DANGEROUS COCKTAILS AHEAD
A new breed of hi gh- octane drinks is hitting New York bars, where just one glass could send you over the DUI limit. The Post knocked back the five most potent potions in town
REGULAR highballs are for light-light weights. What the adventurous drinker in New York City wants is a cocktail that packs a stronger wallop — a drink that slaps you across the face, leaves you stooped and walks off wwith half your stuff.
So-called overproof cocktails — concoctions made with dangerously high-octane spirits or with far more booze than the standard 1 ½ -ounce pour — are showing up oon menus all around town.
Tooker Alley, a watering hole in Prospect Heights that opened late last year, serves a Hobo Julep, a green-tinted tipple made from 3 ounces of high-proof whiskey. It’s also got club soda and mint bitters, but it’s mostly just a way to publicly knock back a lot of whiskey in polite company.
The new-ish Upper East Side branch of Brick Lane Curry House serves a Punjab, a spin on the Long Island Iced Tea that includes vodka, gin, rum, tequila and Frangelico.
Stronger drinks are now more common,
in part because bartenders have a wider variety of quality overproof spirits, says Johnny Swet, co-owner of the Village’s Rogue & Canon. Mixing drinks with ingredients higher than 80 proof no longer means reaching for a bottle of grain alcohol. Or kerosene.
Brooklyn-based New York Distilling Company, for example, produces Perry’s Tot, a drinkable, 114-proof gin categorized as Navy strength — a designation that dates back to the early 1800s when, legend has it, gunpowder could still be fired even if the booze were spilled on it. Compare that to, say, Tanqueray gin at 94 proof. Other producers are creating “cask-strength” whiskeys and tequilas, with alcohol content as high as 70 percent (140 proof ). Regular whiskeys and tequilas are about 80 proof.
The Post trried five of the city’s most potent potions, measuring their strengthh and testing thheir effects. Armeed with a Breathhalyzer, I sampled eachh one to see how much thhey affected me, a 6-foot-tall, 175-pound man. After immbibing each drink, I bleww into the gadget to check my bloood-alcohol concentration. (Thee legal limit for driving is .08.)
I also made a rough calculation about how manym regular drinks (like a 5-ouncce glass of wine) each of these babiies is worth, based on their alcoohol content. Let’s go getting! Er, get going!i ! SSorry, a bibit drunk here.