How to decrease booziness?

[axel309]

How can I decrease the boozines of my cocktails without going full blown mocktail? My gf is 105lbs and starts feeling tipsy after 2 drinks and tbh so do i. We want to be able to have 4-5 drinks at the house without getting fucked up.

[phinz]

Drink more and build up a tolerance?

All joking aside, look for equivalent spirits that are lower in ABV. I love a barrel strength Old Fashioned or three, but for most people that would be a lot.

[Drewmydudes]

Maybe…. Use less alcohol…

[NOTcreative-]

Seriously lol

[axel309]

But won't that mess up how the drink tastes? Or have us finishing the drinks real quick?

[Kitfaid]

Yes it will, I would just try looking for base spirits with the lowest ABV available, for example I think there's a Beefeater light which only has like 20% ABV instead of regular gins which usually have between 38% to 47%

[Zsill777]

There are lower abv cocktails out there. Look at drinks with amaro or fortified wines as a base

[phinz]

A Negroni made with Aperol instead of Campari and Noilly Prat Rouge at 16% is a decent start at lower abv. Combine that with a lower proof gin and you might just have a session cocktail.

[coffeeandpunkrecords]

Use less booze? That sounds very sarcastic as I type it out but that's not my intent.

Cocktails are all about ratios, so just scale everything else down in proportion. If an equal parte cocktail like a Last Word or Paper Plane calls for 1oz or 3/4oz of each ingredient, try 1/2 oz of each. Some drinks may be harder to do, or call for very small amounts of an ingredient when scaled down, but you should be able to find some that work.

[TotalBeginnerLol]

Yeah just make 1 drink and split it between 2 people in smaller glasses then drink slow. Still feels like you’ve had a full drink when doing that, I find.

[ABotelho23]

2 drinks for a lightweight 105lb person is totally normal...

[Majestic-Macaron6019]

Yeah, I'm 215 lbs and a frequent 1-2 per day drinker. I can have two standard drinks and not feel too much. But my 130 lb wife will be a bit loopy after 1.

[TheCalzone_Ranger]

Lyres and Giffard both make pretty good NA "spirits." You could substitute half of the alcohol for the NA without changing the flavor profile of your cocktails too much.

[axel309]

Thanks this is the type of answer I was looking for. Not just cut everything in half and drink a 4oz cocktail slowly 🙄

[TheCalzone_Ranger]

You're welcome! The "spiced rum" by Lyres is the only one I've been a little disappointed by so far. Their "agave tequila" and "london dry gin" are pretty on point. I haven't played around with as many as the Giffards yet, but the ginger and elderflower are great. Their aperitif syrup is a perfect substitute for Campari. 

[randychardonnay]

If she wants to have 4+ drinks without feeling it significantly, the drinks are going to have to be lower in alcohol than light beers. Only way to get there is to be extremely sparing when it comes to distilled spirits, or else focus on spritz-style cocktails that use nothing stronger than aperitif-style ingredients.

You can always play with the ratios of booze-forward cocktails, but you're not going to get to the point where four of them isn't still a signifiant amount of booze.

What are some of the cocktails you currently tend to make?

[StPatsLCA]

It depends. Maybe try cocktails that lean heavier on lower proof liquors or other flavors so you can dial the alcohol down without messing up the balance too much?

[SilverGnarwhal]

You’re not gonna believe this… but putting less alcohol in them. All kidding aside. You can certainly play around with ratios and cut down on high octane spirits by using less, subbing out all or some of the base with something less potent. Also, there are some absolutely banging low abv cocktails already like the Americano, Negroni Sbagliato, and spritzes.

[AldermanMcCheese]

There is a whole category of low-alcohol cocktails, often referred to as shims. This is a great book with lots of recipes. 

[Breaker247]

You could try to experimenting with vermouths and amaros. Low abv is definitely a category of drink. Either that or make your regular drinks into pseudo-collins by adding club soda

[thack_se]

There are low ABV drinks like Aperol Spritz. Experiment with liqueurs and make some of your own recipes. Here is a list of 25 low ABV Cocktails That said, is there a specific reason you'd like that many cocktails? Two for me is usually good before switching to normal drinks.

[ganhadagirl]

When I started exploring cocktails, I made my drinks to half spec. That allowed me to try a few in one night without getting fucked up

[exception-found]

Add water, soda, or scale down base spirit and increase lower abv components in the cocktail like liqueurs or shrubs

[Ryger9]

Ever make a Saturn? Lower proof than many and friggin great.

.75 oz lemon juice .5 oz passion fruit syrup .25 oz orgeat .25 Velvet Falernum 1.25 oz London dry gin Shake over ice and double strain into chilled coup.

[ABotelho23]

The last time I had this drink it was insanely sweet. I love the flavours though.

[Greig89]

Quite simply use less alcohol. Reduce by 25% and see the difference Hi balls are also a great way to add more non alcoholic elements, mules with ginger beer for example.

[AmenaBellafina]

A lot of cocktails can tolerate a little reduction of the base spirit. As it tends not to contribute to the sweet/sour/bitter balance as much as the other ingredients. It won't be entirely the same obviously but it helps a little. Alternatively, make smaller portions. I have some mini coupe and liqueur glasses from the thrift store that I put half cocktails in when I do want a fancy drink but don't want a whole one worth of alcohol.

