Ladylike drinks for the ladies?

[Helen Troy]

Inspired by a coment in another thread, I started wondering: Do ladies have to drink ladylike drinks? Do true ladies make a point to do that?

You see, I wouldn't know. While I look like a lady, I talk like a sailor and behave like a young, ruthless british lord. And I drink like a man. Not in quantity, but in quality.

OK, I love a glass of champagne or red wine. But not to sweet, please! I like my red wine to be one of those that the wine sellers descibes with words like "leather", "tobacco", "horse sweat" and "dirt."

I love dark beer, in whole pints. I would never have tolerated the british "ladies beer" cutoms. Luckily, I'm Norwegian, and we don't have manners.

And whiskey. Real, tough, scotch whiskey. The kind that tastes like seaweed and salty seas and the peat that grows on grand-grand-grandfathers grave.

The most ladylike drinks I enjoy are cocktails. But again, not to sweet! A nice martini or margarita, and I'm happy as can be. Put an umbrella in it, and I guess I look pretty girly. But that's as far as it gets.

I am happy with what I drink, because it tastes so darn good. And, as said, I don't feel the need to be ladylike. But sometimes I can't help to wonder: Wouldn't a nice, girly, pink cocktail compliment my vintage dress better than the pint of Guinnes I'm having?

What about you, girls? Do you drink ladylike drinks? If so, is that because you only like ladylike drinks, or because you feel that you should? And if you don't, do you feel that you should?

And guys: What do you really think of girls with pints of beer or neat whiskeys? Charming, or something that should be left to te manly-men?

Let's hear your thoughts!

 

[Caroline]

OK, I love a glass of champagne or red wine. But not to sweet, please! I like my red wine to be one of those that the wine sellers descibes with words like "leather", "tobacco", "horse sweat" and "dirt."
!

You would love Pinotage! Very earthy tasting, no girly "nose" to them, or what I've had anyway.

I don't drink a lot of girly drinks. Well that's not true. I do; margaritas, and now fog cutters, but they're generally not sugary. I don't like sweet wines but for a few exceptions. I don't drink beer much. It leaves me bloated and I don't generally have that long to wait around for the more amusing aspects of drinking to take effect, and forget the calories! I like g&t in the summer, winter is red wine generally. Champange anytime of the day or nite, though no one offers it in the day to me . I like tequila too, if we're drinking shots, which is almost never for a mother of 2.

I do try not to take huge gulps, burp, or spill on myself. Is that ladylike, enough lol ?

 

[Cherry_Bombb]

I do suppose I like my girly drinks... Cosmos are right up there, mainly because I can't drink vodka flavored drinks but I love martini glasses! haha

I like pina colada, grasshoppers, red death and rum punches... but my favorite drink is always going to be a glass of merlot or cabernet *sigh*

 

[LizzieMaine]

I drink Guinness. Three gulps to the pint, tops. But -- always from a *clean* glass.

 

[Lady Day]

Hear hear, Lizzie!

Altho, I drink mine in maybe 6 gulps. I gotta practice more.

LD

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

I like that my Gin and Tonic looks like a refreshing sprite..when in truth it is always a double or triple.....tall.

My favorite girliest drink is the Russian Barbie. Sugar coated glass containing a few shots of Stoli, grapefruit juice and a drizzle of grenadine on top (all shaken with ice beforehand). But don't go asking for it by name at your local bar...I invented it when I used to cocktail waitress.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Helen Troy, this is intolerable.
Depending on your age, you should either giggle when you hear the word champagne (virgin), not drink at all (married) or have a rare sip of currant wine (old spinster/widow).

 

[MissS]

Helen Troy, I need a picture of you in your most Ladylike outfit chugging a pint of beer!

Me, I'm not a big drinker. One drink, I'm fine, but any more and I'm doing most unladylike things!

So, I tend to stick with a girly glass of champagne or two, then pretend my highball of cranberry juice has vodka in it as well.

 

[Mojito]

I drink the whole range - I dislike being straightjacketed by ideas of what becomes a Gurley Gurl or a Boofy Bloke! Am happy to knock back pints of Guinness when the occasion calls for it (although I rarely do it out of Ireland or the UK, as it never seems quite the same), love to work my way through a range of beers at Belgian Beer Cafes, and love to drink cocktails up to and including Cosmopolitans. I do not, however, like the overly sweet...people sometimes find my drinks too sharp or too dry. I don't like cocktails with too much fruit juice in them (judicious amounts of lemon or lime in the correct bevvy excluded, or the odd dash of cranberry etc), and I don't like cream based cocktails. Baileys once in a blue moon is as close as I come.

