqour (sweet) used in margaritas.
Amaretto - almond liquor.
Maui - not a clue

Re: I used to be a bartender

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Wow, are you amazing! *glomps you happily* Now I can decide what to virtually drink!

Re: I used to be a bartender

[ari-o.livejournal.com]

I reccomend a good maragrita, rum and orange juice with fresh lime and lots of ice, or lemonade with a shot of good bourbon.

My standard cocktail is ketel one (vodka) and cranberrry. :D

[ari-o.livejournal.com]

whoa typos.

Galliano is Italian

Campari is an Italian aperetif. Usually mixed with soda.

Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Gin tastes very sharp - it tastes like juniper, and to me it tastes like standing next to a very scented branch of the plant. You can taste it, but it's almost a suggestion of a taste in the sharpness, if that makes sense.

Tequila tastes like CRAP. It makes me sick if I have more than two shots of it, and NOTHING makes me sick alcohol wise, not even large quantities. Tequila is something that you either like or you hate - there doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Can't give you more info on what it actually tastes like, as I've learned my lesson not to drink it.

Rum often depends on what flavour it is. If Malibu, you can taste the coconut and a slight "unpleasant alcohol" effect - same for vanilla rum. Rum is almost always a mixer, though, so it usually tastes like whatever it's mixed with, plus any fruit or other flavour in the rum. It is, compared to most alcohol, sweeter.

Vermouth and SoCo I know as mixers and not well at that.

As to strength, there are a LOT of factors. I can drink an entire bottle of Malibu - the same would probably kill a friend of mine, who can drink an entire bottle of Bailey's, but there's a difference of 10% in the amount of alcohol. So it would depend on your character's size and drinking experience - I'd start by looking at amount of alcohol by volume and deciding how much experience Padma has. On the other hand, Everclear is going to be strong no matter who you are, and tequila usually is as well, but again, it either makes you sick or not. Schnapps is traditionally fairly strong, but I'm not sure how that plays out in reality. Another part of the strength consideration is that it's easier to drink sweet liquers because of the sweet than it is to neck back a bottle of vodka, unless you REALLY like the taste of vodka. We're conditioned to drink sweet, with sodas and juices, and that carries over to alcohol.

Galliano is traditionally a mixer; Absolut is a brand of vodka, with MANY flavours; blue curacao is a mixer (I believe it has no alcohol, but it might have a slight amount); Razzmatazz probably is like Pucker, which tastes like an alcohol-soaked Jolly Rancher of your choice. Cointreau is orange liquer, and tastes strongly of orange - it's often a mixer. Triple Sec is another that I believe has no alcohol. Amaretto is sweet, but beyond that I'm not sure, other than that amaretto is used as a flavour in many things - you can get amaretto candy and ice cream, which are good.

At any rate, your mileage may vary. Another thing I thought of is that if your conception of Padma is very feminine, she's not likely to drink tequila or everclear (which is illegal in most states anyway). British drinks, additionally, are different from American ones in a lot of cases, particularly the more girly drinks. I'd try googling some British sites and see what they say about drinks, but, for example, Archers and orange juice is our Fuzzy Navel, being peach schnapps and orange juice. If you want a more "clubby" feel to Padma, Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Breezers (available in DIFFERENT flavours from the US versions) are considerations as well.

Whee, that went long. Hope that helps. My credential here is that I worked as a bar manager in the UK for about a year and a half, but it ws not a major bar. Also, you've left out whiskey, which it's unlikely she'd drink anyway, but it's in the UK in greater quantities than the US.

Re: Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[florahart]

Blue curacao: 54 proof. And sweet.

Amaretto does have liquor. So does Triple Sec. I don't have any of either to hand to see how much.

Rum: Also, Rum is ~80 proof, unless you are drinking Bacardi 151. Which is 151 proof and will knock you on your ass in half the time. I enjoy that every time I buy some they make sure I know it's 151.

Re: Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[starrysummer.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Amaretto and Triple Sec are both around 30 proof.

Mmmm, amaretto.

Re: Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[allichan.livejournal.com]

I will second your: "Mmmm" and raise you a *drool*

Amaretto and sprite tastes like marzipan!

Re: Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Hm. I must have been thinking of other mixers about the Blue Curacao. We had a shelf of bottles that no one ordered (because they never ordered mixed drinks) so we started making up drinks. Can't think what else was on that shelf...it was all the same brand though.

*rambles*

Re: Your mileage may vary, but here's my answers

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Yes, I left out the whiskey because I know (from far too many "getting drunk" fics *sheepish grin*) the basics of how it tastes and how it affects people.

