Tonic ≠ Club Soda

N00bs. We are. At least when it comes to cocktails. Up until last Friday we thought we had been enjoying amazing Gin & Tonics. Not the case.

We have a SodaStream, so we make our own sparkling water. Turns out sparkling water and tonic are not the same thing. Not even close. Boy do we feel dumb and unedumacated.

We bought some tonic on Friday because our CO2 tank is pretty much empty and it requires soooo much effort to go to Walmart and get a refill. The husband made us some drinks with the store-bought tonic, and the concoction tasted oddly sweet. Well, tonic is sweet! It's supposed to be! Our new favorite drinks, Gin & Tonics, have, in fact, been Gin & Sodas.

Like I said, unedumacated.

Well, luckily we had the ingredients for Tuaca Sunrises (yeah, Gin & Tonic was too sweet, grenadine wasn't...), so the evening turned out ok. We used Tuaca (Vanilla Citrus), orange juice and a splash of grenadine. And ice, of course. Yummy!

First Round: Tanqueray vs. New Amsterdam

Even though March is over, March Madness isn't. Baseball (go Royals!) also started back up, so there has been no time to make or drink fancy cocktails. Barely enough time for some serious channel surfing and cracking open a cold one. Sports and beer are like chips and salsa. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Someone was too nervous to watch the Final Four games.

Well, I lied. A little. Gin and tonics were had last week. On Thursday. We made them kind of weak, on purpose, because we try not to enjoy too many libations during the week. Unless it's a special occasion. Like a new episode of Parks and Rec.

Neither of us has never, ever been a huge fan of gin. Surprisingly, though, gin and tonic is really, really tasty. And easy. Gin, tonic, lime juice, ice. That's it. And you'll look super cool while sipping your sophisticated drink.

Actually we used gin comparison as another excuse to have a nice little night cap. Could we, or could we not, tell the difference between a top shelf (Tanqueray) and a middle shelf (New Amsterdam) gin?

We couldn't. Must continue educating our palates, then. Must not give up.

Moscow Mule

• ice
• healthy amount of vodka
• ginger beer
• lime to taste

*****

We had a few friends over last Friday to watch college basketball and play some college sports in the basement (if you know what I mean). They brought over the ingredients for Moscow Mules, listed above.

Not having tried ginger beer before, we didn't really know what to expect. The drink tasted like, well, ginger beer, which means the "healthy amount of vodka" disappeared. Dangerous.

This probably wouldn't fall under the category of Fancy Cocktails (especially since we mixed it in a plastic cup...), but as an occasional I want to get buzzed asap drink it works well. Not too sweet, worth a second try.

Bar Rescue

It all started with an old bar counter from a local Buffalo Wild Wings, a mancavish basement with room for a bar, and the urge to build and re-purpose.

With this new piece of furniture comes extra storage. For booze. And the realization, that neither of us knows anything about proper cocktails. Captain and Coke doesn't really count. Plus it's yucky, she thinks.

This blog exists for a reason. We are determined to learn how to tell the difference between New Amsterdam and Tanqueray, and how to enjoy (and make!) fancy drinks. We shall report our progress (or decline) and the occasional hangovers to the entire Blogosphere. Because why not.

Well, mostly this is just the easiest way to keep a drunk drink diary.