You have a preferred rye? I picked up a bottle of Old Forrester because my usual stores didn’t have Rittenhouse. I wasn’t impressed. Luckily last week I found two bottles of the former, which should last me quite a while on that front.
stop being a pussy and just drink the whole thing. Also get some st. germain, cassis, or campari to mix it with
Planter's Punch is a good one but you'll have to get some Allspice Dram and Jamaican rum.
I’ve used Lamarca and thought it was ok. I’m just looking for other options because I know very little about sparkling wine. Target’s in-house brand seems ok as well.
You might want to try Cava. It's the Spanish version of sparkling wine. It tastes closer to actual champagne and is made using the same process. It can be had very inexpensively (sometimes under $10 for a bottle) since it isn't nearly as popular or well known as the other two. You could also look into French Cremant wines which are made using the traditional champagne method but not in the champagne region itself. I enjoy cremant d'alsace quite a bit.
I think Tanqueray makes a non-alcoholic gin now which’ll get you part of the way there if you can find it. Benedictine and Cherry Heering are harder. You’d have to ask people more gastronomically minded than me how to bullshit Benedictine specifically, but you could maybe, emphasis on maybe, get away with watering down the syrup from a jar of really good maraschino cherries for the latter. It’ll be sweeter than the normal sling but you can fiddle around with it to get the taste right.
Plymouth makes a navy strength too. Old Raj Blue Label has been good to me at 55%.
Can’t find navy strength gin around me, or I haven’t looked hard enough at least.
The painkiller is my absolute favorite rum cocktail. equal parts pineapple juice, OJ, coconut cream (or just use that blended pineapple coconut juice because it won't be chunky) and 2 shots of British navy rum, like Pussers (who have a patent on this cocktail and it technically isn't a Painkiller if you don't use Pussers. If you can't find Pussers use dark rum, but not spiced rum. Top with a generous sprinkling of nutmeg and serve over ice with a float of rum on top if you're feelin' saucy.
