Why Bartenders Advise Against Ordering Miami Vice Cocktails
When you step up to the bar, the sheer number of potential drinks for you to choose between can be incredibly overwhelming. Ultimately, it's going to be up to personal preference. But as you pick your poison, you may want to heed the advice of certain mixologists who have strong opinions in regard to which drink should pass your lips.
Speaking with Insider, several cocktail creators shared the drinks that they feel are overrated. Alisha Kaplan, who manages Wolf's Ridge Brewing, loves the classic old fashioned, but thinks that you should avoid ordering expensive Long Island Ice Teas at the bar, as she thinks that the cocktail is an overpriced slurry of bottom-shelf booze. Beverage consultant Kim Haasarud loves a Tommy's Margarita, but finds house margs often use subpar ingredients. Another fruity cocktail, the Miami Vice, is undeniably a sweet treat, but also has its fair share of potential problems, most of which center around its slew of sugary syrups.
What is a Miami Vice?
The Miami Vice is a fruity, frozen cocktail. In its most basic form, the drink is simply a combination of two more recognizable frozen cocktails – the rum-forward and fruity classic strawberry daiquiri, and the creamy, tropical piña colada. Both drinks are prepared separately, then poured into a single glass in whatever manner the bartender sees fit. Though the drink gained popularity with the rise of the television series "Miami Vice," it had already been around for decades when the show first aired.
In the interview with Insider, Omar Torres, who directs Hilton Pensacola Beach's restaurant Bonsai, explains that the Miami Vice (as well as other, similarly fruity cocktails) is over-reliant on sugary syrups. These syrups can be laden with chemicals, and perhaps more importantly, the syrup can completely muddle all of the complex flavors that the rum is bringing to the table. Torres believes that cocktails should taste fresh, and artificial syrups can detract from that experience.
The dangers of sweet cocktails
The fruit-forward Miami Vice cocktail undeniably buries its liquor in a mountain of sweet ingredients, but there could be problems associated with the drink beyond simply masking its base alcohol. When you're having a night out on the town, vodka is the alcohol that is least likely to give you a hangover, which can be attributed to the clear spirit's relatively low cogener content — cogeners are a byproduct of sugar fermentation. Rum, among other dark-colored spirits, has a lot of cogeners, and as such, could contribute to a gnarly headache.
Though many people believe otherwise, sugar in and of itself cannot exacerbate the effects of a hangover. Dr. Jason Burke tells Wine Spectator that studies have demonstrated no noteworthy correlation between consuming sugar and the severity of your hangover. However, sugar makes things taste good, which means that you might drink more sweet cocktails than you would stiff ones, ultimately making you sicker.
Nevertheless, some folks are ardent defenders of the unabashedly fun Miami Vice cocktail. It's bright, sweet, and simple, blending together two complimentary fruit flavors for an immensely satisfying slushy sipping experience.