"Cocktail Smarts" A Beginner's Intro to Cocktails

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 03:40:32 GMT

There are games about DRINKING, and games ABOUT drinking.

Hopefully we gave up the former back in our college days, but the latter are few and far between. I recently had the chance to preview a new drinking game coming onto the market which fortunately at no time in the playing of the game is it necessary, or even a perceptible option to, partake in a drink in order to continue playing.

“Cocktail Smarts” is what could be considered a “Trivia” game that revolves around exposing people to various aspects of cocktails, cocktail construction, and cocktails in the media. Players take turn answering the questions on the cards, and as they answer enough of them correctly advance from Barback, to Bartender, and finally to Mixologist.

The questions needed to be answered range from bartender basics such as “True or False: Bourbon is a type of whiskey”, to recipe knowledge “A White Lady, a Sidecar and a Between The Sheets all have which flavor in common?”, to media trivia such as “True or False: When Rick Says “Here’s looking at you kid” in the film Casablanca, he and Ilsa drink Champagne.”. It would only be the “media trivia” questions that should even phase an experienced bartender, but a cocktail neophyte will probably find many of these questions to be fairly challenging.

One issue I have regarding this game, is that the instruction booklet that comes with it spends almost all of it’s time being a mini cocktail pamphlet, and leaves only a single paragraph to actually describe how to play the game. Hopefully they will update this in follow-on updates.

While I would love somebody to come out with a cocktail game that would be challenging and entertaining for experienced bartenders and bar customers, I have to take some solace in the fact that this game isn’t just another excuse to drink, and instead will actually impart some information and understanding about cocktails to those who play it.

You can find more information and purchasing details for “Cocktail Smarts” on the website of the game publisher: Smarts Co: http://www.smartsco.com

Or it is (or soon will be) for sale through the following:

http://www.Wrapables.com

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DrinkBoy: Adventures in Mixology: Games

"Cocktail Smarts" A Beginner's Intro to Cocktails