Bar in NJ sold rubbing alcohol and caramel food coloring as scotch

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Amateur hour among the drinkers

Anyone who knows how to roll a decent drink would spot this in a hot second. They were probably using these in the usual ridiculous pseudo-cocktails like the Long Island Ice Teas and other shit of that type, where you rely on some sweet mixer to mask the flavor of the liquor. If I order a Manhattan, I want to taste the rye, and I'd tell you in a sip whether you were faking it. Anybody who's even moderately serious about booze quality would do that. But when you pile up booze with shitty "mixers," you can fool some amateurs. They're drinking the wrong drinks. Much of the Jersey bar scene still looks like "Cocktail" with Tom Cruise, the 1980's destruction of a 100 year tradition of craft cocktail making. Luckily, we've seen a resurgence of care for the drink with the resurgence of craft cocktails. You'd never be able to pull these scams off in one of those places, because the customers know what their liquor is supposed to taste and look and smell like! What kind of fucking know-nothing takes a taste of rubbing alcohol with caramel coloring and thinks it is scotch?