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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi, Dargoth. Well, here’s the best I can do right now, re. answers to these:
1. I’ve created extensive lists of drinkables, recipes, and suchlike for inns, but always avoided doing direct real-world equivalents, especially for “mixed drinks” or “cocktails.” However, you will find many notations in my published writings along the lines of ‘firewine tastes somewhat like a cross between RealWorldA and RealWorldB.’
To help you with this specific query, however, here are the general guidelines: in the warmer climes (ending, as one goes northwards, at about Amn), drinks may sometimes be blended for taste reasons (or mixed with fresh fruit juices), but are almost never deliberately made stronger by combining one alcoholic drinkable with another.
However, from Westgate northwards, and Beregost northwards on the Sword Coast, most inns and taverns serve fortified drinkables. These are of two sorts: the booze that ‘the house’ adulterates habitually and ‘everybody knows about,’ and mixed drinks that are done on the spot, at the request of a patron or upon a patron accepting a clear offer of “warming” a drink.
The first sort of “warmed” drinks include zzar and what’s called “deep ale” or “fire ale” (beer to which a grain-based spirit has been added). These may be watered to make them go farther if the taste is harsh (and of course to save the establishment some coins), and also often fortified with distilled spirits (usually potato-based, in other words close to what we’d call vodka: essentially clear, colorless, and tasteless).
The second sort of “warmed” drinks only approach the elaborate recipes of our real-world cocktails in places like Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Luskan, Neverwinter, Sembia, Westgate, and the coastal ports of the Dragonreach. Usually they’re simple “warm your wine by stirring in a little throatslake, goodsir?” concoctions (“throatslake” being the generic term for a distilled spirit such as gin, bourbon, vodka, whiskey, et al). If the throatslake has a strong taste that clashes with the wine, the result can be, well, horrible. :}
Years back, one of my players spent a gaming weekend at our cottage serving us all various cocktails and giving them Realms names, so I can give you here what I can remember of her admittedly short list (of course, you’d have to rename all the ingredients to make them fit the Realms, too, and I’ve never bothered):
Angel’s Kiss: Tansar’s Dance
Buck’s Fizz: Marthoun’s Flagon
Cherry Sling: Dragondown
Daiquiri: Ladydagger
Gimlet: Bright Blade
Margarita (Strawberry): Wyvernblood
Mint Julep: Sea Ward Slake
Pina Colada: Snowfire
Port and Starboard: Nightfire
Rickey (Gin): Lightning Bolt
Rob Roy: Battle Banner
Rusty Nail: Merchants’ Tears
Rum Eggnog: Harbour Foam
Stone Fence: Stag At Bay
Tequila Sunrise: Caravan Lantern
I accept NO responsibility for what happens if these are used in play sessions. * My * players are more than crazed enough without alcoholic aid.

So endeth the words of Ed. The Hooded One here, with just one additional comment: “My players are more than crazed enough without alcoholic aid” is putting it mildly. He may recall my once dissolving chocolates into the whiskey after the Bailey’s ran out. :} None of us are drinkers these days, I hasten to inform the world, but we were younger then, and Ed’s cottage sessions tended to be in very hot weather, and two of us DID work in breweries one year, and had our own microbrewery the next year. Their “best bitters” was about 12 percent alcohol, I believe (none of your ‘water in a can’ American light stuff). In fact, I remember the windowsill of the gaming cottage displaying a neat row of about twenty 1-litre plastic empties after a long, hard day of gaming. :}

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Originally posted by Kes_Alanadel

George had reposted his list on another thread (which one escapes me at the moment), and he said that it was one he made for the mailing list a few years ago.
~Kes

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Originally posted by Delzounblood

Trust a dwarf to ask about beer!!!!

Welldone Mace

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Originally posted by Delzounblood

Trust a dwarf to ask about beer!!!!

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Originally posted by The Hooded One on 24 June 2008:


Ed replies to a Berdusk query by Kuje:
“I can't think of anything else at the moment that I need unless Ed wants to supply some fare/drinks that are typical to some of the ale houses?”

Answer:
"I’ll have to make this brief, and leave the food until next time. Okay, here we go:
“Small beer” is generally sneered at in Berdusk, because so much good beer is made locally.
The alehouses serve “red” (orange-red, fiery [peppery] hard cider), a fiery, black, almost licorice-tasting smoky stout known as “Old Dark,” and a lot of light ales.
These ales, known as “goldens,” are wheat beers sweetened with honey and flavored with all manner of local berries. They include:

* Annasker: named for the family who first made it, a sparkling, pinkish pale ale that tastes sweet but tart (like lemonade mixed with several berry juices)

* Belbuck: yes, a halfling-brewed beer, and by far the most popular: sweet, translucent green [yes!] because it’s full of fermented herbs that make it very strong [alcoholic] and yet minty [like spearmint, it clears other tastes, and chills the throat like menthol]; deceptive, so that many a traveler has drunk deeply before feeling the effects, and being unable to rise and walk across a taproom unaided

* Darndarr: a “sandy” or “nutty” flavoured beer, that goes silkily well with both seared meats and fish. Usually served by the jug (small earthenware jugs that collapse into powder if flung ot swung against something hard, making these preferred “drench people” missiles in pranks), this ale keeps very well, even out in the sun, and so many locals have crocks and kegs of it around the house for casual drinking and for use as a marinade or to “jug” perishables in, for longer keeping

* Helmatoss: a sweet, oily, clear pale ale that sits heavily on the stomach. Some say it was named for the long-dead tavernkeeper Alanra Helmatoss, others say its name comes from the violent vomiting it causes in many who over-imbibe. It is known (Harpers have tested and proved this true) to neutralize many poisons and settle many raging acidic stomachs, and is definitely an acquired taste. Those who have acquired it often drink great amounts (where one large tankard will leave a first-timer spewing) and swear by it. Warning: highly flammable!

* Zeskorr: a dark brown pale ale that tastes of salt (and, some say, fish; others just say it tastes “strange”). Again, an acquired taste apt to upset the stomachs of the unwary, but deeply enjoyed by those who do like it.

The alehouses also serve a lot of wine, and many beers brought by caravan from all over Faerûn. More when I get back from my travels.
Faerûn Forever!"


So saith Ed. Whom I hope to see in Columbus, though my superiors will probably try to keep me too busy elsewhere to swing by. However, if you should happen to see althen artren striding past with a bag of dice and a gleam in his eye, follow him . . .

love,
THO

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