Cocktail Mixes – Part 2

by | Jun 20, 2026 | Cocktails, I Am Lame | 93 comments

In this part, I’ll make the attempt with one of the carbonated offerings, which adds it’s own difficulties. They did not go with something that adds light carbonation while dissolving (like Nuun tablets do), and instead ask for it to be topped with soda water. This does add another opportunity to adjust the flavor, with plenty of seltzer options out there, but this runs into the same issue as expecting me to garnish these drinks. If I’m that thoughtful about what I’m making, am I really the type of person to go for a packet to make the drink?

his time, I’ll be doing the Moscow Mule, which is a fine highball consisting of vodka, ginger beer/ale, and lime juice. Traditionally it’s served in a copper mug in what may be the first truly successful marketing story ever. I have long heard that the invention of this drink occurred at a bar where three salesmen lamented their poor success so far, and partnered together. What products were those three salesmen repping? Vodka (not popular in the US until the 60s), ginger beer, and copper mugs. It’s too perfect for me to entirely trust in it, but it entertains me regardless.

For the Old Fashioned, the powder gets mixed with water, for this one, it gets mixed with vodka. Now, if I was not doing this in a side by side comparison and wanting it to be neutral, I would likely use a flavored seltzer, but in this case I went club soda. Like the Old Fashioned, the packaged Moscow Mule was opaque and not as appetizing as the fresh made one:

While I have to drink both, I know which one looks more appealing to me.

Added ice, gave a brief stir to chill them down, and started the taste test

Starting with the packaged one, it’s very lime forward, with a hot ginger note in the finish. There’s a bit of a note that tastes to me as artificial, but that may be in my head. It’s non-offensive, and if it was served in an opaque mug would look fine. The one made from scratch was sweeter (that’s on me for using Seagram’s instead of a craft ginger beer), with clean lime notes and a whisper of ginger. Sitting and sipping on these, the package one grew on me for that ginger note in the finish. This tells me I need to get some better ginger beer in the house.

For the Old Fashioned, I said it made sense in some specific niche applications. Unfortunately, with this one calling for sparkling water, I can’t say this would be a good one for backpacking or the like, as ginger beer would have the same weight penalty. It’s also surprisingly harder to make the drink from the package than from scratch. I had to break out a frother to fully dissolve the powder (and there was still a healthy layer of sediment at the bottom by the time I finished). It doesn’t take much to fill a cup with ice, squeeze in some lime juice, add some vodka, and top with ginger beer. They’d make a fine gag/throw away gift to get someone, and the manufacturer does have a clever offering of a greeting card with a cocktail package in it. Unfortunately unless you’re giving this to someone who thought the Juicero was going to take off, I don’t see people being that excited about receiving them.

So again, I would reach towards a RTD (Ready To Drink) cocktail or make one from scratch over using the package. Has anyone else tried any mixes themselves?

About The Author

Nephilium

Nephilium

Nephilium is a geek of multiple types living in the vast suburban forests of Cleveland.

93 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    An American doing a job a Mexican won’t do?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      He asked nicely

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Ginger beer flavored koolaid?

  3. The Late P Brooks

    Not a fan of hot chili ginger beer.

    • PieInTheSky

      our cops usually have guns. Beretta PX4 Storm whatever those are

    • rhywun

      Yeah, I expect more and more of them will carry a gun as crime rises.

      • PieInTheSky

        neah they will focus more on policing tweets.

      • Brochettaward

        Every time I see a British cop I’m struck by how they seem to be true believers in the cause. Like American cops are dicks. They also deal with incredible amounts of bullshit from the general “public” they interact with. There’s a lot to be said about their anger issues and such. But they at least are males. Even the male “Bobbies” are like the ultimate versions of the NPC meme writ large. They won’t advocate to carry guns and their masters sure as fuck don’t care if they get them. They’ll have their own armed security at the end of the day.

        It’s especially infuriating when the cop is some dopey little girl who is like 105 lb’s soaking wet.

      • rhywun

        If BBC America is anything to go by, all cops and detectives in the UK are women.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        When I was in London a while back, the cops walking around the Buckingham/Downing street area were armed like SWAT teams.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “Hell of a country once. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.”

