The Shirley Temple was the drink in earlier years, allowed to children at restaurants so they could feel grownup, having something that looked like a cocktail but had no alcohol. In my family - mother's side, father's side, and stepfather's side all three the theory was different. They introduced you to actual alcohol, very gradually, starting at a young age. I recall belting down two of Uncle Freddy's whiskey sours at age 17 and signalling to my younger brother that we needed to go for a walk....like NOW... because the risk of me doing something silly was suddenly very real.
Yet the drink of choice for teenagers in our New England family was "The Sombrero" made with milk and coffee brandy, especially Allen's Coffee Brandy from Maine. With Moxie it is called a "Burnt Trailer," which I knew, and with Diet Moxie (a terrible abomination) called a "Welfare Mom," which I didn't know, but you see how low we are going here.
BTW, Moxie is a big deal in the AVI history. I don't mention it much here, but I bought my sons memeberships in the Moxie congress, and previous commenter Sponge-Headed Scienceman has a book on Moxie coming out this spring.
Back on task. The drink I knew as a Sombrero is - I just learned, looking this up - also called a Liquid Panty Remover or a Leg-Spreader, which lets you know we are going even lower now. I never knew this. It's the sort of name that goes to girlie drinks, which makes me think "had I only known." So I won't be mentioning it to my granddaughters as a family cultural tradition after all, as I had originally thought.
So, I decided five years ago I missed the Sombrero, but only broke down an bought coffee brandy yesterday. I still like this drink, but fear I could easily drink four in rapid succession.
8 comments:
My almost but not quite teetotaler parents did something similar. They made brandied fruit cocktail several years running when we kids were early teens. I never asked later if it was intentional or just a coincidence. I wasn't pretty quite but having alcohol, even something mild, with your parent's knowledge did make it less attractive otherwise.
I have never heard of this drink before, Moxie. I suppose it is the R.C. Cola of the far northeast.
Moxie was originally a nerve tonic, and its most distinctive ingredient is gentian root, which many people hate.
The closest thing I can think of is that astringent vegetable back flavor of Jagrmeister.
Ah, yes. "It's so smooth."
https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5737925/il_570xN.305990765.jpg
I haven't had that stuff since I was in college the first time.
I trust you will delete this post and obliterate anything that might reference it so that your grandchildren will NEVER be able to read it.
I've only heard of Moxie; have never seen a bottle of it.
Though from New England, I don't recall ever having tried Moxie. I do remember that when I was 10 years old, a 20-something family friend said that about five years before, there had been a big Moxie ad campaign in our area, which turned her off to Moxie. That's probably why I didn't try it- or perhaps didn't remember trying it. I did partake of other New England-made soft drinks in my childhood, such as birch beer or cream soda.
From online searching, it appears that Moxie is available in TX, though a bottle of it costs $1.80. I will try it.
The sombrero w coffee brandy as a way for inexperienced drinkers to get drunk- reminds me of black russians or white russians. Which I definitely consumed.
The only alcoholic coffee drink I like is Irish coffee. I'm a very picky drunk!
I purchased a bottle of Moxie. Not cheap: $1.80. I rather liked its taste- somewhat like cough syrup. I don't know if I would have liked Moxie at age 10. I suspect that as I idolized the family friend that didn't like Moxie, I would have copied her attitude.
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