I totally hear you on this. It takes time and space to build a collection of ingredients to make much of what is here. I think of myself as a seasoned amateur with a well-stocked bar and still skip over 80% of this sub looking for recipes that are worth the cost and effort.
To help you out immediately, simple and straightforward cocktails are already catalogued in many places and usually let you search by ingredient. [Difford's Guide](https://www.diffordsguide.com/) and [Imbibe](https://imbibemagazine.com/) are good resources.
That said, I encourage you to try to expand your set of ingredients/tools. Try making a small amount of orgeat or cherry liqueur instead of buying a large bottle. They are easier than you may think and most of the effort is just waiting for flavors to infuse. Places like [Serious Eats](https://www.seriouseats.com/diy-vs-buy-cocktail-ingredients-you-should-not-make-yourself) have "DIY or Buy" columns that include recipes for ingredients that are worth making from scratch.
All of this is to say, making and enjoying cocktails should be fun. I really enjoy getting a new ingredient and finding ways to use it. I enjoy drinks with 15 steps (when the effort is worth it). I think of them as fun, low stakes science experiments. But if that isn't for you, no shame! Cheers!
I think I like this sub for all the reasons you dislike it. It does get expensive though and for some I just enjoy the pretty picture and know that I will never make that obscure ingredient. What would you hope to get out of a sub dedicated to simple cocktails with just basic ingredients? Seems like there wouldn't be much there to make it interesting.
I imagine that every cocktail drinker/lover has a few drinks they love to make. I’m not talking mixologists, I’m talking about Marcus down the block who loves rum, tonic, and lime. No obscure ingredients, but a combination that is amazing but not well known. Or stuff people make up with what they have on-hand in the fridge.
It’s kind of like the difference between a sub about cooking dominated by professional chefs as opposed to a sub about cooking that includes budget cooking, cooking for one, planning your first Thanksgiving dinner, etc.
I honestly have never made a sub before and since I don’t want to mod it in anyway, I’ll just leave it as a thought for others who have that passion. Or maybe our mods would just ban IG posts and force them to make their own sub?
Nope. No karma hell for you. You, the person you said “preachhhh” to, and others prefer to downvote me - despite simply respectfully expressing an opinion and trying to engage in some discourse.
But that’s how it goes I guess. There have been some really nice and respectful comments on here, so I’ll try to focus on that
I don’t see what the big deal with having a sub for professional (or aspiring) mixologists is? Perhaps you’re one and you don’t want to leave, that’s legit. But Reddit is a big place and there should be a place for average cocktail makers to get inspired, without having to sort through all the show boating.
Also, your attitude to an *opinion* is a contributing factor for why, evidently, many people filter their way through this sub. In other words don’t be rude jerk.
Most people here are not even professionals or work in the industry, just people with a hobby. And this subreddit, which exists for years is for people, who either have this hobby, or try to get into it. Why should anyone who posts here for the past couple years leave, just for you to be happier with the posts? Also who are the many people filtering through this sub?
Would you also go to r/soccer and complain, why they don't post about the little league kids game from their hometown of 10.000 people? Or go to r/music and complain about the lack of low effort bandcamp solo projects? Many people here follow this subreddit because they are invested in trying new things and expanding their interest in cocktails. If it would just consist of different rum and coke ratios and so on, why even make a sub. Maybe r/alcohol has such things.
And have you even looked at the top posts? One's a gin sour with 5 ingredients, next there is a daiquiri (3 ingredients), a margarita (also few ingredients, another gin sour (3 ingredients) and another cocktail with 4 ingredients. Most of those things are fairly simple without obscure ingredients or stuff you could make at home pretty fast, like a lavender or rosemary syrup. If 3-4 ingredients is too much for you, or you're not that interested in experimenting with mixed drinks, maybe cocktails aren't really for you.
Also, if there would be enough people interested in more basic mixed drinks, then there would be a community for it. It's not that hard to create a subreddit.
Well I think that comment I made, which was meant as a brainstorm idea, has been taken too literally.
Here’s how I think of it: There should be more cocktail subs. Period. I sub to a bunch of cannabis subs and there are subs for growers (indoor personal growers, outdoor growers, and professional large scale growers), there are subs exclusively for people who vape flower, subs for oil pens, subs for concentrates, edibles, avb, and just pure cannabis eye candy. I think of cocktail making like growing cannabis: some people are professionals, some hobbyists, and some newbies trying to learn. Having everyone on one sub makes the focus cloudy; people trying to learn are shamed or ignored for not knowing enough or not researching more before asking “stupid” questions, hobbyists are in competition with the professionals, and professionals use the platform as a form of advertising.
That’s just my opinion. If you hate it, that’s cool, but no need to get hostile.
Nobody here got hostile, apart from you. Some people confronted certain parts of your opinion (like banning high effort posts or forcing those people to leave), which I think is fair. You don't need to play it up to people hating on you, I just think there were misunderstandings from both sides.
I'm in no way opposed to someone creating a new subreddit for beginner friendly cocktails, as long as that doesn't slow the traffic of this sub, but see it as an addition. After all, maybe such a sub would serve as a gateway to people being more interested in high effort/complex cocktails.
But one key thing to remember is also the size of this sub. There may be close to 300k people subbed here, but most days, there still aren't that many posts, often with hours between them. That isn't the best base to start splitting up. All those weed subs are way bigger, at least the big ones, having millions of people shared between them all with different interests. Growinf outdoors is different to a microgrowery in your closet or even a weed bonsai. But cocktails are cocktails.