        BBC America? Is that still on? They stopped airing the likes of Mitchell and Webb long ago. “Hans, are we the baddies?”

      • slumbrew

        Yeah, the cops(?) outside the Ministry of Defense had Colt Commandos.

        (Could have been whatever they call military police)

      • rhywun

        BBC America? Is that still on?

        It seems to be mostly nature shows and Two and a Half Men.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Where’s the British connection to Two.5? Funny show in the Married With Children spirit. The theme song drives me and others crazy, but.

        /caressing her Fawlty Towers DVDs

    • Contrarian P

      Somebody else has to come and knock the guy over as the two hapless police wave their nightsticks around. That’s pathetic.

      Then instead of getting on the assailant who is now on the ground, they sit there hitting him with their nightsticks, as if somehow he’s going to just give up and comply. Even more pathetic.

      Maybe it’s a lack of training? Or maybe they’re just wusses. I have no idea.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Nice to see you, doctor!

        JFP, I vaguely remember when Downing Street was open to the public. And the White House was apparently similarly open in the 19C?

    • rhywun

      Huh. I don’t remember that at all.

      • Threedoor

        This still gets played n my neck of the woods.

        Lots of 80s stuff does. The local rock station has a new DJ that plays Bon Jovi now and I swear plays this at least once a day. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmvElD_0Ow

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Somehow I hadn’t heard “The Year of the Cat” until ten-ish years ago. Can I trade that for my “Long Tall Sally” memories?

        You and my older brother probably had the same albums.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (Uhh: Lay Down Sally. 🙄)

      • Threedoor

        Lay Down Sally gets aired here too.

      • rhywun

        I raise you one Martha and the Muffins.

        I remember them. We got Toronto radio in Buffalo.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Yeah, I was just trying to think of Canadian bands. Um. Besides those 90s guys.

  4. Sensei

    The Last American Hero

    From the last thread. For a 401k they are means tested so that “highly compensated” individuals can’t stuff cash there without the poors putting in money as well.

    So most employers want their providers to provide education as part of their services. It’s almost a certainty that it is available. However it may not be down to individual advice level.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    A new panic

    Hales said that she often has new patients who don’t realize sunscreen is needed every day.

    “I will say a fair number of new patients that are coming to see me for their first skin check are surprised to hear that we do recommend applying daily sunscreen, including when you’re not planning on maybe being out at a baseball game or on a hike or some other outdoor activity,” she said.

    Garshick said she encourages people to find the sunscreen that works best for them, whether it is a chemical or mineral product. Expanded sunscreen options will be hitting the U.S. market soon, with the recent Food and Drug Administration clearance of the globally popular UV filter bemotrizinol.

    It were toxic masculinity what done it. Sunscreen is for sissies.

    I saw a thing the other day saying maybe it’s not the sun causing the rise in skin cancer. Humans have lived their lives in the sun for centuries. Sunscreen is a modern invention.

    * not that sunscreen causes skin cancer, but unless the sun has somehow changed, there may be an alternative explanation for the rise in skin cancer

    • Sensei

      Golly, the outrageous videos get more clicks than ones that echo convention. No way.

    • PieInTheSky

      i thought sunscreen destroyed the corals or somesuch.

      Humans have lived their lives in the sun for centuries. – yes but they did not always expose themselves as much and even then they did gradually. man did not evolve to spent 11 months of the year in a office in Germany and 2 weeks out of the year to go bake on a Spanish beach.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      there may be an alternative explanation for the rise in skin cancer

      Global warming!!!

    • rhywun

      Tanning is for peasant field laborers.

      Was expecting the klimate krisis to make an appearance.

      • Threedoor

        Just my arms and face.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Parasols.

      • rhywun

        I see that a lot in the US now, and yes usually East Asian females. Sometime I will wear a sun/bucket hat for a similar effect because the sun is not kind to me either.

      • Threedoor

        I’ll wear a boonie hat once in a while.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Korean women will walk around with umbrellas in cloudless skies. Not all the time, but often enough to notice. (The *first* time I saw it, I noticed with a stare and slack jaw.)

