Skepticism

Skepchick Drink Contest Judging Underway

We checked out all the recipes you submitted and are now getting ready to start an intense Skype session where it’ll be Survival of the Fittest. Wish our livers luck! I’ll update this post with any news.

Look, photos!

Rebecca
(my set-up)

Jill
(Jill’s)

A
(A’s)

Elyse
(Elyse’s)

Carr2D2
(Carr2D2’s)

See ’em all as they go up on Flickr.

update: on our 2nd round already….

1hr. 3rd round.

1.5 hrs. 4th? round?

2.5 hrs. ugh.

Pictures! After the jump.


(The Moon Hoax)


(Burden of 80 Proof, uuuuugh!)


(Elian Gonzalez)


(High-hatted creamed chocolate monkey)


(Sylvia Browne)


(Pangalactic Gargleblaster)


(Ambrose Bierce in front, Bullshit in back)

Uri Gellbanger


(Grey Matter)


(Tequila shot for our homies)


(Maria taking a shot)


(Rebecca’s shot for the homies)

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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64 Comments

  1. I just spent 5 solid minutes looking to see if there was porn in Rebecca’s DVD collection.

  2. Well, I’m starting to get a bit nervous about the outcome. I did see Cholula in Elyse’s preparatory photo, so I suspect that the Ambrose Bierce/Devil’s Due cocktail in on the docket, so to speak.

    The one thing I should have noted previously about the Ambrose Bierce cocktail, in light of the morning following my extensive recipe testing, is that it is more of an aperitif to some sort of Mexicano-Estados Unidienses fusion supper, and not so much a drink you want to make an evening of, as I discovered post-testing.

    Can I just take this opportunity to remind everyone to read the works of Ambrose Bierce, which are widely available (Project Gutenberg, etc.) on the Internet? Not just the Devil’s Dictionary, which everyone (deservedly) loves, but also his Civil War and horror stories? In the event that my cocktail recipe grosses everybody out, I still want to make sure that my man Bierce gets the proper respect he deserves.

  3. @ Rebecca & Mike:

    You’re both in a bad way. Redtube.com is the way to go. Not that I’ve ever BEEN to redtube.com. I’m just sayin’. Somebody on the playground told me about it…

    =o)

  4. Heheheh. Oh, all those pictures of alcohol made me happy! I may have to replicate this study net weekend in peer review.

    I noticed the ingredients for Pious Fraud (#36 in the original thread) in Jill’s setup. That drink’s become my new favorite.

    And the award for th emost comprehensive setup goes to Elyse!

    Can’t wait to hear the final results!

  5. BTW Jill, I was “assigned” the same number of drinks as you… I just picked up a few more options that sounded nice.

    i just don’t appreciate that drinking shows off my math ineptness

  6. Pffft. Everyone knows I invented the best drink… you just can’t test it at home… well, not with any of the set-ups from your pictures, anyway.

  7. woah. Tang. Where can you even get tang? My liver and tongue salute you intrepid travelers!

  8. I was just showing my coworkers pics from last night to illustrate why I was so moody this morning. It really brightened me up! The Moon Hoax was a favorite.

  9. Oooh … sorry, A. I just looked at the Flickr slideshow and saw that you were not entirely enthused about my Grey Matter recipe. I hope it tasted better than it looked. :( I don’t know why it turned out all bubbly like that, though. That looks grosser than mine did …

  10. Improbable Bee:

    I really liked that drink the first time I had it, but this time it was a little rough. It’s pretty sweet, which is good. But boy, does it look kind of ugly.

    But, also, it looks like BRAINS, so how can that be so bad?

  11. I am so psyched. Someone actually made my drink submission (pan galactic gargleblaster) I was decently drunk when I submitted the recipe and didn’t expect it to get tested. That is so freaking, amazingly cool. Now I have to admit to some major ignorance. I don’t know what any of the skepchicks look like in real life I only know there avatars. And the lovely lady tasting the drink doesn’t have her name in the catption. Who tested it? Also how did you freeze gin? I need to learn that trick. Is the drink worth making? I am so freaking happy. I didn’t go to work today because I got some sunstroke this weekend and still feel pretty puny. You made me feel a whole lot better. Thank you so much.