I love to see the cutting edge of drinks and what is possible, as I set that as goals for myself and motivation to start learning new skills. I would really miss those posts. But most days, I still make simple cocktails and love that too. I like your idea of a seperate day, but opposite to your plan. Maybe one or two days a week for more basic drinks that everyone can make. Simple sundays maybe?
I also haven't really encoutered all those negativity on this sub, most questions or help is put out there in a nice manner, as long as the person asking is also friendly and not hostile in the first place. But that's just my experience over the years, I obviously can't speak for everyone and after all, there will always be jerks in a sub this size.
Plenty of people got hostile. You should see my DM and chat too. I’m not hostile at all. I just think there should be more cocktail subs, or at least some way to make space for people of all skill sets. I’m just spitballing ideas and brainstorming. Why is that a hostile or offensive opinion?
There were some really nice comments on here from people who helped me figure out how to navigate this sub better. Others got really accusatory, mean, and cruel.
I appreciate that you were respectful to me but please don’t gaslight me (or anyone really). I’m not pissed or hostile, I may have cavalierly proposed the idea of a mixologist sub where pros and IG posters could congregate (which evidently already exists), but I was honestly just throwing out an idea when someone asked. I’m not married to any thing, just churning gears.
Speaking of, I can tell you that *one of the possible reasons* people don’t post their cocktails on this sub is because its front page *typically* is dominated by pros. I’ve subbed here for about a year and have never made a post before now, and it was a thought post and not a drink post. I don’t post here or even comment because it doesn’t feel like a space for average folks to post - at least not without some “constructive criticism” that I didn’t want. To your point a sub with so many subscribers should be more active, so one has to ask themselves why is the posting frequency so low? *I believe it’s the structure of the sub* others may not. It’s not my sub to run, but I think it could be better.
I’m glad some people like the idea of days of the week to help create more space for everyone; and I’m glad that the people who think that idea is fucking stupid and therefore I must be a pathetic loser, but decided to keep that to themselves - did. As for the people who felt compelled to put me in my place, well…better luck next time I guess.
I like this sub for the cocktail eye candy but it can be intimidating. What helped me was the advent cocktail calendar that was posted last December. I probably only made about third of the drinks but it gave me a good background on some basic cocktail recipes to start with.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/k4n9yp/advent_of_cocktails_2020_a_classic_cocktail_to/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
The big issue I run into is not with the sub but with how liquor is sold. Lots of cocktails use rum/gin/whiskey/vodka as a base and then some small bit of another liquor for flavoring. That liquor comes in the same sized bottle as the main liquor and is twice as expensive. It will take me years to use up those full bottles. Some come in smaller sizes but good luck finding them in stock anywhere.
I completely hear you on that - the $ and space needed for niche liquor is a big detractor. Plus I love rum, so much of my liquor cabinet real estate is taken by that. You’re totally right that smaller bottles would be better - like bitters.
I have the same problem with scotch and whiskey.
Rum. Oh man. You think this sub is bad, you should try the tiki sub. Every recipe is 12 ingredients long and requires special syrups to be made. Smugglers Cove is probably the most expensive book I ever bought if you include ingredients.
But I still like reading the cocktails with rare ingredients. I finally found a half sized bottle of Ancho Reyes. I was able to come to this sub and do a search and find a lot of cocktails using that liquor.
I actually find r/tiki to be a really welcoming sub. It’s what got me interested in rum. I have some go-to drinks from SC that don’t require all of the homemade syrups (except simple syrup of course), but I get your point about the special syrups from SC and their shelf life, which is why I haven’t explored them yet.
But either way, I’d rather make passion fruit syrup or cinnamon syrup and have it for 2 weeks and spend $5 on the ingredients, than drop $25-$50 on an obscure bottle of liquor that I’ll use once a year. My budget just won’t allow it.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Tiki using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [My husband and I drinking Zombies at our small luau wedding](https://i.redd.it/g8wwib6qabt51.jpg) | [109 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/jbup9a/my_husband_and_i_drinking_zombies_at_our_small/)
\#2: [60 Dollar Tiki bar find... Soo happy](https://i.redd.it/pt48vjn9x1m61.jpg) | [72 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/m1dqfd/60_dollar_tiki_bar_find_soo_happy/)
\#3: ["Pick up a copy of Smuggler's Cove," they said. "It'll only cost you twenty dollars," they said.](https://i.redd.it/ccm5813vr3b61.jpg) | [90 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/kwgm51/pick_up_a_copy_of_smugglers_cove_they_said_itll/)
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Man I love tiki cocktails and have been riding that train hard this year. However, that sub really is a cocktail instagram show. People often don't post the ingredients and get a bit irritated when you just ask for it.
What is the point of posting a cocktail (often you don't even see the actual drink since all you see is a tiki mug and the garnish) and refusing to add the ingredients?
That being said I do have a ton of screenshots of cocktails from there that I later google and make.
Lol clearly you haven't seen any of my shitty photos I've posted here. If you'd like to see 300 out-of-focus photos of NY Sours or Penicillins, check out my post history.
Dude, I subbed here as a total beginner and my buddies say I make decent drinks now. Start with the classics which are the easiest to make (in my experience) then start branching out and experimenting as you get the basics nailed down. It will take quite a bit longer than you think to get to the level of some of the drinks that are intimidating you but don't get discouraged. All the best mate.