    • PutridMeat

      Two hours with a more nuanced perspective.

      And for my part, nuts to the nuance. Fuck you, you busy-body, know-nothing little twits who think wisdom consists of simply repeating what you’ve been taught over and over and assuming a couple of letters after your name mean I should listen to you about… anything.

  6. UnCivilServant

    Mr Ilium, I would like to clarify one point.

    The entire argument this morning was done for the sake of arguing. I actually have no opinion on bottle-closure technologies. I do own a corkscrew or three, and even made a bottle opener. I was bored and the mental exercise of trying to defend any position, no matter how pointless was done to give my mind something to do while waiting for my car to have it’s maintenance done. It was an alternative to doomscrolling.

    TL;DR – I’m a dick.

    • R.J.

      We are all dicks. Haven’t you figured that out yet?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Hey now, some of us are assholes.

  7. PieInTheSky

    Has anyone else tried any mixes themselves? – no and i find the question offensive.

  8. PieInTheSky

    I own a copper mug which I do not think it copper

      • Fourscore

        No, the bottom is flat, sort of like feet

  9. rhywun

    Did you SCAN FOR COOL S#IT?

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Mixed signals

    At a time when the United States has tense relationships with many of its overseas allies, international tourists’ appreciation of American culture offers a counterpoint to the animosity between politicians. Experts in global sports and politics told NPR it’s exactly what the tournament — held this year across 11 U.S. cities, as well as sites in Mexico and Canada — is supposed to do, and it’s building the soft power of the U.S.

    “At a time when there is so much criticism and uncertainty with regard to the United States, for our country to have this unexpected windfall of people from around the world coming to the U.S. and seeing the real aspects of everyday America … It’s just an unexpected fringe benefit beyond the sports itself,” said Victor Cha, president of geopolitics and foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    That fringe benefit comes as U.S. immigration policies still weigh heavily on the tournament, with at least one referee and team staff member denied entry, along with fans who have been denied travel visas. There is also a growing feeling that some of these accounts, and their celebration of American culture, aren’t what they seem, with some people asking — is this real?

    Don’t those people know what a terrible place Trump’s America is?

    • rhywun

      U.S. immigration policies still weigh heavily on the tournament

      Uh huh. You mean the fact that there is immigration law just like every other country has but only the US is expected to ignore it because shut up?

      • Nephilium

        Isn’t it Canada that banned a player? I thought we just denied a ref.

      • JaimeRoberto feckful & gruntled

        Were all the fans planning to stay?

  11. R.J.

    The drink mix is a powder, and would have clarity problems because you could never get all the particles to mix. Are there any liquid mixers for those? I would think that would solve the clarity problem.

    • Nephilium

      I’m sure there’s a lime ginger ale out there which would be the same thing. Once you’re going to a liquid, any advantage to it being portable is gone, as the mixers will weigh the same, and allow for more drinks.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Exactly, you can’t drink a liquid mix on the ISS.

  12. R.J.

    Not doing a mix today. I have a pre-mix: High West Old Fashioned. It’s better than the usual “On the Rocks” pre-mixed Old Fashioned. It was cheap enough that it may become my new standard. A 750 mL bottle was about $32, close enough to the “On the Rocks.” It has a pretty bottle too, that I can repurpose into an oil lamp.

    • Nephilium

      Here, I don’t bite on the OTR unless they’re on sale (when they go for $10/375 ml). We’ve also got a local brand (Pope’s) that does pouches that go for $7/375 ml.

      I went through their Old Fashioned mix last week. Spoiler: Not a fan.

      • R.J.

        Yes. The pouch ones are super-handy for long road trips in small cars. The Old Fashioned from that line is not as good as the Negroni.

  13. R.J.

    I can report that I also went to Gatlinburg, TN and sampled a lot of whiskey. I brought flavored moonshines home for a friend (not into that, personally). Iron Forge was a particularly good whiskey.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    “I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t definitely some animosity felt from Europeans, and certainly some Brits, towards the current ruling party in the States,” said Elek, the England fan.

    Ruling party”

    Fuck you, Limey. Unlike you, we are not subjects.