  12. Gabriel, that’s our girl Carr2d2, who really went all the way to stay true to each drink’s character. I don’t have the stats in front of me so I can’t tell you the results, but if you stay tuned, we’ll (hopefully) soon have an audio podcast up in which you can hear us all drinking and discussing each drink!

  13. Rebecca,

    Thank you for the information. Please pass my sincere thanks along to Carr2d2. I look forward to the podcast.

  14. Oh, also, Carr2d2 froze the gin by scoring dry ice. Yep, she’s that dedicated. And that awesome.

  15. See, now that’s the sort of thing that makes a fun party drink, by the way… and far less likely to get you arrested than the way I tend to do smoke effects, too.

  16. so, anybody know anything fun i can do with 6 pounds of dry ice before it evaporates?

    i suppose i could make some more pan galactic gargle blasters ;)

    for the record, gabrielbrawley, it was exactly like having my brains smashed in with a lemon wrapped around a gold brick.

    and the gin didn’t quite freeze solid…it mostly turned into a firm slush. i’d never had gin before, cuz everyone’s always saying how disgusting it is…i think it might be my new favorite. especially at sub-zero temperatures. very refreshing.

  17. Gin is quite tasty… however, it is also liquid violence when combined with Rystefn’s system, so I’m not allowed to have it.

    As for the dry ice – you could always chuck in the pool.

  18. Well I couldn’t hope for a better reaction than that. I didn’t know anyone said ging was disgusting. How odd. But then I think I might be older than a lot of the people who post here. I sometimes feel like the old guy at the bar. Did you pour the gin into an ice cube tray and set that on the dry ice? I’m an accoutant not a scientist so I’m still trying to figure out the procedure. Thanks again. Oh, were you playing to lose?

  19. i used an ice cube tray. i had the dry ice in a little styrofoam cooler, and i just set the tray in there next to the ice, let it freeze for about an hour and then turned it so the other side could get good and frozen. probably a better way would be to just set the dry ice right on top of the tray, if you have the space.

    i think i got a lot less hammered than some of my co-skepchicks, if that’s what you’re getting at. i didn’t want to get too wasted since i have to get up very early to get to work. i’m pleased to report there was no hangover.

  20. Hey carr2d2
    Very glad to hear of your juniper discovery!! Whether it’s a quality martini or a cold and refreshing G&T with a big squeeze of lime, most days are made better by GIN!! (or a good single malt or a really hoppy IPA…)

  21. Carr2d2,
    Thanks I can see it in my mind now. I guess I could pick up a couple of blocks at the grocery put one on the bottom of the ice chest, then the ice cube try and then the top block. About the play to lose, I was making an obscure nerdy reference to the book, Zaphod would play to lose so he had to drink the Gargleblaster. Now that I have an idea on the gin I have to give these a try.

  22. No… Zaphod would play to lose so he had to drink the Ol’ Janx Spirit, which is one of the ingredients in a gargleblaster

    That’s a lot of red lines from the spellchecker, and one pint for Rystefn in the nerd-off. :P

  23. Carr2d2,
    That is some good gin. I must confess though that I do not have a palete that is sensitive enough to tell the difference between really good gin and cheap gin. I have had gin that was close to 100 dollars a bottle and gin that was less than 9 dollars a bottle and it tastes the same to me. So cheap irish/mexican/english/indian bastard that I am I buy the 9 dollar bottle. Dry martinis are my favorite.

  24. I’m also quite impressed that the gin was frozen to a slush consistency. A normal freezer only gets gin to a syrup consistency. Perhaps the slush state was to cold for my Big Bang Blue Martini recipe?? And perhaps you’ll need to give it another try???

    And always remember the martini drinkers axiom: “The decision to have a second martini is a good one, all subsequent decisions are suspect!”

    The best description of a martini was coined by Billie Holiday who called martini’s “a glass of razor blade soup.”

  25. Carr2d2
    Did you make a toast to science and shed a tear for our loss of Douglass Adams. Man helped me admit what I had known for years that there is no god.

