The NC Double Shot: Last Call
Updated bracket is here. Confused? Click here. And now, our finale: 1 Gin and Tonic vs. 10 Margarita.
Bunting: The final NC Double Shot matchup is an interesting contrast: a drink I associate with summer, with ends of long days and relaxing patio chats with my pops, but also with Cheever-esque mid-century repression and dissatisfaction and the uncomfortable chloriney groping of youth…versus a concoction with far fewer Proustian neural pathways, fruity, uncomplicated, the perfect companion to a salted corn chip or a garlicky guac.
I like margaritas and I drink them more often, but I still have to vote for the geent and all its stories, sad though those stories may be. Doesn’t matter, though: margaritae will ascend the throne by a 20-point margin.
Keckler: Although one could make an argument that any drink served cold is a summery cocktail, these two cocktails might be the quintessential* summer cocktails. Both involve citrus, which, though a winter product, will always squirt summer for me (probably because of lemonade stands), and each has a special component that fights various summer issues. Gin and Tonic’s bitter, quinine-spiked edge is refreshing on a sweltering night, and the salt rim on a Margarita helps replenish the sodium stores you’ve been oozing all day.
Though a nearly nine-hour drive with a toddler and two cats in 90°+ heat did make me grab a Margarita at the earliest possible opportunity, that was an anomaly. I’m not the biggest fan of sticky sweetness on the days and nights I sweat just by breathing. Gin and Tonic is my steady and one I will never outgrow.
*Always excepting the dearly departed Pimm’s Cup, which cups the essence of warm breezy days, macerates it with strawberries and crisp slices of cucumber, and pours out summer for those lucky enough to capture it in a glass.
1 Gin and Tonic vs. 10 Margarita
- Margarita (58%, 497 Votes)
- Gin and Tonic (42%, 358 Votes)
Total Voters: 855
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Tags: John Cheever Keckler The NC Double Shot
Thank you, Keckler, for mentioning the Pimm’s one last time. I was very sad when it finally lost the fight. Such a perfect drink.
This final match-up is not surprising to me at all though I too wish Pimm’s Cup had made it . However, I am not driven by nostalgia for literary angst as Sars apparently is, and I. Hate. Gin. Blerf.
Margaritas all around!
A classic margarita – nothing but good tequila, lime, and triple sec or cointreau on the rocks – is a fine, fine thing and I won’t be sad to see it win … but gin and tonic is my stalwart, standby, day-in, day-out, year-round go-to and so the one that gets my vote.
Sigh. I am fervent fan of neither, but I get no gin headaches from tequila, so: ‘ritae for the win.
So, so glad I could get my vote in before I leave for vacation and indulge in way too many of one, and continue to behave as if the other is a mortal enemy.
In other words: Margies for the win! Gin? Ptooey!
Thanks to Sars and Keckler — what a wonderful break from real life over the last few weeks!
We hates them both. I’m also a summer-hater, so I guess that’s no surprise. I’ll be here in the corner, nursing a vodka gimlet and pining for a gloomy rainy day.
Aw, you’re welcome and thanks to everyone for being such enthusiastic participants. Bunting and I are already working up another bracket that will both surprise and not surprise everyone.
It’s going to be awesomely hilarious.
I can drink G&Ts year round, so there you go. Although I sadly think that margs are going to win. Sigh!
Probably my two go-to drinks, so I can’t lose here. Voting for the G&T because it’s the classic.
Margaritas taste like freedom, whereas gin and tonics taste like taxes and vaccinations. I know which I prefer.
Yea for more brackets.
@Kristina: I’m stealing “tastes like taxes and vaccinations,” ‘k? Cool.
@Juju: I hate summer, too. Well, I hate hot weather. I like everything about summer but the weather. Cute clothes, people excited to be outside, long days, summer Fridays? Sign me up. Temps over 85 degrees, the foot-funk smell that settles in over the city, and humidity? Kill me now.
No contest: margarita. I don’t like gin. Had vodka and tonic been the choice, I’d have had a harder time, but this was easy.
I’d love to see a surprise G & T win, but I think I’ll just be happy my go-to drink made it this far.
Having imbibed plenty of both gin and tequila over the years, I can say that gin has never let me down, whereas tequila? Let’s just say the two of us are barely on speaking terms. Our diplomatic negotiations call for one margarita a year.
A margarita can go so wrong in so many ways: Bad mix, bad tequila, wrong proportions, etc. Whereas a G&T requires good quality gin and tonic, ice, a lime wedge, done. That said, bad rail gin is an insult. I suspect many people’s poor impressions of gin stem from tasting horrible gin first. Because yeah, that’s a mistake you make only once. I guess I’m fortunate that my first taste of gin was a nicely made martini.
I’ve drunk my fair share of margaritas back in the day (there was a place near my law school that offered $10 pitchers of frozen ones) (yes, I know the frozen ones aren’t as authentic), but frankly I don’t like tequila. At all. And G&T is my go-to drink whenever I don’t want wine. But I see the writing on the wall, and second place is pretty good.
Too bad mojitos couldn’t make it this far.