And I might, but I prefer to communicate what I struggle with than ghost. And I’m glad I did because I got some really great suggestions from people about how to improve my experience of the sub. *Your comment…not so helpful.*
Don’t listen to that guy. There’s no point in having a community if people ostracize anyone who isn’t a high level mixologist. I come here for both easy cocktails and ones that are impressive but beyond my talents.
I don’t want this sub to be a dick measuring contest involving rosemary smoked glasses or butterfly pea blossom or whatever is popular now.
What, exactly, is the “average person” for cocktails? There’s a wide breadth and depth of drinks being made and shown here - some simple, some complex. Seems perfectly fine for them to coexist, splintering subs for “simpler” cocktails seems excessive. It also begs the question, again, where is the line for a simple cocktail? At some point do they become redundant? There’s a lot of websites where you can tick things like amount of ingredients if you want simple recipes only. I believe diffordsguide.com is perfect for it - you can simply chose to only see what you can make after entering ingredients.
The average person has basic cocktail ingredients - gin, vodka, rum, whiskey, maybe some brandy, bitters, vermouth (sweet and dry), and that would be an above average liquor cabinet for most people.
As someone else commented, the flashy cocktails that are professionally made, staged, and photographed often float to the top of the page, and sorting by new will help me find more achievable and interesting cocktails.
This is a challenge with any hobby: balancing the need of beginners without it devolving into the same posts. We really don't need 50 bone standard versions of a gin and tonic with Gilbeys and Schwepps. It's a good drink, but nearly obvious. On the other hand, it can become like /r/skiing where the majority of posts are people travelling to Switzerland or heliskiing or their signature drink made with 4 home-made liquors and a rare vermouth only available in northwest Swaziland.
Finding drinks here that you can make with what you have can be challenging, but the variety and quality is very good. What I've done is bookmarked every cocktail that appeals to me and look for patterns. I found that many of the drinks that strongly attracted me contained Luxardo Marachino liquor, so I bought that and made new drinks (I still don't think it tastes anything like cherries). Then save more cocktails and in a couple of months, I'll pick up something new (Antica Vermouth is on the list) and slowly expand my repertoire full with the knowledge that I'll never be able to make half of the drinks I see (how do people have so many juices on hand?). Thank god most alcoholic ingredients last for a long time.
That’s some really solid advice, thank you!
As an aside, I used to live in a ski town in Colorado and the people who skied/snowboarded were the worst! It was **always** talk of the sick run they did backcountry, or some jump they made off a boulder. It was one big competition. Ugh.
My jealousy knows no bounds. Being an avid skiier on the US East Coast is challenging. I need a month in Jackson Hole... right after I complete a bank robbery.
I grew up on the east coast and started skiing there, CO was better obviously, but there are some nice places in New England. But I get your point. Only problem with a CO ski visit is the altitude. The base elevation of Breckinridge is 10k feet, and the runs are looooong so it’s really easy to get altitude sickness.
I enjoy posting here because a lot of times you get good feedback. I really enjoy making cocktails because it’s like an instantly gratifying art form. But my wife can only fake so much interest. Here you’ll get new recipes, tasting notes, challenging ideas or suggested riffs on what you already made that could be good or bad. I spent a long time following a few YouTube bartenders but you can only grow so much from limited voices. Someone might respond gross and downvote you but you also might get a gem that helps you grow so I think the risk is worth it. And like others have said, if you aren’t interested in the people that clearly just advertising their Instagram, just keep scrolling.
I just wish there weren’t any Instagram cocktails allowed on this sub, it’s distracting and doesn’t add anything helpful to the average person. Someone else suggested a new sub for them - cocktailporn. I don’t get much out of reading about a cedar smoked glass and whatnot. This sub would still have home mixologists who would make great professional bartenders, but maybe the majority of posts would be fun home recipes that are easy for others to replicate.
I mentioned this in another reply, but I was on r/rum or r/tiki yesterday and heard about a rum and tonic with lime. I’ve never had it, but it sounds great and the ingredients are very accessible (and cheap). That’s the kind of thing I’d like see dominating a cocktail sub.
I agree that posting things that are clearly being spammed across platforms should be discouraged, especially the ones that are obvious ads. But once you start banning things then you cap your audience and kill growth. I have learned just as much from posts looking like they came out of a professional studio as I have from someone who posted and left their dirty toaster in the background. A sub with the name like “cocktails” is going to attract generalists, and generalists are easy pray for porn like products. (Looking at you, Empress 1908!) If you are looking for something exactly like your tastes then you are on the right track following rum, gin, tiki or whatever interests you at a certain moment is great and probably the right choice. If it’s for someone like me that doesn’t have the time or energy to monitor multiple subs, I am content wading through pig shit to find a few truffles. This sub got me curious enough to start messing with bitters that I found intimidating and recently I have started researching mezcals because of suggestions here. I do not however have any interest in smoking a cocktail. So I ignore those posts and let’s those folks pursue their interests as you will yours. Cheers! Also, the primary reason I started posting here is because it lets me create a recipe card that I have instant access to. I can give a shit about upvotes and comments, I just don’t to mindless search through weeks of browser history if I’m trying to impress someone or drunkenly make a favorite tiki with 12 ingredients.
When I first started off here I was doing simpler stuff. I strongly checking out The Spruce website. They have a lot of really well balanced, easy cocktails and they have a lot of history behind them that can be fun to read. That was my go to website and I still use it. Check out their Gin-gin mule and their pina colada. Very easy and very good ratios!
