rjw242

Agreed that it's a cool idea; I might just make my own. 2oz bottles of simple syrup, fresh lime juice, and bitters would pretty much do it (at about one-tenth the cost)!

rdurlabhji

Brown Russian: 2x Baileys, 1x Kahlua, 1x Vodka on the rocks. Be careful...

869

Agreed on the price - I like the idea but wouldn't buy it. He rec'd it as a gift.

I stick to the basics on AA because I always get mixed, yet consistently awful, results on AA.

Glass of ice. Vodka. Can of Soda. Lemons. THANK YOU.

No more kahlua on domestic AA flights makes for one very unhappy 869 companion

roadtriper

Brown Russian sounds good!
Kahlua & Vodka =Black Russian
Kahlua , Vodka & Cream = White Russian
Grab an orange from the AC and you can cobble together a makeshift Old Fashoned . Orange Peel, Touch of sugar and some Bourbon... Underberg Bitters has a cute little 20ml bottle of bitters I've been known to travel with!
Ameretto and Vanilla Ice Cream stirred together = Snow Bear (Milkshake)
we like to get creative when traveling, if I see individual packets of Honey, Orange Marmalade etc. I'm prone to grab a couple. you never know what you may be able to throw together
I bet some dried Tropical fruit mix soaked in some Vodka would be good! RT

george 3

I enjoy two on the ground and two in the air on overnight flights. Works like a charm !

Wish they had caipirinhas on Brasil flights (cachaca, brown sugar, many limaos, and crushed ice). But then again, with the number of Brazilians on these flights, the entire cabin might sing Mas Que Nada endlessly.... ;-)

ianmanka

Since the cranberry/apple juice is very sweet, you can do 2 parts diet cola of choice, 2 parts cranberry/apple, then mix it with 1 part of your favorite liquor (well, not Bailey's, as it'll curdle).

On JAL flights, take their SKY TIME kiwi beverage and mix with vodka. The flight attendants get confused when I ask for both, and usually provide two glasses instead of mixing in one.

LovePrunes

Gin
Diet Sierra Mist
Lime garnish
(no carbs without the lime!)

jlb3

I recently asked a FA for a whiskey to add to my coffee. She looked at me weird and said she'd never heard of such a thing in her life. Really? Anyway, I recommend that as a good pick me up.

I also +1 the amaretto plus coke (cherry coke zero is also a great use for this). Although the FA usually has to fish out an amaretto because "no one ever asks for it" (??)

Guess I'm just a lush.

captaink

I had a FA on a morning MCI-DFW flight suggest adding a splash of cranapple to a stock mimosa- I liked it so much the FA helped me drink all the bubbly they had stocked for the flight.

JDiver

Moved because this issue does not generally pertain to just one airline, and because it deserves broader exposure and participation.

/Moderator

LapLap

If there was some vermouth on the cart (or if any of your seat mates has some on their breath) then it qualifies as a Martini

You definitely don't need to rely on Spanish wine for this (and orange fanta will negate the need for a Soda AND OJ).
I doubt a young Spaniard would bother nowadays, a Kalimoxo (red wine and coca-cola, preferably with a fruit slice) is so much easier.

You can make a more modern Spanish cocktail, "Agua de Valencia", in a plane:
Equipment needed - two cups, one filled with ice
Into empty cup:
drop of gin, drop of vodka, a pinch of sugar (optional, avoid completely if you are using a dry sparkling wine and want to preserve that quality)
Dissolve the sugar
Add enough orange juice to make up twice the volume of the spirits
Add the ice, stir, leave the ice behind by pouring into the other cup and top up with cold Cava or other sparkling wine (champagne is ideal) - quantity needed is at least twice the volume already in there.
Horribly easy to drink!

If you ever go to Spain it's popular enough there to have a name: carajillo (kara-hee-yoh). As well as whisky, brandy and rum, some also make it with anise liqueurs.

radium_mask

When there is no Kahlua on board, I have made a decent ersatz White Russian with coffee, ice cubes, vodka, and creamer.

...or a makeshift Whiskey Sour: Ask for lots of lemon slices, cut off the peel with your knife, put the lemon in a cup, pour sugar over, crush with spoon, pour Jack Daniels, add ice, stir, enjoy.

exerda

Cocktails? Pfui. Drink it neat lest you run the risk of the FA screwing it up.

I'm okay with Buffalo Trace & apple juice if I don't just have it neat. So long as I'm the one mixing it and not the FA, though... Other than that, if you can get the FA to provide multiple minis, the Godmother (amaretto and vodka on ice) is a good one. IIRC, the Godfather is the same but replace the vodka with Scotch.

gfunkdave

Yes, yes it does.

Incorrect. A martini is defined as a drink of gin and vermouth. Now, the trend for the last few decades has been to consider merely looking in the direction of the vermouth bottle as having added sufficient vermouth. But the martini is by definition a drink of gin and vermouth - else it's just chilled gin, which, in the words of a 1949 Atlantic Monthly article, "has nothing in common with this ridiculously delicious cocktail."

While the proportion of vermouth has always been a topic of - sometimes acrimonious - debate, the fact that there should be vermouth in the drink is never in question. Incidentally, it seems the addition of vermouth in the modern martini (whose lineage is a bit fuzzy but seems to come from a cocktail popular in the 1880s called the Martinez, and which is unrecognizable as the modern martini's forebear) started in the Prohibition days. The bathtub gin commonly available was a bit rough, to say the least, so people added a fair amount of vermouth to make it palatable. Vermouth proportions dropped off in the ensuing decade. Hemingway insisted on a microscopic 1:15 vermouth to gin ratio, while the drink's early 1930s recipe was about 1:4 (and with a dash of orange bitters). Personally, I think about a 1:7 or 1:8 ratio (1:8 is easier to measure out) is about right.

Yes it is, in that case.


For anyone looking for a fun and fascinating read on the history of the cocktail in America, and discussions of several cocktails including the martini, check out How's Your Drink? by WSJ columnist Eric Felten.

Hah! I've never heard that one before.

UALfromMSN

I've had pretty good luck making an approximation of a Sidecar on board. It's getting enough lemon juice that's usually the issue, but where there's a will....

1 part Cointreau
1 part lemon juice
2 parts cognac

shake over ice(or stir)