Sarah Baird
At least once in your life, you’ll have the inevitable thrust upon you: A second cousin/work acquaintance/next-door neighbor is having a dry wedding — and there’s no way you can avoid attending. For some folks, a dry wedding is a complete non-issue. Like solar panels on a roof, they’re completely content to harness a couple’s radiating joy as all the fuel they need for several hours of ceremony, plus the requisite speeches and toasts (with water, no doubt), plus a sober night on the dance floor. For the rest of us, a dry wedding calls for enlisting the help of a trusty sidekick: the flask.
Whether you received one years ago as a groomsmen gift or sought out a leather-wrapped version with your initials embossed on it, carrying a flask ensures that you’ll be able to drink exactly what you want during a wedding, whether or not it’s dry.
Not all concoctions, though, are flask-appropriate. Particularly in the sweltering, muggy days of summer (when outdoors weddings are still inexplicably popular), it’s critical to plan ahead with your drink-making, lest you end up with a flask full of piping hot gin several hours later.
If you’re pouring a straight spirit into your flask, it’s best to go with something that can warm up to room temperature and still be palatable — anything in the whiskey family works well (bourbon, rye and scotch are all strong choices) as do many high-quality rums. Looking to craft a full-on cocktail inside your flask? Make sure you’re not using any ingredients that could sour quickly, like dairy products, or muddled fruit, which can lead to a not-so-fresh mess in the bottom of your vessel.
For as long as I can remember, the Boulevardier — a classic drink made up of equal parts rye, Campari and sweet vermouth — has been my go-to flask cocktail: an appropriately boozy but completely non-fussy drink that comes together easily and is perfectly sippable over the course of an evening. Flask cocktails are the kind of drinks that truly pair form with function: a unique intersection where simplicity and longevity are, ultimately, the name of the celebratory game.
