Red-eye Roulette: Grumpy Old Man

Dear Internet,

I cannot express how much joy you bring me.  If it were not for you, I would probably be outside right now, actively participating in a physical activity in which I have no interest.  Instead of swimming in a lake, I am watching someone else swim in a lake on Youtube.  Instead of watching a sporting event on television, I am following my friend’s reactions on Twitter and Facebook.  Life is good.

But all is not perfect in this relationship, internet.  No, there is one outstanding issue that I have with you: there are too many websites that provide user-submitted cocktail recipes.  You know the sites, the ones where the drinking community can post the cocktail they concocted last night; the one they had to create because they ran out of orange juice so they used Bud Light instead.  What am I supposed to do with all of these drinks?  Are any of them good?  How do I filter out all of the cocktail nonsense?

Sincerely,

A Disgruntled Drink Searcher

Well, seeing as how the internet hasn’t responded to me personally (yet), I decided to get to the bottom of this whole business with a series of posts called: Red-eye Roulette! (Applause)  Many of us try to be bold and attempt to get out of our comfort zones with a new cocktail.  We have been to those overwhelming websites with page upon page of drinks that you have no idea if they are good or not, only to get desperate.  Eventually, you end up with something that only the bravest of us or those firmly entrenched in the college lifestyle should try.  The easy solution would be to ignore those drinks and just stick with what you know, but I am a glutton for punishment; therefore, I will be trying a random drink approximately once a week to help filter out the noise. 

Without further ado, this week’s drink is: the Grumpy Old Man.   (The fine folks at http://www.drinksmixer.com/ will even scale the recipe to the number of servings you desire.) 

       

Disclaimer: it’s ultimately up to you to decide the quality of the whiskey you put into these drinks, but for this one, I wouldn’t use anything from the top shelf.

Lucky me, it’s a bourbon recipe.  I used W.L. Weller 12 year old bourbon for this recipe, which has high wheat content, so the bourbon is fairly smooth.  The shot of lime reminds me of a whisky sour, but the ginger ale adds a dry mouth feel.  Don’t have any tequila?  No problem, because I can’t help but thinking that this drink is a perfectly fine substitute for a margarita.  Sure, the ginger ale adds crispness to the drink that you won’t find in a margarita, but when push comes to shove and you just happen to have some ginger ale, give it a try.

Did you take the leap of faith and try the Grumpy Old Man?  Let me know what you think in the comments.  As always, follow me on Twitter for updates on new posts and random other thoughts about cocktails.