ROCK the boat - don't rock the boat baby! -

Not since Hamlet has a dilemma of such compelling proportion been posited. But the truth cannot be avoided: some drinks need to be Rocked! Now on the surface it would seem that if one simply Shook the Sh*t out of a drink and drank quickly the same effect could be achieved. But, in the immortal words of Johnny Carson "You would be wrong Buffalo Breath." Chilling is chilling and Rocks are, well, ice cubes. I have chosen to lump certain iced drinks together.

The Rocks drink is a curious beast - on the surface it's kind of a Drink Lite. First, the drink often is thinned by some water-esque substance, and second, it is then chilled to some degree which further depresses flavor sensation. And so it would seem as if it would be difficult to get a great mixed drink using this methodology. And the general populace would be behind you, in that Rocks drinks have to be [by my unofficial tally] among the least ordered configurations.

A Rocks glass is a straight sided cylinder with a very solid bottom, about 3.5" x 3.5" in size. Just big enough to hold two one inch ice cubes. The drink itself will never rise to mid-height on the glass. So what we have is a swirly swishy thing that can last up to 30 minutes - a glacial eon by cocktail standards. Yes there will be melting and dilution, but with a well made one, that is built in. The goal is not to pack the glass so the drink stays chilled. That would simply be a short tall drink.[ And if Giselle Bundchen were 5'4" Tom Brady would be dating someone else, right?]

And so we have a drink designed to slowly soften over time which creates a very consciously deliberate drink experience. The quintessential embodiment is the Old Fashioned. The Yin of this Yang experience is the Iced Drink whose manifestation might be the Margarita. To think they could belong in the same category is much akin to believing that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny de Vito were actually twin brothers. But, follow a link to your favorite:

Old Fashioned (bourbon)
Blood and Sand (scotch)
Margarita (tequila)
Machete (mezcal)
Daiquiri (rum)