10. Tropical Fantasy
Coming straight out of the BK, Tropical Fantasy won our taste buds over with its cheap price. Being that the bottling company was small, there was very little advertising for the soft drink. Though the hood drink was tasty, fervent rumors would lead to its demise. Gossip of the drink having secret ingredients that would cause men to become sterile spread like wild fire. That misinformation caused people to refer to it as “Tropical Fanticide.” Once talk of the KKK being behind the company only distributing in the inner city, violence happened to stores who sold the refreshment. In other words, our Tropical Fantasy turned into a Tropical Nightmare.

9. Olde English
Olde English malt liquor had been around for decades before gaining headway in urban communities in the eighties and nineties. By that time, there were a variety of sizes. Most of the hood reached for the forty ounce bottle cloaked in a brown paper bag. The height of its fame came in John Singleton’s hood classic, Poetic Justice. When the gang stops for something to quench their thirst, Regina King gets a little indignant about a white liquor store not having the malt beverage. Her actions caused Janet Jackson to scold her, “Girl, you know they don’t sell that outside of the black neighborhoods!” Truer words have yet to be spoken.

8. Cisco
It’s one of the cheapest drinks on the market if you’re trying to get drunk. It’s probably one of the worst when it comes to health. From personal experience, the darker the color of your bottle of ‘Sco, the bigger the hole it left in your liver. Thank heavens I’m not reduced to tolerating that mess anymore. You might not have felt well the day after, but the the party sure felt good when Cisco was in your system. Or was that just me? Don’t front. You know the exact feeling I’m talking bout.

7. Colt 45
Billy Dee Williams was the coolest brother around, back in the day. So when he said to drink Colt 45, you drank Colt 45. His long standing relationship with the company during the Regan Era caused a lot of backlash for the actor. His response to the criticism? “I drink, you drink. Hell, if marijuana was legal, I’d appear in a commercial for that too.” So Black America was left with a choice, just say no or do what Billy Dee said. Needless to say, Colt 45 made a lot of money in its heyday. By the way, that extra kick it advertised having was not a game.

6. St. Ides
During the golden years of Hip Hop, St. Ides was the malt liquor of choice. Mainly because rappers of that time were placed in the ads. Method Man & Redman guzzled the drink. As did Cypress Hill and other rap acts. Chuck D famously sued the manufacturing company for using his voice without permission for one of their commercials. He had taken a stand against the slinging of malt liquor to the black community. Although many rappers appreciated its taste, the biggest name check came from Common in his evisceration of Ice Cube on “The Bitch In Yoo.” He clowned O’Shea Jackson for being hypocritical with the line, “Hypocrite, I’m filling out your death certificate/Slanging bean pies and St. Ides in the same sentence.” Damn, Common, why you had to do him like that?

5. C&C Soda
For years, residents of the inner city have speculated what the two C’s stood for. No matter what you thought the reason was, that fact still remains they are “cold” and “cheap”. Costing a measly fifty cents, C&C soda was in more hoods than crack cocaine and weed combined. Junkies couldn’t always afford to get a fix of dope, but there was hope in finding loose change to sip on one of these chilled carbonated concoctions.

4. E&J
Good ole Easy Jesus. That’s what most people in New Jersey called it. Back when you had to use a fake I.D. to get liquored up, this was the libation of choice. Cheaper than other brandys, E&J was the blame for a great deal of reckless behavior. The term “coyote ugly” came from a woman who had drank too much E&J one night and slept with a man she found to be disgusting. She felt she’d rather gnaw her arm off than risk waking the guy up. That’s coyote ugly and that’s why most people over the age of 21 don’t drink it anymore.

3. 4 Loko
When you’re a company and your product gets banned, you know two things; 1)Energy drinks and alcohol don’t mix and 2)put in the wrong hands, it can be deadly. From the accounts I’ve heard, after drinking a 4 Loko, people have urinated on themselves in public without shame. They’ve also passed out in the most random places, like a snow bank in the middle of a police parking lot. If that’s what 4 Loko is all about, I’m good.

2. Hennessy
Henny has been the street pharmacist’s poison since its inception in the seventies. You can thank the younger hip hop heads for the resurgence of interest in Hennessy. When 2pac was alive he wrote a song called, “Hennessy.” He said the drink represented the thug lifestyle. If you aren’t a thug, you aren’t missing much with this cognac. You heard of the adage, “Less is more.” They had to have had Henny in mind.

1. Quarter Waters
When talking about drinks in the hood, how could quarter waters not get a mention?! More sugary than the Kool-Aid your auntie with Diabetes makes it and cheaper than anything else in the bodegas, quarter waters became an instant favorite. Distributed in various colors, your tongue would change to the color of whatever flavor you sampled. The only problem with the hood favorite was the sharp plastic. You had to drink those things in two swallows as not to risk slicing your lips. Why does something so good have to be so dangerous?

I’ve had just about every version of Hennessy ever made, so I was really excited when they launched a new brand of cognac called Hennessy Black. It comes in a sleek, black lacquered bottle with silver detail, and even if it tasted gross, you’d want to order a bottle in a club. Except it doesn’t, so, hooray!

