Jazzing Up Cocktails

It's no secret that I love to drink some dranks when given the opportunity. I do pretty well when mixing drinks at home. I typically use Crystal Light as a mixer. Even on vacation I packed Crystal Light packets in my suitcase. My favorite is raspberry lemonade, but truly all of them except the peach tea are good when mixed with alcohol.

My roommate and me at a beach that was a half hour away from our condo, and we still brought  crystal light with. Dedication? I think so! What I wouldn't give to go back in time to this moment....Ugh, real life sucks. 

Back to the point. The problem comes when I am out at the bar, it's not like I can ask for a crystal light and vodka, or can I? Let me back up a little. In my fat girl days I would typically drink vodka collins (aka a shirley temple with vodka), a long island ice tea, or a gin and cranberry.

Then I decided I needed to shape up my act a little so I switched over to gin tonics. Little did I know that most tonic is filled with calories and sugar. For awhile I would ask places for diet tonic but most bartenders looked at me like I was crazy. It's the same kind of look that McDonalds employees give me when I ask for a breakfast sandwich without the meat.

After that I tried drinking gin soda, or vodka soda but I found that drinking rail booze mixed with club soda is like drinking watered down poison. And yes, most of the time I drink rail booze, I'm on a budget! However, there is a bar in my neighborhood that has $1 U-call-its on Thursdays...Can we say trouble?

Anyway, in an effort to keep my mixers lower in calorie I started drinking whiskey and diet, or rum and diet. And that has pretty much been my drink of choice for the last few months. Although someone once told me that mixing alcohol with diet soda gets you drunk faster. Eh, that's fine with me, I would rather be a cheap date. Remember, I am on a budget.

Then one day I was talking to a friend and I said "If I ever own a bar I am going to have crystal light on tap." And that was when the idea struck. Recently there have been a lot of companies that have come out with liquid water enhancers.

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The liquid enhancers allow you individualize any glass of water because you can put in as little or as many drops of flavoring as you would like. At first I thought the idea was so dumb. I have never had any trouble drinking plain ole' water. But if you apply this idea to alcoholic beverages, I am on board!

I went out and bought a bottle of strawberry lemonade crystal light flavor enhancer and threw it in my purse for a night out. This is one of the best ideas I have ever had. I can order vodka sodas, and then just add a little bit of flavoring so that my cheap rail drink doesn't taste like complete death.

I try to be sneaky about dropping in the flavor liquids, just in case the bar wouldn't like me adding outside stuff.

My roommate and I have now collected 4 flavors. From Crystal Light we have tried the strawberry lemonade, and peach bellini. The strawberry lemonade is best when mixed with vodka sodas, and I prefer the peach with gin.

From Dasani we have the pineapple coconut which mixes well with whiskey soda. And then from Mio we have mango peach, which is good with just about anything. I don't bring all the flavors out with me, I usually pick a flavor and then shove it in my clutch for a night out. My current favorite is the peach bellini!