I dislike drinking to prove anything. I do have a fair capacity to knock back drinks with the boys and robust girls (comes of being a not-too-slight and rather tall woman), but I am careful never to ostentatiously match drinks or make a big deal of being drink a good deal (even if the strength of my cocktails has a certain notoriety). I think it's potentially dangerous to go that route - and what's more, competitive drinking, whether it be for the most ostentatious cocktail, the dryest, the richest, the most complicated, the biggest beer stein, the fastest scull, is not really very attractive. So if I want to have a Sidecar I will, if I want to have a Cosmopolitan I will, and if I want a pint of Guinness or a glass of red I will.

Although one old bloke did criticise a friend and I in a pub for having pints of Guinness in our local East End pub...but it seemed to have more to do with the fact we were girls drinking it *with our lunches* rather than because we were girls per se. I gather it was just not the done thing. We shrugged and ordered another round.

 

[KittyT]

No "ladylike" drinks for me, except for the very occasional mojito or cocktail (Side Car, Periodista, Manhattan). It's almost always straight whiskey or Jim Beam and soda for me. Back in the day, a true lady probably wouldn't have been a drinker anyway, so why not go all the way? As much as we all adore vintage, we're not living in the 40s anymore, and most of us are modern (in our own way) and empowered women, so who cares that much? I think these days, the only think unladylike about drinking is drinking too much, making a fool of yourself and not handling your liquor.

I will venture to say that there's something intriguing about a lovely gal who will enthusiastically and expertly handle a "man's drink". I like raising a bartender's eyebrows when I order something like "Knob Creek, neat."

 

[Naama]

Ladylike drinks for me please! I can't really stand the taste of whiskey, vodka or there likes..... And I really love sweet whine and cocktails who barely taste like alcohol. But then again, I love beer, especially dark beer. But I think there are also a lot of guys who prefer the more ladylike drinks (?)



Naama

 

[The Shirt]

Vodka martini straight up with a twist please. My preferred beverage - not wussy in my opinion at all as it makes a good number of people cringe. I will back down to vodka soda if I have too. Jameson on the rocks is about as dirty as I get and as for beer - I prefer a black and tan because it looks so lovely and the 1" of absolute goodness in the middle.

I have noticed though - I drink beer more often in jeans and vodka in dresses. Strange as it seems. I tend to drink for the occasion rather than what I'm wearing I suppose.

I won't waste my calories on girlie/juicy drinks though. Unless perhaps I worked out like a madwoman and deserved it or its 300 degrees outside.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Go green.

 

[KittyT]

Go green.

Disgusting. I'd rather go outside and chew pine needles lol

 

[Josephine]

I never really tried spirits straight, except for Tequila, so I guess I'm in the "girly drink" section when it comes to spirits. Cosmo, Mudslide, Chocolate Russian, Chocolate Martini, etc. Though I don't always care for Margaritas, the mixes can be too sugary.

Beer, on the other, hand, I like dark, and I love Irish Car Bombs (Guinness, Baily's, Jamesons).

Wine I like Merlot best, and will drink white and rose if it's available and Merlot isn't. No white wine spritzer for me. lol

I drink what I like and if it's a manly drink so be it, and if it's a girly drink, so be it!

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Disgusting. I'd rather go outside and chew pine needles lol

You need a bottle of French Sapin.

Un Sapin:

(Pine Liquor)

50cl 55% abv (110 proof)

Un Sapin, a pine liqueur, is a speciality of Pontarlier and very hard to find - even in France. It is prepared by an alcoholic maceration of 24 different plants including tender young pine buds harvested in Spring. The mix is then distilled and finished with macerated pine buds, sugar and natural colouring. This drink is intended to be sipped chilled, neat at the end of a meal, however it is great over vanilla ice cream! For a taste of the French Jura, try it as a glaze base on a holiday ham.

As far as absinthe, what's on the shelves isn't what I drink.

 

[KittyT]

You need a bottle of French Sapin.

Wow, that sounds even worse than absinthe.

 

[Ben]

I like that my Gin and Tonic looks like a refreshing sprite..when in truth it is always a double or triple.....tall.

My favorite girliest drink is the Russian Barbie. Sugar coated glass containing a few shots of Stoli, grapefruit juice and a drizzle of grenadine on top (all shaken with ice beforehand). But don't go asking for it by name at your local bar...I invented it when I used to cocktail waitress.

To be clear, are you talking about coating the entire glass or just the rim with sugar? I'm thinking the rim, but I have been wrong before.

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

To be clear, are you talking about coating the entire glass or just the rim with sugar? I'm thinking the rim, but I have been wrong before.

THe rim. I rim it first in Rose' Lime and then in pink granulated sugar.

 

[Ben]

Thanks, Desi, I plan to add it to my cocktail list.

Maybe you should start a home cocktail concoction thread.