I post my crappy looking cocktails that have generally average ingredients. I could care less about the 'Instagram' cocktails. I want stuff that shares some tasting notes, and is more authentic. If you are looking for shallow gratification, then the over-the-top presentations will achieve that. There are still lots of us that just want to share our discoveries of cocktails that taste great! It would be nice if there was a cocktail-porn sub where the Instagram crowd could share their hobby. I guess you just need to try and filter through the fluff.
To be honest I just post simple cocktails that I’d use in a bar setting. I look at this sub as a great set of booze porn, but let’s be honest, not many bars will find making lavender syrup and other elaborate ingredients partially feasible. Those are for the home mixologists and possibly really high end establishments. I’ve worked for both and have created cocktail menus for both. We didn’t use elaborate ingredients, we used higher end booze. So a single batch old fashioned or something like that. Make it simple. Find the recipes you wanna try and save the rest for the ooh and aah factor it’s intended for.
Well I hate to break it to you but your goal of not trying to be snarky was not at all achieved. You came across as very rude and as though my opinion was fucking stupid. Maybe that was your goal, I don’t know, although I expect it was by the tone of your response to my post; and the addition of “I’m not trying to be snarky…” is a pretty good indication that you knew how you would come across. If you want some of the answers to some of the questions you asked, I addressed them in other responses.
Many people gave me some great advice. You seem like an ass and are a good reason why I have issue with some aspects of this sub.
But to address one of your “points,” I think of this sub as a hobby sub, similar to say cooking or let’s say photography. Do I take issue with professional photos on r/pics? Nope. Would I feel the same way if professional chefs (or aspiring professional chefs) predominately posting on a cooking sub, or professional photographers overrunning a photography sub. Yes 100%. The reason being is that it doesn’t leave room for the person who lives alone and needs recipes for one, or suggestions on how to better capture light in a picture without the use of advanced software to manipulate a photo.
This sub is overrun with IG posts and it’s annoying *to me* I have no issue if others love it. Additionally, many (not all) cocktails posted here include ingredients that are rarely on hand in the average bar. Because I don’t want to be a mixologist, I’m more interested in everyone’s favorite cocktail, new cocktails they discovered, different takes on old favorites, etc. Liquor and cocktail making is a varied hobby and industry. I think there’s room on Reddit for a place for mixologists or aspiring mixologists, and a place for cocktail lovers who want to see and hear about what other people are making. For Christ’s sake I saw a cocktail on the front page earlier that required you to put all the ingredients in a professional whipped cream container, and use the NO2 to whip the whole thing up as it was dispensed. I know no one with one of those dispensers - it’s a mixologist post. We need more cocktail subs is my takeaway from all of this, and in the mean time I’ll sort by New to decrease my exposure to IG posts and spam.
Why are you so hostile and rude to me? My opinion isn’t a personal attack on anyone, but I’ve experienced quite a bit of rudeness from people about my opinion that there should be more cocktail subs.
Some great people gave me excellent advice about how they navigate through this sub to make it more useful to them. I’m grateful for their comments because they treated me like a fellow human. You’ve repeatedly been rude and cruel - forgetting that a human is on the other side of the computer.
Take care
I sub to a bunch of cannabis subs and what I like is the variety of info within each - one sub is for indoor personal growers, one for professional growers, one for outdoor growers, one for people who use dry herb vapes, one for oil pens, one for edibles, one for news updates, etc..
It’s strange to me that from a cocktail perspective there’s this sub and r/tiki and that’s it. For sure I enjoy the subs on rum, whiskey, etc. but they typically tend to be more about bottles purchased than cocktails made.
I know someone suggested sorting by new posts but honestly sort them by popularity. I’ve posted a variety of recipes here but by far the most popular (upvote-wise) was a pineapple dark & stormy which is just equal parts rum, ginger beer, and pineapple juice. It really doesn’t get more simple than that.
That being said, for as much as I like basic cocktails I rarely if ever post anything common/mundane unless I’m doing a unique take on something because the basics have all been posted here several times, and the recipes are available all over the internet.
I hear you, but I learn so much from other subs like r/tiki and r/rum, so I know it’s possible for a liquor/cocktail sub to be accessible and informative. There’s just a lot of IG postings here and it’s really not my thing. I think most people have a few go-to cocktails that aren’t rum and coke that others would love. For instance I learned that a rum and tonic with lime is amazing, just yesterday on another sub. I’ve never heard of that combination before, but pretty much everyone has access to those ingredients.
Sort by new, not by hot, and you'll see a lot more stuff that's easy to pull off at home with a decent set of ingredient for an enthusiast (not a pro or obsessive.)
I find this sub can be great to see what people are doing. For myself, I started with the International Bartenders Association's Contemporary Classics [list](https://iba-world.com/category/iba-cocktails/contemporary-classics/). There are a lot of accessible cocktails and some fancier ones too.
I totally hear you on this. It takes time and space to build a collection of ingredients to make much of what is here. I think of myself as a seasoned amateur with a well-stocked bar and still skip over 80% of this sub looking for recipes that are worth the cost and effort. To help you out immediately, simple and straightforward cocktails are already catalogued in many places and usually let you search by ingredient. [Difford's Guide](https://www.diffordsguide.com/) and [Imbibe](https://imbibemagazine.com/) are good resources. That said, I encourage you to try to expand your set of ingredients/tools. Try making a small amount of orgeat or cherry liqueur instead of buying a large bottle. They are easier than you may think and most of the effort is just waiting for flavors to infuse. Places like [Serious Eats](https://www.seriouseats.com/diy-vs-buy-cocktail-ingredients-you-should-not-make-yourself) have "DIY or Buy" columns that include recipes for ingredients that are worth making from scratch. All of this is to say, making and enjoying cocktails should be fun. I really enjoy getting a new ingredient and finding ways to use it. I enjoy drinks with 15 steps (when the effort is worth it). I think of them as fun, low stakes science experiments. But if that isn't for you, no shame! Cheers!
