Cocktails in flight
 

What types of more complex cocktails can FAs make on TATL flights in BE?

Old fashioneds or Sazeracs ? Do they even stock bitters?

I don't want to embarrass myself by ordering something they dont have ingredients for or have never heard of.

Go for it!
 

If you are talking about SFO or LAX to JFK, then I'd say order whatever you want exactly the way you want.

I'm often in plain old domestic F. Thankfully, Delta stocks a decent tequila even on its regional partner flights. Used to order "tequila on ice with lime." Recently Delta doesn't seem to stock limes, so now its either with plain ice or lemon. Please please, don't ever ask for a Margarita. The canned mix is god-awful!

I've watched "professional" bartenders screw up making drinks like an Old Fashioned. I would never consider ordering something like that from a flight attendant.

Anything more complex than alcohol+canned mixer and you're asking for failure, I think.

Old Fashion
 

I had to look this one up:

Main alcohol: Whisky
Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz Bourbon or Rye whiskey, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 Sugar cube, Few dashes plain water
Preparation: Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters, add a dash of plain water. Muddle until dissolved. Fill the glass with ice cubes and add whiskey. Garnish with orange slice, and a cocktail cherry.
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish: Orange slice, Cocktail cherry
Drinkware: Old Fashioned glass

Assuming Delta stocks "bitters", I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for one on what's marketed as "Business Class". I bet an FA on SQ can handle this.
Nevertheless as a practical matter, I am afraid BSBD is right.

Cocktails in flight
 

They don't have bitters or sugar cubes

I'm betting they don't have little umbrellas, either.

They do if you're flying to Hawaii :cool:

I was curious about that, boarding LAX>HNL in F in about 2 hours.......what can I expect?

If in F ask for a Mai Tai when you board. :cool:

Aloha! :cool:

Will do! :cheers:

Cocktails in flight
 

This reminds me of a story I read about Harry and Mrs. Truman when they first occupied the White House. Their first night there the butler explained to them that part of having their own private kitchen and chef was the option to order any before dinner drinks they wanted. Mrs. Truman ordered an Old Fashioned. The butler considered himself a bit of a mixologist prepared the drink himself from his personal private recipe book. The next night Mrs. Truman ordered another Old Fashioned but mentioned that the one the previous night was just a bit sweet for her taste. Slightly miffed, the bottled mixed another Old Fashioned with half the sweetener he usually used. On the third night Mrs Truman asked for another Old Fashioned and said that the second cocktail was much better than the first, but still a bit sweet. More than a bit miffed, the butler filled a glass with bourbon (did they have Woodford back then?) and served it to the First Lady. The next night Mrs. Truman reported that was the best Old Fashioned that she'd ever had and ordered another.

I stick with the basics on board.

If they are being asked to whip up Rob Roy's and Manhattan's they definitely are going to be less interested in coming around for reorders.

A couple bottles of Woodford are pretty easy to dispense.

Drink service is really odd. On the one hand every couple months there's some fussy cocktail they push in press releases and inflight magazines. Then there' this attitude from staff and fellow travelers not to bother the FAs with anything complicated. Which is it?

What I don't get is DL spent a lot of time and money with OTG to streamline the menus and order proces for quick service in MSP and JFK gates. It would be nice to be able to have a streamlined drink menu that the FAs are comfortable making for F/J. Punch it up on the DL app or the GoGo page.

Totally agree. They also often advertise F/D1 with a picture of a martini glass, but you really can't order a martini--I don't think they even have shakers. There are several drinks served shaken and up that are VERY simple to make if they just had a shaker:

-Dirty martini
-Vodka/Gin martini with a twist
-Cosmopolitan (throw some vodka, cranberry juice & cointrau in and shake)
-Negroni (Gin, vermouth, campari).

The list continues.

Delta does not have bitters on board. And as BSBD said, most bartenders screw up an Old Fashioned, so I'm not going to trust a flight attendant to do it. In the air, I'm fine getting Woodford refills.

Actually, though, my fiancee recently got the carry on cocktail kit for me, and it's pretty cool. Comes with a classy napkin, makes two drinks. Not half bad at altitude.