Meanwhile, at Ted's personal site, he ponders the gender politics of "The Carjacker" -- the Polo Lounge's take on the Long Island Iced Tea that mixes vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, sour mix and fresh orange juice. Of the drink, named in honor of the movie Crash, he wonders:
is it still a girly drink if they add orange juice to a Long Island Iced Tea, and call it a Carjacker ? Actually sounds pretty tasty.
They seem to be not so much just ADDING the O.J. as substituting it for the Coke (or whatever other soda you have on hand.) In effect, they're making a modified Zombie with a few superfluous whites (vodka, gin) added in -- increasing the potency, but not markedly altering the taste.
When I tended bar, those ordering Long Islands would run about 60-40 in favor of women. But that's somewhat misleading. All mixed drinks run in favor of women, as my estimation is that nine out of 10 men reflexively order beer.
Among men who order mixed drinks, Long Islands were probably the second most popular. Jack and Coke was definitely number one, which I always thought probably had a lot to do with its more manly sounding name. The alcohol content of a Long Island is at least three times that of a bar-mixed Jack and Coke, so there's nothing else I can see that would objectively render the latter any less girly.
So though there are and always have been those who regard anything other than beer or shots as insufficiently "manly," I wouldn't mark a Long Island down as a true girly drink, the way a spritzer, a Malibu Bay Breeze, a glass of white Zinfandel or (God forbid) a Zima all clearly are. If you can stomach sour mix (and, personally, I haven't been able to since around the time it became legal for me to drink) it's one of the few options in that family of drinks that really packs a punch. The discerning male drinker will get past the unfortunate name and sorority girl association to recognize that.
According to Modern Drunkard Magazine's I.Q. (intoxication quotient) test, Zima is the Russian word for "winter" but "sissified" is also an acceptable translation.
Posted by: Inkstained Wretch | February 18, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Along those lines, at the bar where I briefly worked, we had a sheet tacked up in back listing "what my drink order says about me." Two I clearly remember:
White Russian -- "I'm gay."
Zima -- "I'm REALLY gay."
Posted by: R.J. Lehmann | February 18, 2006 at 11:57 AM
What are you if you have a mixed drink using Zima as an ingredient? Does "gay" include those of the lesbian persuasion? If not, what would be their first choice?
Check out mixeddrinkrecipes.net. for such concoctions as the Amaretto Zima Cooler and the Sour Apple Zima Sour.
Posted by: Ellie | February 18, 2006 at 10:32 PM
P.S. I hate Zima.
Posted by: Ellie | February 18, 2006 at 10:35 PM
Substitute good old-fashioned 7-Up for Zima in any of those recipes, and I'd challenge anyone to tell the difference.
I've never liked Zima, but it does evoke a certain degree of nostalgia for me. Because its demographics very closely track with those of the country as a whole, Syracuse, N.Y. is a popular test-market for new products. Zima was rolled out in 1991, when I was a freshman, about two years before it made its debut nationwide. I still have a stong mental picture of the cute girls Coors hired to hit all the S.U. bars hawking the stuff.
And being still a naive kid, it took me a while to catch on that they flirted with EVERYBODY that way.
Posted by: R.J. Lehmann | February 18, 2006 at 10:44 PM