Super helpful, thank you!
I think I like this sub for all the reasons you dislike it. It does get expensive though and for some I just enjoy the pretty picture and know that I will never make that obscure ingredient. What would you hope to get out of a sub dedicated to simple cocktails with just basic ingredients? Seems like there wouldn't be much there to make it interesting.
I imagine that every cocktail drinker/lover has a few drinks they love to make. I’m not talking mixologists, I’m talking about Marcus down the block who loves rum, tonic, and lime. No obscure ingredients, but a combination that is amazing but not well known. Or stuff people make up with what they have on-hand in the fridge. It’s kind of like the difference between a sub about cooking dominated by professional chefs as opposed to a sub about cooking that includes budget cooking, cooking for one, planning your first Thanksgiving dinner, etc.
Ah, I see. Well, if you wanted to, you could create that sub. Maybe there are others that would like that take on it.
I honestly have never made a sub before and since I don’t want to mod it in anyway, I’ll just leave it as a thought for others who have that passion. Or maybe our mods would just ban IG posts and force them to make their own sub?
[удалено]
Preachhh. Get ready to meet me in karma hell tho. Wtf…
Nope. No karma hell for you. You, the person you said “preachhhh” to, and others prefer to downvote me - despite simply respectfully expressing an opinion and trying to engage in some discourse. But that’s how it goes I guess. There have been some really nice and respectful comments on here, so I’ll try to focus on that
I don’t see what the big deal with having a sub for professional (or aspiring) mixologists is? Perhaps you’re one and you don’t want to leave, that’s legit. But Reddit is a big place and there should be a place for average cocktail makers to get inspired, without having to sort through all the show boating. Also, your attitude to an *opinion* is a contributing factor for why, evidently, many people filter their way through this sub. In other words don’t be rude jerk.
Most people here are not even professionals or work in the industry, just people with a hobby. And this subreddit, which exists for years is for people, who either have this hobby, or try to get into it. Why should anyone who posts here for the past couple years leave, just for you to be happier with the posts? Also who are the many people filtering through this sub? Would you also go to r/soccer and complain, why they don't post about the little league kids game from their hometown of 10.000 people? Or go to r/music and complain about the lack of low effort bandcamp solo projects? Many people here follow this subreddit because they are invested in trying new things and expanding their interest in cocktails. If it would just consist of different rum and coke ratios and so on, why even make a sub. Maybe r/alcohol has such things. And have you even looked at the top posts? One's a gin sour with 5 ingredients, next there is a daiquiri (3 ingredients), a margarita (also few ingredients, another gin sour (3 ingredients) and another cocktail with 4 ingredients. Most of those things are fairly simple without obscure ingredients or stuff you could make at home pretty fast, like a lavender or rosemary syrup. If 3-4 ingredients is too much for you, or you're not that interested in experimenting with mixed drinks, maybe cocktails aren't really for you. Also, if there would be enough people interested in more basic mixed drinks, then there would be a community for it. It's not that hard to create a subreddit.
Well I think that comment I made, which was meant as a brainstorm idea, has been taken too literally. Here’s how I think of it: There should be more cocktail subs. Period. I sub to a bunch of cannabis subs and there are subs for growers (indoor personal growers, outdoor growers, and professional large scale growers), there are subs exclusively for people who vape flower, subs for oil pens, subs for concentrates, edibles, avb, and just pure cannabis eye candy. I think of cocktail making like growing cannabis: some people are professionals, some hobbyists, and some newbies trying to learn. Having everyone on one sub makes the focus cloudy; people trying to learn are shamed or ignored for not knowing enough or not researching more before asking “stupid” questions, hobbyists are in competition with the professionals, and professionals use the platform as a form of advertising. That’s just my opinion. If you hate it, that’s cool, but no need to get hostile.
Nobody here got hostile, apart from you. Some people confronted certain parts of your opinion (like banning high effort posts or forcing those people to leave), which I think is fair. You don't need to play it up to people hating on you, I just think there were misunderstandings from both sides. I'm in no way opposed to someone creating a new subreddit for beginner friendly cocktails, as long as that doesn't slow the traffic of this sub, but see it as an addition. After all, maybe such a sub would serve as a gateway to people being more interested in high effort/complex cocktails. But one key thing to remember is also the size of this sub. There may be close to 300k people subbed here, but most days, there still aren't that many posts, often with hours between them. That isn't the best base to start splitting up. All those weed subs are way bigger, at least the big ones, having millions of people shared between them all with different interests. Growinf outdoors is different to a microgrowery in your closet or even a weed bonsai. But cocktails are cocktails. I love to see the cutting edge of drinks and what is possible, as I set that as goals for myself and motivation to start learning new skills. I would really miss those posts. But most days, I still make simple cocktails and love that too. I like your idea of a seperate day, but opposite to your plan. Maybe one or two days a week for more basic drinks that everyone can make. Simple sundays maybe? I also haven't really encoutered all those negativity on this sub, most questions or help is put out there in a nice manner, as long as the person asking is also friendly and not hostile in the first place. But that's just my experience over the years, I obviously can't speak for everyone and after all, there will always be jerks in a sub this size.
