A Happy Medium

Just in time for New Year's Eve, Eric Felten offers some solid advice on cocktails to both drinkers and party hosts. It's from his column in Saturday's Journal on How to Get A Kick From Champagne (sub req):

No amount of sugar and bitters will redeem a lousy bottle of fizz: Use a cheap and nasty champagne, and you will have a cheap, nasty Champagne Cocktail. As in so many things, an Aristotelian mean between the extremes is the answer. Don't waste the best stuff by turning it into a mere ingredient; yet don't use as the backbone of a cocktail anything you wouldn't be willing to drink on its own. It is a principle broadly applicable in the science of liquid refreshment: It assures us palatable cocktails, and puts the lie to the hoary canard that mixed drinks are, by their nature, nothing but dishonest vehicles for delivering substandard liquor.

I can't stress how important those words of wisdom are people. Don't you dare--as a relative did at my Dad's retirement party a few years ago--ever mix Coke with a single malt Scotch. But don't think you're going to get off cheaply by mixing rot gut booze to hide its taste either. If you're going to bother to whip up a cocktail (or more importantly serve them to others), pony up an extra couple of bucks and invest in decent hooch. It doesn't have to be great, just good. Try the Felten Test (can you drink it on its own?) if you have any doubt.

The top shelf stuff stands on its own and should be consumed that way. When you're mixing cocktails, leave the bottom of the barrell swill to the college kids. You're an adult. You should be drinking (and serving) like one.