Christopher Hitchens maintains one should always specify a liquor brand when ordering a cocktail.

Hitchens is warning drinkers to always order by brand - or face sipping rot gut. “Having long been annoyed by people who called knowingly for, say, ‘a Dewar’s and water’ . . . I decided to ask a trusty barman what I got if I didn’t specify,” the thirsty journo writes in his intro to “Everyday Drinking,” a new collection of Kingsley Amis’ essays on booze. “The answer was a confidential jerk of the thumb in the direction of a villainous-looking, tartan-shaded jug under the bar. [It] was even grimmer with gin and vodka and became abysmal with ‘white wine’ . . . If you don’t state a clear preference, then your drink is like a bad game of poker or a hasty drug transaction: It is whatever the dealer says it is.”

Bonus: Alexander Waugh’s review of Everyday Drinking on Book Forum