Check out the recipe for Henny Black’s “Royale” cocktail, and make one for you and your friends.

HENNESSY BLACK ROYALE

1 part Hennessy Black

4 parts demi-sec champagne

1 brown sugar cube or 1/4 part simple syrup

lemon zest

• pour ingredients and serve over ice (yes, it’s THAT easy)

In the mood for a summer drink? Try the Absolut Pearfection!

But it’s still spring, so try THIS!

IT’S SPRINGTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!

I don’t know about you, but I’m jumping for effing joy over here. While I’m not one for hot weather, I’m totally over trudging through the snow to get back and forth to work every day. So now that Spring is here, why not celebrate with a pretty spring cocktail?

This Grey Goose La Poire pick will both cool you down and steam up any party you serve it at! Check out the recipe below, and serve it with your favorite fruit salad for a picnic treat.

THE GREY GOOSE TUSCAN PEAR

1 part GREY GOOSE® La Poire Flavored Vodka
1/2 part Limoncello
1/2 part ginger liqueur
1/2 part simple syrup
3/4 parts orange juice, preferably blood orange
mint leaves
1 thin pear slice
crushed ice for servingIn a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add all ingredients.

• Shake well until the outside of the shaker is frosted and beaded with sweat.

• Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice.

• Garnish with mint leaves and pear slice.

TGIF Cocktail goes live! Check out the video edition of our favorite cocktail segment here.

Not into fruity drinks? Try the Dirty Bustelo!

I was New York City’s Union Prime restaurant for a Drinks With… interview with R&B singer LeMarvin, whose new single is entitled “Too Many Patrons.” So what better cocktails to drink than ones made with Patron Tequila?

Union Prime’s resident mixologist Alex Ott was in town for a few weeks, so he decided to stop by and mix up a few Patron cocktails for this special video edition of TGIF Cocktail. So click on the video player below to make Union Prime’s house cocktail, the Prime Thyme Martini, for yourself and your friends! But don’t make too many – it’s delicious, and you can’t taste the tequila, and we all know how those situations end up….

Now, despite Barack Obama’s Cliff Huxtable demeanor, I am convinced he is a G, and not because he is our new President. So when Crown Royal created a cocktail specifically for him called the Crown Royal 44 (cause he’s our 44th Pres, dig?), I was all, “yup, that is totally right up his alley.”

You can’t tell me Barack, Michelle, or a relative of either doesn’t have a purple velvet Crown bag full of coins. You just can’t.

THE CROWN ROYAL 441

1/4 oz. Crown Royal Special Reserve^TM

1/4 oz. Lemon juice (2 lemon wedges)

1/4 oz. Simple syrup

1/2 oz. Champagne

• Serve on the rocks and top with champagne
• Be glad you’re not stuck in traffic on the way to DC, like I will be…
• If you are stuck in traffic, hopefully you’re not driving and will be nursing a sippy cup full of the Crown Royal 44, as I will probably be.

Few realize that it’s been only 13 short years since Monica Lewinsky stepped into the White House as an intern and stepped out as one of the government’s favorite jump-offs. So while we sit here witnessing history on this 2008 election night, we’re trying to put a few drinks down our gullets in the meantime (unlike Ms. Lewinsky, who put something else down her gullet during that fateful internship). Check out the recipe for this Oval Vodka contest winner below, and play a few drinking games of your own! Responsibly, of course.

MONICA LEWINSKY: THE OFFICIAL DRINK OF THE ‘OVAL’ OFFICE

2 oz. Oval Vodka

1 oz. X-rated Liqueur

1 oz. fresh lemon lime sour

Sugared Rim

• Fill shaker with ice
• Wet rim of martini glass and dip into sugar
• Add OVAL vodka, X-rated Liqueur and Fresh Lime Sour
• Shake until your arm hurts and strain into a chilled martini glass.
• Garnish with fresh strawberry and lemon slice

Fall’s here, which means it’s high time for apple picking, spiked hot cider, falling leaves, and chilly nights. So why not warm up with a cocktail that tastes like Turkey Day dessert?

So, last week a few friends and I made ourselves a few hot toddies (whiskey and tea) and went apple picking to celebrate autumn. However, we really ended up drunk and with MUCH fewer apples than we’d intended on accumulating, so there wasn’t much we could make with our bounty as we’d originally planned. What to do?

Now, I’m not much for desserts, but I certainly am one for tasty cocktails. So instead of curling up with a drink and a hot slice of caramel-drizzled apple pie, I’d rather follow a good meal with a drink that just tastes like I’d been laboring in the kitchen for hours. Maybe I’ll just put on a flour-dusted apron and pretend I’m toasting to all my hard apple picking and subsequent apple-dessert-baking instead.

CARAMEL APPLE PIE

1 oz 1800 Silver Tequila

1/2 oz. butterscotch schnapps

1 oz apple cider

1 tsp lemon juice

apple slice garnish

• fill cocktail shaker with ice
• add tequila, schnapps, cider, and lemon juice
• shake well and strain into martini glass
• garnish with apple slices