1 day Ago By [email protected] (Joe Hoeffner)
Telling a bartender to "make it a strong one" is one of those things people say in movies or television that has a certain snap to it, such that you might want to try it out yourself in real life. ("Shaken not stirred," "keep the change," "follow that car" — many such cases.) It not only conveys that you're someone who can hold your liquor, but that you've had the kind of day where you might need a stiff drink.
Hey, we've all been there. Unfortunately for you, it's also a completely pointless thing to ask, and . For one thing, as much as we all love bartenders, they're not giving you booze purely out of the goodness of their hearts.
They're giving you what you pay for, and if you ask for, say, a strong Old Fashioned, you shouldn't be surprised if it costs more. On top of that, cocktail recipes are carefully calibrated and proportioned to taste good while getting you loosened up, and adding extra booze to that delicate balance might disrupt it in an unpleasant way. Here's what you should ask your bartender instead So what should you ask your bartender if you want to get well and truly lit? According to corporate beverage director Ron Oleksa, who we asked in the article mentioned above, it's a matter of knowing the right vocabulary.
If you don't know what specific cocktail you want, you can ask for something "spirit-forward." Although this sounds like something a new age guru might put on their Hinge profile, it actually refers to the kind of drink that's more focused on booze than on delicate flavor combinations, such as an (which itself got its name from something customers used to say to their bartenders because it sounded cool). On the other hand, if you do know what you're after, you can always ask the bartender for a "double," which, as Oleksa, explains, is "a definitive volume of liquor"; contrast with "make it strong", which is just a vague platitude.
And if you're really after something that's not watered-down, you can . Recommended.
