Time for Novel Argot

February 4, 2024 1:33 PM

Now, with cocktail culture saturating the country anew, we’re in the middle of a glittering renaissance of bar lingo. The most common terms thrown about today are both functional and fun; they also offer a vivid snapshot of the current state of the industry in the U.S. and the way it is evolving. Reflecting the increasing crossover between restaurants and bars, for instance, many of-the-moment twists of the tongue are pulled directly from the restaurant industry (think “86’d,” “heard” and “behind.”). At Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., for example, bartenders address each other as “chef,” as a sign of deference and respect, an organic evolution of their in-house language that predates The Bear. And as bars continue to adopt high-level scientific techniques, the nuances of redistilling, centrifuges, rotovaps and clarification demand their own attendant terms. from The New Vocabulary of Cocktails [Punch]

Taylor Swift's New Favorite Cocktail Is Having A Viral Moment [delish]
Cocktail of the week: Twelve Triangles’ rhubarb, cardamom and white balsamic shrub – recipe [Grauniad]

posted by chavenet (15 comments total)

Obligatory (if aging): Shit Bartenders Say
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:28 PM on February 4 [2 favorites]

whatever it takes to upcharge you into accepting the $24 bill for your gin and tonic
posted by djseafood at 3:56 PM on February 4 [4 favorites]

I do like zero-proof as an alternative to mocktail. Spiritfree doesn't immediately trigger "all yes, a no-alcohol drink" in my brain though.
posted by spamandkimchi at 5:58 PM on February 4 [3 favorites]

Necromancers aren’t happy about the co-opting of “spiritfree,” a term long used to mark the difference between automata and conscious necromantic constructs. Thanks, bartenders! Way to treat the professionals you rely on to keep your basements free of cursed corpses….
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:22 PM on February 4 [15 favorites]

same way you can add anything to vodka and call it a *-tini to class it up, you can add whatever you like to prosecco and call it a spritz. gin spritz. tequila spritz. rumplemintz spritz.

when it comes to vodka and prosecco, tho, the quantity determines what label you get. more prosecco = vodka spritz. more vodka = classy alcoholic.
posted by logicpunk at 7:18 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

"The cocktail dark ages of the 1970s and ’80s"

I object. A fifth of tequila poured into an almost-full 2-Liter bottle of A&W root beer = crazy delicious.

Serve in a room-temperature kitchen cup—or, drink straight from the bottle. Much fun at your local billiards hall, especially if you are under 21, or were at the time. This was the age of enlightenment.

We called it "Root Boozle".
posted by not_on_display at 10:54 PM on February 4 [5 favorites]

If you like cocktails, the best thing I can recommend is getting Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold. You don't have to get the rotovap or other cool as shit he talks about, but even just understanding the basics behind why things work the way they do is so insightful.
posted by Carillon at 11:48 PM on February 4 [3 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted; don't threadshit. If you don't like discussion related to alcohol, don't read or comment in a thread about cocktails.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:38 AM on February 5 [10 favorites]

We took my mother and stepfather to a restaurant in Portland like, 10-12 years ago. I ordered a cocktail, and while she didn't really drink, she looked at the menu and got *very* excited because they had a drink with Fernet Branca. I kind of shrugged (I'd never heard of it) and she talked about the most wonderful book she just finished, Cooking with Fernet Branca. She waxed poetic about the story, and explained that Fernet was very rare and exotic, and she hadn't seen it on any menus (nevermind that her general experience with restaurant menus for the prior 15 years was limited to the same 5 or 6 restaurants in Monterey).

She asked the server if she could have some, and they offered her a shot. They brought it out, and she tasted it, and made a face that indicated she thought the author of the book must have confused the titular ingredient with something else.

I have many complicated (and likely pathological) feelings about her, how she viewed herself and how she actually was, and this incident stood out to me as an example.

And then, after that trip, I started seeing Fernet on more and more menus, in a wide variety of different places. And then as an ingredient in restaurant dishes. Every time it came up, I'd angry-laugh with Mrs. Gorgik about "how rare and exotic" it was. The whole thing culminated a few years ago where I was somewhere that had Fernet Branca ice cream.

Anyway, that's what the first entry on this list made me think of. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
posted by Gorgik at 12:47 PM on February 5 [5 favorites]

one time i almost got tossed into a canal in venice for asking for a fernet spritz
posted by logicpunk at 2:10 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]

Fernet Branca seems too powerful to use in a drink that isn’t meant to taste mostly like fernet. The classic cola mix is kind of perfect in that regard. Keeps the “patent medicine” quality - and if you didn’t want that, why are you drinking it? - but cuts the bitterness.
posted by atoxyl at 3:08 PM on February 5

Actually I bet it would also be good with root beer.
posted by atoxyl at 3:11 PM on February 5 [3 favorites]

Mixing Prosecco and vodka sounds like crossing the streams.

Admittedly, I stick to beer, not the hard stuff.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:44 PM on February 5

Hanky Panky is a classic cocktail with Fernet which doesn't tastes that bad for people who doesn't yet have the acquired taste. Personally, Fernet is one of my favourite bitters. I like it as much as Unicum which also has a somewhat controversial reputation.
posted by kmt at 11:30 PM on February 5

Hanky Panky is a classic cocktail with Fernet which doesn't tastes that bad for people who doesn't yet have the acquired taste

My friend came pretty close to independently reinventing this (working off the template of a Negroni) and I wasn’t sure it quite fit together but we weren’t being too careful with the ratios.
posted by atoxyl at 12:46 PM on February 6