18 April 2007

Be the life of the party and save BIG...

...Unfortunately, you do have to be willing to dupe your friends. Luckily for you (and them), there is little chance they'll figure out your scheme. And if you don't get caught, everybody will carry on and have a grand ol' time!

The whole scheme is premised on the fact that most of your friends can't tell the difference between an expensive and a cheap liquor. Clearly, if you pour a shot out of an Aristocrat bottle and another out of a Grey Goose bottle, your friends' biases will favor the Grey Goose and they'll claim that it is much better. In a blind taste test it would be much easier to trick your friends.

Oh, but you have sophisticated friends, you say. Well let's do one better; let's put the cheap stuff in the expensive bottle! Even your more discerning friends will probably fall for this ol' switch-a-roo, especially if you only break out the bottle after they've all downed a couple already.

Of course with any scheme, preparation and presentation are crucial. First, ensure the substitute liquor has the same color as its top-shelf counterpart. I find, for example, that a Patrón -- Reposado can be cloned with 3 parts silver, 1 part gold of almost any cheaper tequila. A $50 dollar bottle of Patrón can be cloned for about $12. Then, of course, there is the presentation. Clearly its not a great idea to present a cloned liquor next to (geographically or temporally) the real deal itself or even the same liquor family. Ideally, a tequila would be presented against a vodka or rum as opposed to another tequila.

Also, to pull this off with the maximum effect, be sure to add a little hype when you initially introduce your beverage. Half the fun of drinking expensive liquors is the "aura" surrounding the various brands (think Hennessy and the such). So be sure to throw in a couple deep-voiced "Pah-trown"s like out of a rap song, perhaps preceded by an appropriate expletive for good measure. Have fun with it... it's a party after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, that Patron you brought to the apartment was phony? Thats kinda messed up Jeff

Unknown said...

No, that was real, but it only serves my point that you are second-guessing it now. I forgot that people actually read this blog. I'll have to use more discretion in the future ;-)

GirlieGirl4664 said...

3 parts silver, 1 part gold.... interesting. I'll have to remember that.

chris said...

I agree with your statement in general, but Aristocrat and Grey Goose is a bad comparison. Aristocrat is very clearly worse than anything else out there. Use a substitue that costs $1 more per bottle and I'd probably fall for it.