But thanks, that does help a lot...I found a "drink recipe" site and now I'm trying to figure out which of several recipes I'm going to use, so it's nice to have the details. *hugs thank you*

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Blue Curacao, despite its blue color, is actually an orange liquer (and yes it does have alcohol, I can attest to that!).

A good online reference guide: webtender.com

You'll be able to look up almost anything alcoholic there.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Yep, actually that's where I got my list! I decided on a bit of a whim that everything this girl drinks will have grapefruit in it, so I searched webtender for grapefruit drinks and compiled a list of drinks I might use and ingredients I didn't recognise.

But thanks for the Blue Curacao info...it seems to have bewildered most people!

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Just as a note, grapefruit juice is not usually used as a mixer in standard drinks. Not all bars stock it. I know because it's a favorite juice of mine, and sometimes I like to drink it by itself after drinking alcoholic beverages. You might find it on webtender, but that's because a lot of those drinks are made up by desperate college students. :B (Which is how I know about blue curacao, it was all we had one night and we ended up taking shots, swigging it from the bottle, and mixing it with stuff you'd NEVER mix alcohol with.)

Which isn't to say you can't make it her "signature" ingredient, but it might have different connotations than you intended it to.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Ah...*goes deep into thought*

That may work. It may not. I shall have to reflect.

But thanks, seriously, that may be a big factor.

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Of course, while I was in the UK all I drank was beer. (Mmm...Irish Car Bombs...) And that one night with the pitchers of sex on the beach. So you might want to check with a brit as well. Maybe it's insanely popular over there. Although it didn't really seem like it when I was out.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

LOL, yeah, I'll check. This girl is not going to drink beer, I promise you that. Except for one...episode? What's the right wording?...which I'm already plotting where there is despair and angst and completely falling off the public image thing. *eg*

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Public image, eh? You might want to ask a brit what the "in" drink is then. Like over here it was Cosmopolitans for a while. Now its...err...mojitos? Man, I remember hearing about the new in drink but I can't remember which one it is. Oh well. I'm a very strict Long Island Ice Tea girl myself. Which does say something about me. :B (Seriously, if boys offer to buy you a drink and you ask for a LIT their eyebrows will shoot up to their hair line.)

I found this while I was looking for info, you might find something interesting.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001290023-2004390804,00.html

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out, thanks! That article is really interesting.

It's not...quite...trends that she follows, though...I dunno, it makes sense in my head, because she's getting all these layers. I need to double-check a couple of the histories of the other players, but if they check out the way I remember, she'll have been one of those Agatha-Christie-Countess-type spies during the war, and now she's still kind of stuck in the vamp role. She's trying to get up her courage to be a different person, but for right now she's still caressing the wrists of older men in order to convince them to buy her drinks. *g* The grapefruit came from the connotations with dieting and the need to maintain her looks. It's...odd, because she has different motivations simultaneously and in progression...bah! I haven't even started writing yet!

LOL, sorry for dumping all that on you. I'm still trying to articulate it all.

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha...man I was NOT planning on going out drinking tonight, and now I'm fired up! Okay, I should stop looking up drinks at work. Mmm...sour apple martinis though...drool.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

I can taste any alcohol (including the supposed tasteless vodka), but the stronger it is, the less it tastes like anything but alcohol.

Southern Comfort is the only one I have a strong association with. It tastes like cough syrup. Works like pretty good cough syrup, too, especially mixed with some ginger ale. It's not a bad association, actually. It's, well, comforting, like being looked after when you're sick. :Fern decides to get some SoCo and ginger ale after work:

Vodka: strong; makes me sick every time I drink it. And do not, repeat NOT, mix it with blueberry Kool Aid. It looks like Romulan Ale, but is way more disgusting.
SoCo: mild-seeming, but it will suddenly catch up

Cointreau is having a big advertising pitch around here right now. It appears to be an orange liqueur.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[magnolia-mama.livejournal.com]

Depending on the context in which Padma will be drinking, you also have the options of Pimms mixed with a clear carbonated soda like Fresca; kir royale, which is a black currant liqueur mixed with champagne; or cider, which is a slightly sweeter, fizzier and less robust drink than lager. If you're going for hops-based drinks, be sure you understand the distinctions between ale, stout and lager as well.

MM

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Padma is not a hops girl. Definitively. LOL.

But thanks for the advice!

[allichan.livejournal.com]

Oh that's weird! The bar I go to makes Kir Royales out of Chambord! I never realized the actual ingredient was creme de cassis.

You learn something new everyday. :B

Mmmm...Kir Royales...