A Winter Sting

The Washington Post recently had a column about stocking your winter bar, and I have a lot of respect for someone who can make their living telling others what to drink and so naturally, I will listen. In re-telling how he first learned the distinction between summer and winter drinks, the author Jason Wilson described how when he was ‘young and clueless’ a successful friend introduce him to the concept of a ‘winter drink’, after disparagingly pointing out that the vodka tonic he ordered on that cold autumn afternoon was a ‘summer drink’.

The implication was clear: What sort of adult doesn’t know when to switch from a summer drink to a winter drink? Or worse: What sort of soft generation was this that needed to be told how to drink at all?

Our typical winter standby has always been Bailey’s Irish Creme, which mixes equally well with coffee and hot chocolate, and is great on the rocks as well. But the Post provided an opportunity to expand those horizons. The main ‘winter drink’ described in the article is The Stinger, and so this weekend I set out to take another step towards adult drinking, and try one for myself.

I liked it. It’s definitely a sipping drink, which isn’t my typical (gulping) drinking style. But demonstrating a little patience, letting the ice melt a bit, and nursing a stinger was a fine way to enjoy a weekend cocktail (or a late mid-week work night as well). Try one.

UPDATE: I had no idea of the appropriateness of my blogging about liquor today, but it turns out that today is the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. That and the snow that is falling, is more than reason enough for another stinger!