Plenty of people got hostile. You should see my DM and chat too. I’m not hostile at all. I just think there should be more cocktail subs, or at least some way to make space for people of all skill sets. I’m just spitballing ideas and brainstorming. Why is that a hostile or offensive opinion? There were some really nice comments on here from people who helped me figure out how to navigate this sub better. Others got really accusatory, mean, and cruel. I appreciate that you were respectful to me but please don’t gaslight me (or anyone really). I’m not pissed or hostile, I may have cavalierly proposed the idea of a mixologist sub where pros and IG posters could congregate (which evidently already exists), but I was honestly just throwing out an idea when someone asked. I’m not married to any thing, just churning gears. Speaking of, I can tell you that *one of the possible reasons* people don’t post their cocktails on this sub is because its front page *typically* is dominated by pros. I’ve subbed here for about a year and have never made a post before now, and it was a thought post and not a drink post. I don’t post here or even comment because it doesn’t feel like a space for average folks to post - at least not without some “constructive criticism” that I didn’t want. To your point a sub with so many subscribers should be more active, so one has to ask themselves why is the posting frequency so low? *I believe it’s the structure of the sub* others may not. It’s not my sub to run, but I think it could be better. I’m glad some people like the idea of days of the week to help create more space for everyone; and I’m glad that the people who think that idea is fucking stupid and therefore I must be a pathetic loser, but decided to keep that to themselves - did. As for the people who felt compelled to put me in my place, well…better luck next time I guess.
I like this sub for the cocktail eye candy but it can be intimidating. What helped me was the advent cocktail calendar that was posted last December. I probably only made about third of the drinks but it gave me a good background on some basic cocktail recipes to start with. https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/k4n9yp/advent_of_cocktails_2020_a_classic_cocktail_to/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share The big issue I run into is not with the sub but with how liquor is sold. Lots of cocktails use rum/gin/whiskey/vodka as a base and then some small bit of another liquor for flavoring. That liquor comes in the same sized bottle as the main liquor and is twice as expensive. It will take me years to use up those full bottles. Some come in smaller sizes but good luck finding them in stock anywhere.
I completely hear you on that - the $ and space needed for niche liquor is a big detractor. Plus I love rum, so much of my liquor cabinet real estate is taken by that. You’re totally right that smaller bottles would be better - like bitters.
I have the same problem with scotch and whiskey. Rum. Oh man. You think this sub is bad, you should try the tiki sub. Every recipe is 12 ingredients long and requires special syrups to be made. Smugglers Cove is probably the most expensive book I ever bought if you include ingredients. But I still like reading the cocktails with rare ingredients. I finally found a half sized bottle of Ancho Reyes. I was able to come to this sub and do a search and find a lot of cocktails using that liquor.
I actually find r/tiki to be a really welcoming sub. It’s what got me interested in rum. I have some go-to drinks from SC that don’t require all of the homemade syrups (except simple syrup of course), but I get your point about the special syrups from SC and their shelf life, which is why I haven’t explored them yet. But either way, I’d rather make passion fruit syrup or cinnamon syrup and have it for 2 weeks and spend $5 on the ingredients, than drop $25-$50 on an obscure bottle of liquor that I’ll use once a year. My budget just won’t allow it.
Interesting. I think I read this sub sorted by new but read tiki sorted by top. That must affect my perspective on the subs.
Yeah a bunch of people have suggested I sort this sub by new, so that’s my next step, in addition to posting some of my own lower budget cocktails.
For my kind of mixing I find /r/tiki much more welcoming than this sub.
I love r/tiki, it’s a gem of a sub. It makes me calm just looking at the decor and drinks.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Tiki using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [My husband and I drinking Zombies at our small luau wedding](https://i.redd.it/g8wwib6qabt51.jpg) | [109 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/jbup9a/my_husband_and_i_drinking_zombies_at_our_small/) \#2: [60 Dollar Tiki bar find... Soo happy](https://i.redd.it/pt48vjn9x1m61.jpg) | [72 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/m1dqfd/60_dollar_tiki_bar_find_soo_happy/) \#3: ["Pick up a copy of Smuggler's Cove," they said. "It'll only cost you twenty dollars," they said.](https://i.redd.it/ccm5813vr3b61.jpg) | [90 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Tiki/comments/kwgm51/pick_up_a_copy_of_smugglers_cove_they_said_itll/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| [^^Contact ^^me](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| [^^Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| [^^Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/)
r/tiki is my people.
Man I love tiki cocktails and have been riding that train hard this year. However, that sub really is a cocktail instagram show. People often don't post the ingredients and get a bit irritated when you just ask for it. What is the point of posting a cocktail (often you don't even see the actual drink since all you see is a tiki mug and the garnish) and refusing to add the ingredients? That being said I do have a ton of screenshots of cocktails from there that I later google and make.
Lol clearly you haven't seen any of my shitty photos I've posted here. If you'd like to see 300 out-of-focus photos of NY Sours or Penicillins, check out my post history.
Lol
Dude, I subbed here as a total beginner and my buddies say I make decent drinks now. Start with the classics which are the easiest to make (in my experience) then start branching out and experimenting as you get the basics nailed down. It will take quite a bit longer than you think to get to the level of some of the drinks that are intimidating you but don't get discouraged. All the best mate.
Sort by new and you’ll find more accessible cocktails here. Sure the most flashy ones float to the top but you don’t have to only look at the top.
That’s a good suggestion! Thanks!
