Stiff Drinks For Dad | Manly Father’s Day Cocktails

“It takes a real man to drink a cocktail out of a tropical skull cup.  My dad liked his tie skinny, his shoes polished and his drinks stiff.” ~ My Dad’s Drink

The most classic of all good stiff drinks is of course a bourbon or scotch neat.  That is whiskey ( or whisky ) straight up.  The rule of thumb is basically less mixers equals stiffer drinks although the alcohol proof of the liquor matters as well.

Bartenders and mixologists will argue all day about how adding a splash of water releases the flavors, not to add any ice ( or if on the rocks is definitely a must, then use giant round ice balls to minimize melting ) or how chilled drinks should be from cooling the bottle in the refrigerator as opposed to the freezer which will numb the taste buds.  Then just to mix things up, new products like Whisky Stones have become popular as a method to chill without diluting the stiffness.

Your dad probably has his own opinion on all this and on Father’s Day thats the only viewpoint that counts.  Stock his bar with his favorites and pour what he wants.

Purity doesn’t need to be strictly enforced to qualify as stiff.  Plenty of cocktails are manly drinks your father has drank before and would enjoy on his day.  Sidecars, gimlets, martinis ( real or fairly close ) and sazeracs are all classic drinks for dad.  Here are a couple more Father’s Day cocktail recipes:

Manhattan Drink Ingredients:

• 2 oz  rye, irish or bourbon whiskey
• 3/4 oz  sweet vermouth
• 2 drops  Angostura bitters
• 1 lemon twist
• 1 cherry

Chill a 4 to 6 oz cocktail glass.  Fill a mixing glass half full with ice.  Pour in liquid ingredients and stir.  Strain into the chilled glass and garnish.

Rob Roy a.k.a Scotch Manhattan

• substitute scotch whisky into the classic Manhattan recipe above instead of using rye, irish or bourbon whiskies.

For more ‘neat’ ideas take a look at these cool solutions for ice cold stiff drinks.