My Top 10 Wind-Down Drinks

It's Top Ten Tuesday!

And this one comes to you from my friend, Tracy's, suggestion. I asked, “I need a top ten post for tomorrow. What should I write about?” And this is what she came up with! A lot of you know that I like my evening drinks. I like to wind-down on the couch and have something tasty to drink while watching TV or even write. “Write drunk. Edit sober,” is a well-known phrase around these parts :)

So here are my top 10 favorite drinks, in no particular order. I'll include links to recipes if I can find them.

1) White Wine

I'm picky about white wine because I only started drinking it about 8 to 9 years ago, just before I became pregnant with my first-born daughter. I like Fume Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc (only from California), un-oaked Chardonnay, and Gruner Ventliner (which is Austrian and amazing if you can find it). Nothing sweet. Sweet wine is gross. I like my white wine crisp and grassy with hints of citrus.

2) Red Wine

I like Cabernet Sauvignon, pretty much all Italian wines, and I will drink plain old table red wine if it's available. My lovely grandfather pickled himself on Carlo Rossi jug wine so it's stuff I'm used to because I've been drinking reds for over 15 years.

3) Gin and Tonic

I'm going to surprise you! I'm totally fine with Beefeater Gin. It is my go-to gin for G&Ts. My general recipe is 3oz of gin, one bottle of Q Tonic (only 45 calories!), and lime. If it's late winter, sub in some blood orange for lime. It's delicious.

4) Gin and “Juice”

Laid back… It's not really “juice” but another favorite is 3oz of gin and a Peach Izze with lime. That particular drink is responsible for the extra 5lbs on my midsection from this winter.

5) Da Bronx Cocktail

Now we're getting into the “oh my god the kids were nightmares and my plots are all effed up and I NEED A DRINK” put-me-on-my-ass territory. I actually plugged this drink into My Fitness Pal and it costs me a grand total of 289 calories per drink, so I gotta really want it. It's good though. Forget Manhattans. I'm all about Da Bronx.

Recipe:
2.00 oz, 100% Juice Orange Juice
3.00 oz, Gin
0.50 oz, Sweet Vermouth
0.50 oz, Extra Dry Vermouth

6) An Aviation

Ever have a Chowards Violet Mint? If you love those things as I do, you'll love this drink. If you think Violets taste like ass, you'll want to pass on this. But I love this drink. It is strong. It is different. It will set me right when all things are wrong. Here's a good recipe. Yes, you need Creme De Violette which is hard to come by. My husband has to get this stuff in a special place in Jersey City. But like I said, if you love those violet candies and gin, this should be your drink of choice. Also, now that I'm in the straight-up cocktails (this and the previous cocktail, Da Bronx), it's time to switch to the better gin. No Beefeater here. We move up to the Tanqueray 10 or Bombay Sapphire here.

7) Daiquiri, Up

No, no, no. Not some frozen frou-frou drink that comes out of a machine. No. A true daiquiri, not on ice. I like it Up in a martini glass. Rum, lime juice, simple syrup, cherry.

8) Mai Tai

My husband has really been into the Tiki drinks so rum is big around here as evidenced by number 7. This is an authentic Mai Tai rum drink. This drink has bite and always takes me FOREVER to drink it so it can last all evening.

9) Gin Gimlet

When I want something really LIME, I go for this drink. I'm sure it has a full-day's supply of Vitamin C so it's HEALTHY! YEAH! Here's a recipe. I shockingly do not have a photo of this one on Instagram. I must remedy this immediately.

10) Sake

I like a lot of different kinds of sake and I tend to drink a lot of this when I have it in the house so I don't stock it as regularly as gin or rum. I wrote a great article on sake if you want to try it out. In general, I buy what I can find, usually ginjo or daigingo level variety. Junmai is fine on occasion, too. I tend to buy the better brands and levels so I drink it cold from an old-fashioned sized glass. Sometimes I get out the sake cups but not always ;)

So, as you can see, beer didn't even make my top 10! Wow. I do like beer but I tend to drink Japanese beer more than any of the domestic makers and I don't really like craft brews because they tend to be too hoppy.

Now that you think I'm a total drunk, please share your favorite drinks in the comments!