How I grew up from Hi-Balls

(Awe yeah! Hook me up with a bottle of either of these!)

The new reality posed in the title of the article, is actually somewhat of a recent one. I only stopped relying on hi-balls as my go-to social cocktail a couple of years ago. The days of floating between randomly chosen spirits of the moment mixed down into cola, 7-up, or ginger ale are long gone. It possibly started with my moving on to the gin and tonic - which of course is one kind of hi-ball, but takes on a spirit all of it's own, excluding the other forms of carbonated drink.

A spirit all of it's own.... A personality, identity, or soul.

(My preferred method of Gin consumption, these days.)

It took me a long time to come over to the Jedi side of the Force of spirits. My first exposure to spirits was drinking Jack Daniels, or Smirnoff without any mix, straight from the bottle. Like most under-aged drinkers, I didn't know better, so I just chugged as much as I could and hoped for the best. On maturation, I enjoyed my first flamingo cocktails, including the Pina Colada and Strawberry Daquiri, before moving on to the joyous realm of clubbing at nineteen, where I would order shots of Smirnoff vodka, and consume it much the same way as one would consume tequila if they were on a bad bender.

From that juncture, the only sane response was to start listening to other people ordering drinks, and copy suite. It possibly saved myself from future heaving, but in the process got me further away from the soul of the spirits, which so long eluded me. I was completely bereft of any understanding that a spirit could be enjoyed on its own, or *gasp* without the aid of pop or juice! Screwdrivers, and vodka slimes were my drink du jour for... well, more than a jour. I liked the fact that I could say the names of cocktails that everyone understood, and so I stuck with those for awhile.  Then I became a bartender.

(Dark rum goes quite well with a bit of citrus, brown sugar, and hot water.)

At twenty two, my paradigm took a serious shift for the positive.  I started working the wood, and moved away from the vodka cocktails (if you can call them that), and up to more complicated cocktails, the ever present friend known as beer, and of course premium spirit hi-balls. The move started with Appleton's Estate Rum, and Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum.  It seems that I took a pleasure for the rum side of the equation. But in all honesty, I was quite fond of my rye and cokes as well. I stayed on that path for quite some time.

When I moved to Vancouver, my drinks of choice didn't change much. I liked the occasional Caesar, rum hi-balls, and whiskey cokes. It took some serious revelation of premium spirits for me to move on in the world.

(This stuff? Drink it on ice. F--king delicious!)

As I mentioned in a recent article, I was quite fond of the idea of Manhattans, but couldn't seem to find my niche right off the bat. It took a lot of experimenting before I realized how to make a Manhattan I could enjoy. And of course, the idea of the Manhattan spread some other ideas through my mind, like a contagion. I became very fond of Gin Martinis, as I had moved on to Gin and Tonic for my cocktail of choice. At some juncture, it became relevant that you could have a really good cocktail with not a lot of ingredients to overshadow the base spirit.

I had a bug to try out all the classics that I'd never tried. The Negroni. The Old Fashioned. Rusty Nails. I had a desire to make cocktails with more thought of the spirit involved, rather than the overlaying flavors that squash it.

(The G.T. at Moxie's. Their signature Gin & Tonic, made with Tanquerray.)

As for the hi-balls? They're gone from my life. And with any luck, they'll stay gone.