Good Drinks for Bad Days - Kerry Colburn [3]
Good Drink: Blue Hawaiian
1 ounce light rum
1 ounce blue curaçao
1 ounce cream of coconut
2 ounces pineapple juice
Pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry for garnish
Shake the rum, curaçao, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice with ice and strain into an ice-filled highball glass (or combine with ½ cup ice in blender and blend until smooth for a frozen version). Garnish with the pineapple and cherry.
Bad Day: Assistant quit
If you’re lucky enough to have an assistant, not to mention a hard-working one, it’s a disastrous day indeed when he or she leaves you. Suddenly, you have a mountain of mail, a wall of mysterious-looking files, and a towering stack of unread reports all caving in on you. It looks like a big, messy heap of trouble is barreling straight toward your office. Run for your life—before you get buried!
Good Drink: Mudslide
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce Kahlúa
1 ounce Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur
1 ounce heavy cream
Unsweetened cocoa powder or chocolate shavings for garnish
Shake the vodka, Kahlúa, Baileys, and heavy cream with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (or combine ingredients in blender with ½ cup ice for a frozen version). Sprinkle with cocoa powder. Drink with a pile of resumés on the side.
Bad Day: No raise
You’ve finally made it through another year at your job, and the only thing you’re looking forward to is a few extra bucks to make it all worthwhile. But during your review you start hearing terms like “cost-cutting measures” and “wage freeze,” and you start kissing that extra dough goodbye. When you realize that your paltry “cost of living increase” will barely cover the cost of a decent lunch, you need to score some greenbacks—and fast.
Good Drink: Greenback
1½ ounces gin
¼ ounce crème de menthe
½ ounce fresh lime juice
2 to 3 ounces chilled club soda
Shake the gin, crème de menthe, and lime juice with ice and strain into an ice-filled glass. Top with club soda.
From Bad to Worse: Didn’t even get the cost of living bump? Skip the club soda, and make it a double.
Bad Day: Computer virus
Are you kidding me? You open one innocent-looking e-mail attachment and suddenly, your archives are corrupted, two weeks’ worth of spreadsheets have gone missing, and everyone in your address book has received a potentially lethal e-mail from you. Augh! Will your trusted computer ever be the same? The only way to nurse it (and yourself) back to health is with a soothing (and stiff) drink that’s been working wonders since long before NyQuil. Get well soon!
Good Drink: Hot Toddy
3 whole cloves
Lemon slice
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Pinch of nutmeg
1½ ounces bourbon
6 ounces boiling water
1 cinnamon stick
Push the cloves into the lemon slice and drop into a warmed mug. Add the sugar, nutmeg, and bourbon. Pour in the boiling water, and stir with the cinnamon stick. Put on your most comfy pj’s, place an ice pack on your head, and enjoy.
Bad Day: Presentation from hell
It’s happened to the best of us, and this time it’s your turn: you went down in flames in front of all your coworkers. Sure, maybe you could’ve prepped a bit better. Or maybe it’s entirely the fault of your evil assistant, the idiot at Kinko’s, or the diabolical PowerPoint software. Whatever the cause, it was not your finest hour. Block out the pain of being shot down in the conference room with this high-octane drink.
Good Drink: Kamikaze
2 ounces vodka
½ ounce Cointreau or triple sec
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
Shake the vodka, Cointreau, and lime juice with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
From Bad to Worse: Did you actually get heckled? Make it a shooter: change all the measurements above