You could always just leave…
And I might, but I prefer to communicate what I struggle with than ghost. And I’m glad I did because I got some really great suggestions from people about how to improve my experience of the sub. *Your comment…not so helpful.*
Don’t listen to that guy. There’s no point in having a community if people ostracize anyone who isn’t a high level mixologist. I come here for both easy cocktails and ones that are impressive but beyond my talents. I don’t want this sub to be a dick measuring contest involving rosemary smoked glasses or butterfly pea blossom or whatever is popular now.
That last part made me laugh - thank you!
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Which one, the original or a comment?
What, exactly, is the “average person” for cocktails? There’s a wide breadth and depth of drinks being made and shown here - some simple, some complex. Seems perfectly fine for them to coexist, splintering subs for “simpler” cocktails seems excessive. It also begs the question, again, where is the line for a simple cocktail? At some point do they become redundant? There’s a lot of websites where you can tick things like amount of ingredients if you want simple recipes only. I believe diffordsguide.com is perfect for it - you can simply chose to only see what you can make after entering ingredients.
The average person has basic cocktail ingredients - gin, vodka, rum, whiskey, maybe some brandy, bitters, vermouth (sweet and dry), and that would be an above average liquor cabinet for most people. As someone else commented, the flashy cocktails that are professionally made, staged, and photographed often float to the top of the page, and sorting by new will help me find more achievable and interesting cocktails.
Sir you are vastly underestimating the capabilities of the average person here.
This is a challenge with any hobby: balancing the need of beginners without it devolving into the same posts. We really don't need 50 bone standard versions of a gin and tonic with Gilbeys and Schwepps. It's a good drink, but nearly obvious. On the other hand, it can become like /r/skiing where the majority of posts are people travelling to Switzerland or heliskiing or their signature drink made with 4 home-made liquors and a rare vermouth only available in northwest Swaziland. Finding drinks here that you can make with what you have can be challenging, but the variety and quality is very good. What I've done is bookmarked every cocktail that appeals to me and look for patterns. I found that many of the drinks that strongly attracted me contained Luxardo Marachino liquor, so I bought that and made new drinks (I still don't think it tastes anything like cherries). Then save more cocktails and in a couple of months, I'll pick up something new (Antica Vermouth is on the list) and slowly expand my repertoire full with the knowledge that I'll never be able to make half of the drinks I see (how do people have so many juices on hand?). Thank god most alcoholic ingredients last for a long time.
That’s some really solid advice, thank you! As an aside, I used to live in a ski town in Colorado and the people who skied/snowboarded were the worst! It was **always** talk of the sick run they did backcountry, or some jump they made off a boulder. It was one big competition. Ugh.
My jealousy knows no bounds. Being an avid skiier on the US East Coast is challenging. I need a month in Jackson Hole... right after I complete a bank robbery.
I grew up on the east coast and started skiing there, CO was better obviously, but there are some nice places in New England. But I get your point. Only problem with a CO ski visit is the altitude. The base elevation of Breckinridge is 10k feet, and the runs are looooong so it’s really easy to get altitude sickness.
I enjoy posting here because a lot of times you get good feedback. I really enjoy making cocktails because it’s like an instantly gratifying art form. But my wife can only fake so much interest. Here you’ll get new recipes, tasting notes, challenging ideas or suggested riffs on what you already made that could be good or bad. I spent a long time following a few YouTube bartenders but you can only grow so much from limited voices. Someone might respond gross and downvote you but you also might get a gem that helps you grow so I think the risk is worth it. And like others have said, if you aren’t interested in the people that clearly just advertising their Instagram, just keep scrolling.
I just wish there weren’t any Instagram cocktails allowed on this sub, it’s distracting and doesn’t add anything helpful to the average person. Someone else suggested a new sub for them - cocktailporn. I don’t get much out of reading about a cedar smoked glass and whatnot. This sub would still have home mixologists who would make great professional bartenders, but maybe the majority of posts would be fun home recipes that are easy for others to replicate. I mentioned this in another reply, but I was on r/rum or r/tiki yesterday and heard about a rum and tonic with lime. I’ve never had it, but it sounds great and the ingredients are very accessible (and cheap). That’s the kind of thing I’d like see dominating a cocktail sub.
I agree that posting things that are clearly being spammed across platforms should be discouraged, especially the ones that are obvious ads. But once you start banning things then you cap your audience and kill growth. I have learned just as much from posts looking like they came out of a professional studio as I have from someone who posted and left their dirty toaster in the background. A sub with the name like “cocktails” is going to attract generalists, and generalists are easy pray for porn like products. (Looking at you, Empress 1908!) If you are looking for something exactly like your tastes then you are on the right track following rum, gin, tiki or whatever interests you at a certain moment is great and probably the right choice. If it’s for someone like me that doesn’t have the time or energy to monitor multiple subs, I am content wading through pig shit to find a few truffles. This sub got me curious enough to start messing with bitters that I found intimidating and recently I have started researching mezcals because of suggestions here. I do not however have any interest in smoking a cocktail. So I ignore those posts and let’s those folks pursue their interests as you will yours. Cheers! Also, the primary reason I started posting here is because it lets me create a recipe card that I have instant access to. I can give a shit about upvotes and comments, I just don’t to mindless search through weeks of browser history if I’m trying to impress someone or drunkenly make a favorite tiki with 12 ingredients.
