1 post tagged “signature drink”

What is your signature drink?

Trick question! It's a variable answer depending on the season, mood, financial status, even location.

That's right, location. Example: I drank sake far more routinely in Japan than I do in the States. In the scorching Southwest, I drank far more beer than red wine, which is consumed in greater quantity in the chilly dreary climate of the Pacific Northwest.

In short, there's a rhythm to my drink that's aligned with external conditions. Hence a trick question!

However, in a sweeping overview, it'd break down thusly:

1. Signature drink in general: Beer. Good beer. Which excludes the U.S. grande trio of Budweiser, Coors and Miller. Of the innumerable beers down this gullet, the singlemost memorable was a weissbier in Germany. Lo the decades pass yet I'm still besotted by and beholden to that single glass, recalling every detail, except location, the way one remembers a first kiss.

2. Signature drink when broke and unemployed: Pabst, the tall boys.

The brew of the blue collar. This is as low as I'll go in flavor ("flavor") and quality ("quality") and it's still a step above the big three. I consume under no illusion that it's tasty or my drink of choice but one dictated by economics; I'm down with that. When I was jobless, I felt deep gratitude and appreciation at being able to drink in a pub at all, even if it was one tall boy at $2.50 (3.17 AU, 1.78 EU) nursed for the night. Pabst wormed its way into a unique spot in my heart, not unlike that lone pair of worn tired shoes with slopping soles when a new pair is but a dream out of reach.

3. Signature daily drink outside the beer category: red wine. Funny about wine. I'm particular about beer but red wine I'll drink anything, no complaints if out of a box. I've no standards - rather, haven't cared enough to discover them.

4. Signature drink for chilling: a martini. (to be clear, that's with gin, not vodka, a common misperception.) Dry. With two or three olives, depending on size. I'm also rather fond of the dirty martini though it doesn't speak to my heart like the classic. And my baby is:

4. Signature drink when I need a real drink: rye whiskey. Neat. Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it pure. Of all spirits, this embraces and encompasses my soul like no other. There's an affinity deep and profound. It's my choice also as a writer. It's not one I drink daily, though I really should rectify that. It centers and soothes (again like no other). If that German weissbier is the first kiss, then rye whiskey is ... my spirit alive. As I said, it's profound, a marriage of the divine. It'd be a sad world without it.

5. Signature drink for a long spell in my youth: the Pink Lady. Surprising how many folks don't know this cocktail, including bartenders. For you Lady virgins, it's gin, grenadine, cream and ice in a blender. Its lovely shade of pink brings to mind a Pepto Bismol shake. I've not held this Lady to my lips in a long long while due to changing (evolving) tastes; I no longer do frou-frou (neither sweet) drinks and have built the liquor chops since the era of the Pink Lady. Still, I hold her in a certain fondness, even without the cherry-red sword.