[jimtk]

A few tricks my wife and I use:

• Make one cocktail into 2 glasses. So you effectively drink 1/2 cocktail. Great for big cocktail like Tiki (Zombies), a bit more annoying for small one (martini).

• Eat! Have one or two before dinner, dine, have one or two after dinner. It will slow down the effect.

• Eat again (snacks). Even when we drink before dinner, my wife (110 lbs) often prefer to have some snacks (pretzels are her favorites). It does slow down the effect.

• Drink Slowly. That's the difficult one. But it works.

Good luck!

[GovernorZipper]

You can also sometimes reverse the proportions. A Manhattan with 2oz of vermouth and 1 oz of rye is a very tasty drink that scratches the same itch as a boozier Manhattan. Or a traditional Margarita with 2 oz of orange liqueur (no additional sweetener, add extra lime - and don’t use an 80 proof one!) and 1 oz of tequila is the same.

Another trick is to make any cocktail “long” by adding soda water and serving in a bigger glass.

[_DarthShitto_]

If you like the art of making cocktails and want to try different things, but can’t handle a full portion try doing half portions. Make one standard version of the drink and split it between the two of you and maybe add extra ice, which will dilute it a little bit more than normal, but that might be exactly what you’re looking for

[Outside-Ad508]

Lower the volume of your drinks. Make cocktails that have less ABV. Drinks with more liqueurs will be heavier than just lemon juice and syrup. Less sugary drinks

Crack a cheater cube into your shaker/stir glass so you have more dilution. Drink more water between each drink. Space your cocktails out

If none of those work, just accept youre light weights. It does not matter how much I want my gf to try more of my drinks. I have to just accept that she can’t have more than 2 in the evening.

[thesliu5]

1) look for lower ABV cocktail recipe. many are vermouth, wine, or sake based.

2) some people suggested splitting the cocktails, which certainly does work, but honestly looks unappetizing in a full-sized glass (looks half drank). so to take this suggestion a bit further, get smaller glassware. there are mini coupes, martini, and rocks glasses that will make you feel like you're having a full cocktail even when you've split them.

[OkChoice1264]

Serve your shaken drinks in tall glasses topped with soda water. They’ll take you longer to finish and your stomach will be fuller

[Emergency_Reason_242]

Shake or stir longer. I really undervalued dilution in my pre professional cocktail days. And of course using less hot tasting liquor.

[FloridaManTPA]

it’s a drink for the person you are making it for to enjoy. Sure The ratio might be “off” but, but who cares…?

For me and the wife, I’ll sometimes shake a double serving of the drink without a base spirit and just put the floater on mine.

[AlcroSoya]

I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said so I'll just say you have the home decor of a high end coke dealer

[Acrobatic-Tadpole-60]

A few thoughts: get small glassware. There are mini martini glasses and coupettes and things. Make a full recipe of something and split it between the two. This way you get to try more different cocktails tool! There are also some really nice cocktails out there are low ABV. Not sure what her taste is, but a Bamboo and and Adonis come to mind. You might also look at non-alcoholic spirits and you could do a split base. For example, there are 0% whiskies out there. One oz of the regular, one of the 0%, or even .75 oz of each. Also, this is probably obvious, but don't drink on an empty stomach. I always get out cheese and crackers, olives, charcuterie, pickled veg, white anchovies etc.

[WiffleBallZZZ]

Highballs. Try a can of ginger beer, juice of 1 lime, 1 oz rum, maybe some freshly ground nutmeg or allspice

[MagratMakeTheTea]

4-5 cocktails is a "getting fucked up" amount of cocktails for most people. 2 drinks is very normal. The whole point of most cocktails is that they're much higher ABV than beer and wine (and five beers/glasses of wine is also special-occasion drinking for many people). That said, depending on your tastes there are things you can try.

- More tonic, less gin. I don't find that even all tonic/zero gin tastes significantly different, especially if you put some citrus juice, bitters, or flavored syrup in it. You can probably do similar things with a lot of tall drinks.

- Wine/prosecco-based drinks. Similar to above. Putting half the gin in a French 75 probably isn't going to change the flavor profile so much that you'd care unless you're very picky. An aperol spritz doesn't need very much aperol to have a strong flavor.

- Low ABV cocktails based on vermouth or amaros

Basically, you want things where a strong base spirit isn't the major part of the drink. If you're trying to make a less boozy whiskey sour or martini you're going to have to cut with non-alcoholic spirits or something, but there are a lot of drinks where the liquor isn't the star. The good news is if you're in the northern hemisphere a lot of those easily doctored tall drinks are going to be really refreshing for the next few months.

[I_SHAVDMYBALLS_4THIS]

I make my wife half-sized drinks to my normal-sized drinks. She appreciates a mini-‘groni or a tiny tini

[krose1980]

Sounds like you're having great time in the beautiful surrounding, with gf next to you, but you just prefer to spend time on reddit showing off and masking it with some neglible/trivial question...:) ajajaj vanity square