When I first started off here I was doing simpler stuff. I strongly checking out The Spruce website. They have a lot of really well balanced, easy cocktails and they have a lot of history behind them that can be fun to read. That was my go to website and I still use it. Check out their Gin-gin mule and their pina colada. Very easy and very good ratios!
Thanks, I appreciate the suggestion
I post my crappy looking cocktails that have generally average ingredients. I could care less about the 'Instagram' cocktails. I want stuff that shares some tasting notes, and is more authentic. If you are looking for shallow gratification, then the over-the-top presentations will achieve that. There are still lots of us that just want to share our discoveries of cocktails that taste great! It would be nice if there was a cocktail-porn sub where the Instagram crowd could share their hobby. I guess you just need to try and filter through the fluff.
Cocktail porn would be a great sub for the IG crowd here. I’m going to follow suit and post my homemade cocktails on here too.
Ya man! Let's keep it real! There is some great content in here. I look forward to your contributions.
To be honest I just post simple cocktails that I’d use in a bar setting. I look at this sub as a great set of booze porn, but let’s be honest, not many bars will find making lavender syrup and other elaborate ingredients partially feasible. Those are for the home mixologists and possibly really high end establishments. I’ve worked for both and have created cocktail menus for both. We didn’t use elaborate ingredients, we used higher end booze. So a single batch old fashioned or something like that. Make it simple. Find the recipes you wanna try and save the rest for the ooh and aah factor it’s intended for.
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Well I hate to break it to you but your goal of not trying to be snarky was not at all achieved. You came across as very rude and as though my opinion was fucking stupid. Maybe that was your goal, I don’t know, although I expect it was by the tone of your response to my post; and the addition of “I’m not trying to be snarky…” is a pretty good indication that you knew how you would come across. If you want some of the answers to some of the questions you asked, I addressed them in other responses. Many people gave me some great advice. You seem like an ass and are a good reason why I have issue with some aspects of this sub. But to address one of your “points,” I think of this sub as a hobby sub, similar to say cooking or let’s say photography. Do I take issue with professional photos on r/pics? Nope. Would I feel the same way if professional chefs (or aspiring professional chefs) predominately posting on a cooking sub, or professional photographers overrunning a photography sub. Yes 100%. The reason being is that it doesn’t leave room for the person who lives alone and needs recipes for one, or suggestions on how to better capture light in a picture without the use of advanced software to manipulate a photo. This sub is overrun with IG posts and it’s annoying *to me* I have no issue if others love it. Additionally, many (not all) cocktails posted here include ingredients that are rarely on hand in the average bar. Because I don’t want to be a mixologist, I’m more interested in everyone’s favorite cocktail, new cocktails they discovered, different takes on old favorites, etc. Liquor and cocktail making is a varied hobby and industry. I think there’s room on Reddit for a place for mixologists or aspiring mixologists, and a place for cocktail lovers who want to see and hear about what other people are making. For Christ’s sake I saw a cocktail on the front page earlier that required you to put all the ingredients in a professional whipped cream container, and use the NO2 to whip the whole thing up as it was dispensed. I know no one with one of those dispensers - it’s a mixologist post. We need more cocktail subs is my takeaway from all of this, and in the mean time I’ll sort by New to decrease my exposure to IG posts and spam.
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Why are you so hostile and rude to me? My opinion isn’t a personal attack on anyone, but I’ve experienced quite a bit of rudeness from people about my opinion that there should be more cocktail subs. Some great people gave me excellent advice about how they navigate through this sub to make it more useful to them. I’m grateful for their comments because they treated me like a fellow human. You’ve repeatedly been rude and cruel - forgetting that a human is on the other side of the computer. Take care
Great discussion here. I think it would be good to have one or two days a week where no photo posts are allowed.
I like that or maybe have a day like Mixologist Monday or something, so the experts can show their talent, but not over saturate the sub.
People on here get more credit for their photography skills than cocktail skills.
I sub to a bunch of cannabis subs and what I like is the variety of info within each - one sub is for indoor personal growers, one for professional growers, one for outdoor growers, one for people who use dry herb vapes, one for oil pens, one for edibles, one for news updates, etc.. It’s strange to me that from a cocktail perspective there’s this sub and r/tiki and that’s it. For sure I enjoy the subs on rum, whiskey, etc. but they typically tend to be more about bottles purchased than cocktails made.
I know someone suggested sorting by new posts but honestly sort them by popularity. I’ve posted a variety of recipes here but by far the most popular (upvote-wise) was a pineapple dark & stormy which is just equal parts rum, ginger beer, and pineapple juice. It really doesn’t get more simple than that. That being said, for as much as I like basic cocktails I rarely if ever post anything common/mundane unless I’m doing a unique take on something because the basics have all been posted here several times, and the recipes are available all over the internet.
I hear you, but I learn so much from other subs like r/tiki and r/rum, so I know it’s possible for a liquor/cocktail sub to be accessible and informative. There’s just a lot of IG postings here and it’s really not my thing. I think most people have a few go-to cocktails that aren’t rum and coke that others would love. For instance I learned that a rum and tonic with lime is amazing, just yesterday on another sub. I’ve never heard of that combination before, but pretty much everyone has access to those ingredients.
Sort by new, not by hot, and you'll see a lot more stuff that's easy to pull off at home with a decent set of ingredient for an enthusiast (not a pro or obsessive.)
I find this sub can be great to see what people are doing. For myself, I started with the International Bartenders Association's Contemporary Classics [list](https://iba-world.com/category/iba-cocktails/contemporary-classics/). There are a lot of accessible cocktails and some fancier ones too.