    • rhywun

      You’re welcome to go back to the warm embrace of collectivism, asshole.

      • Brochettaward

        I strongly suspect it will come out that this wasn’t a native Brit. It was a cultural enricher who was just having a bad day.

      • Sensei

        I thought the same. This story notes some mental disability.

        It doesn’t mean it can’t be both however.

      • Brochettaward

        The lune who stabbed the Ukrainian girl was also ruled mentally unfit.

        It could just mean that he was a particularly dumb one when they tried speaking to him. Which wouldn’t be that abnormal.

      • rhywun

        The lune who stabbed the Ukrainian girl was also ruled mentally unfit.

        I don’t really care so long as such people are removed from public – permanently.

  15. Threedoor

    I’m definetly interested in the mixes. I don’t make many drinks so I don’t tend not to have the Suploesnin hand when I do want one.

    Anyone know about the powdered alcohol that debuted years ago? Is it still a thing, anyone tried it?

  16. J. Frank Parnell

    I had a terrible old fashioned on Thursday. Might have been because it was the special “happy hour” old fashioned. Tasted like watered down bourbon. $9.

  17. PieInTheSky

    A new paper in Evolutionary Human Sciences examines race memes on x but doesn’t reproduce the original memes so readers don’t have to be exposed to racism when reading a paper about racism. Here are the “ethically modified” memes.

    https://x.com/KRL_defi_/status/2068263750931456151

    • dbleagle

      WE are superior enough in our beliefs that we can safely see forbidden subjects. YOU however may become a kulak or a wrecker by observing them. We are doing this to protect you.

  18. Evan from Evansville

    Went to the pharmacy to get my business, the grocery store for $37 of (non-booze) supply, and finished off with a haircut. Per the last year or so, I got a scar buzzed in on the top that goes to my crown. She did a good job.

    Tried to get the 2pm Cubs game on my radio, but I’m in blackout zone. Fuckers. But I timed it well, getting back w the TV already set, so I only missed a scoreless first and the top half of the 2nd. Three batters into the bottom of the inning and we’re up 3-0. Fantastic timing. I’m responsible for all the good things. (None of the bad, duh.)

    Three-day weekend with new work apps to send out. Again, aims to finally finish a submission, one with opportunity to become an easy, recurring series. Torn between wanting rest, ‘needing’ to sort out long-term work, and finishing said ‘personal /social project. Juggling different in/outputs isn’t easier when you can actually juggle real objects. (It isn’t for me, at least.)

      • Evan from Evansville

        Legit LOL from me. (At least twice. To be repeated.)

        I’ll take my 15yds (in my favor), thanks! Off days still feel strange, cuz I know I shouldn’t really be ‘off.’ But I’ve already got the specific jobs I’m gonna apply to, and that part’s gotten easier, so the ‘search’ part is outta the equation, a huge positive.

        I also did take a pay-attention pill. (Pay attention to what?)

  19. Evan from Evansville

    “CHICAGO (AP) — At least 12 people in a crowd on a Chicago street suffered gunshot wounds after an SUV pulled up and two people inside started shooting, police said.

    Police reported at least 21 people shot in the city since Friday evening, resulting in four deaths.
    The shootings happened on Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. Earlier Friday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the first visitors to his presidential center on the South Side.”

    How many of the guns were legal?

    • Plinker762

      No guns are illegal on stolen land

    • rhywun

      Is that more or fewer than an average Friday?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Coffee machines can be just as expensive.

      • slumbrew

        Coffee machines actually do something, however for the Juciero:

        “The company attracted significant negative media attention when consumers and journalists discovered that its juice packets could be squeezed just as easily by hand as by the company’s expensive juicer.”

        Whoopsie.

    • slumbrew

      They folded about a year after that article.

      • Sensei

        Plus it really didn’t do a particularly good job. I’ve read and seen several dissections of the device. A real juicer works much better.

        It came out just about peak VC and “the internet of things” time. It was connected and used proprietary consumables.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Listen, I just wanted to demonstrate I read the entire article. I’m not buying this contraption.

    • rhywun

      Wow. I remember that grift. I hope that guy is ashamed of himself.

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