    Mr. Fox,
    I had never heard a glass of razor blade soup. Very nice. Thank you

    I have always liked Hemingway’s take on it,

    “I had never tasted anything so cool and clean. They made me feel civilized.”

  26. Tanqueray-10 is a bit floral for me. Seagram’s makes a very good and reasonably priced gin that’s good for a martini or a G&T or straight out of the freezer.

  27. Okay, I can’t take it anymore. I’m mixing a martini. Liquid joy coming my way.

  28. You guys are hardcore. I can’t drink martinis, they taste like drinking potpurri to me.

    I do love my G&T’s and vodka martinis, though.

  29. Well, I’m kinda of sad. I only had enough gin for one martini. The decanter I use for the gin is colbalt blue so I didn’t realize how low the level was. Amanda, gin is just vodka with flavor. Give it another try you may find yourself pleasntly surprised.

  30. Heading home with visions of martini shakers and Roquefort stuffed olives in my head!!!

  31. JamesFox:

    I always liked the Dorothy Parker quote:

    I think I’ll have a martini
    Maybe two at the most
    With three I’m under the table
    With four I’m under the host

  32. I believe I mentioned Monkey Glands in passing in the previous cocktail thread, and I just realized that, in addition to being an actual historical cocktail that was quite popular in the 1920s, it’s also a skeptically themed cocktail, and therefore apropos. Even though the contest is closed, I’ll go ahead and post the recipe here:

    Gin
    Absinthe
    Grenadine
    Orange juice

    Coat a well-chilled martini glass with a small amount of absinthe and drain off any excess.

    In a shaker, combine
    1 1/2 oz gin
    1 oz orange juice
    dash of grenadine
    crushed ice

    Strain into the absinthe-coated glass.
    Garnish with orange.

    When the orange juice hits the absinthe, it turns a slightly ghastly pinkish-yellow-grayish-creamy color, ever so slightly suggestive of pureed monkey testicles.

    The drink was invented by Harry McElhone of Harry’s New York Bar in Paris around 1920, to satirize the medical crank Serge Voronoff, who famously injected wealthy impotent men with tissues extracted from monkey testicles. This ground-breaking crank surgery would make people very sick while simultaneously emptying their bank accounts. So here we have an actual cocktail that would’ve been enjoyed by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, which serves the important function of ridiculing medical quackery.

    (Now I want to go back in a time machine and serve a Laetrile Alexander — peach schnapps, amaretto, crushed ice, whirled in a blender — at a groovy 70s “key party”.)

  33. Hey Elyse,
    Dear Dorothy would have been a fine and witty dinner guest. But clearly martini’s could have led to Dorothy in toto.

  34. Amanda @49 “You guys are hardcore. I can’t drink martinis, they taste like drinking potpurri to me.”

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like the taste of (Paul Stanley’s lispy shout:) COLD GIN! Yes, it’s like chewing on a juniper basket to me…I wish I could dig it, I just can’t.

    Anyone ever tasted St. Germain liquer? I went to some event sponsored by it – it’s made of elderflowers. When mixed with champagne it tastes like gnomes invented it. (Delicious)

  35. i thought that quote sounded familiar, gabriel…just a bit slow on the uptake last night, i guess…and i did have another pangalactic gargleblaster. if i have any more dry ice, i may have another tonight. i’ll have to check the freezer and see if there’s any left.

    and whitebird, that elderflower stuff sounds awesome. i must try it.

    you guys are going to give me a drinking problem ;)

  36. I know what you mean about not being able to taste the difference between more expensive alcohols, I buy a particularly stong flavoured brand of whiskey just ’cause I can taste it.

    I usually go for bombay sapphire, mostly ’cause I like the blue bottle. It was such a disappointment when I made my 1st martini and found out that it was the bottle not the gin that was blue.

  37. Lox,

    Me too. I was disappointed that it wasn’t blue. Then I felt like dip for thinking it would be blue.

  38. I believe my liver actually validates the Argument From Authority for my drink submission, Indeed, I should rename it *Argument From Authority*. Or maybe just *The Pope*. That would be the cracker garnish version.

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