My friend said I'm "stingy" am I ? Aibu ?

[sarahlou55k]

Me and my friend are going to Manchester tomorrow.
We are going for 2 nights for shopping /food and drinks.
We love a cocktail and said we will have to have a couple of cocktails.

She messages me a hour ago telling me she's booked some fancy place with a skyline view ??
And she's paid for a cocktail tree
It's 8 pornstar martinis and it's £120
So it's £60 each

I told her that was expensive and she really should have asked first
She said "oh stop being stingy it will be fab"

So I've paid £60 for 4 pornstar martinis
£15 each !!
Please someone tell me they agree that £60 for 4 drinks is ridiculous?
I was thinking revolution /slug and lettuce 2 for £10 or 2for £12
Not £60 for 4

I'm annoyed
Aibu ?

and eight drinks hanging about....my mother always said "watch your drinks"

@Chamomileteaplease - yes, I love them but hate the name! I always refer to them as a passion fruit martini.

Cloud 23 is amazing, but you can normally get voucher offers making it significantly cheaper. I've never paid full price in there.

Pornstar martini - is it sweet and disgusting to the taste and £15 a pop.

YANBU

@momtoboys It’s £15, so about $21

[quote MadameMinimes]@momtoboys It’s £15, so about $21[/quote]
Oh, right! Yep. That is crazy expensive! :)

I’d not heard of a cocktail tree before this, my initial reaction was it’s an Instagram pleaser gimmick thing but I guess it’s actually so a group of people don’t have to wait ages while 8 cocktails are mixed - as has already been said I’d imagine drinks will get warm if there’s just 2 of you.

I think she should have checked with you before she booked, but maybe they put on the hard sell and made her feel like she had to make an instant decision otherwise the spaces available would be gone 🤷🏼‍♀️

What is a cocktail tree?

YANBU.

How rude and entitled of her to decide how you should spend your money and having the nerve to call you stingy on top of that for rightfully calling her out on this. She’s a CF and like many CFers so full of herself that she feels fully entitled. I wouldn’t go on any trips with her again.

Yeah that’s like going to thr shard in London for lunch then complaining you could have got a greggs pastie cheaper and sat on the pavement and eaten it.

Clearly you and your friend are misaligned. She’s going the full experience you want slug and lettuce, you should have discussed it in advance.

As someone who lives in Manchester, and goes out regularly, this is about the going rate for cocktails. However cloud 23 is bland af, no atmosphere and who wants 4 of the same cocktail all at once so the latter ones are warm and watery. I presume your friend is all about the Instagram pics

I am guessing a cocktail tree is some sort of fancy device containg a lot of glasses??
So the establishment can mix the whole lot in one jug, pour them out and the lucky customer can drink the curdled/ice melting/warm drink at their leisure??
Sounds divine!

@ActonSquirrel I wouldn’t have to personally decide as luckily my friends know me and I know my friends. We’ve had the pornstar trees and the price is the same. Prices in Manchester bars aren’t cheap. Sounds like Op and the friend are opposite, one wants a cheap night the other doesn’t mind spending.

I don't think it matters how reasonable £60 is for four cocktails - it's relative - but why didn't she just ask you first?

This is an example of a cocktail tree. Really this is a really high end cocktail bar overlooking Manchester where you reserve a window seat and drinks for a couple of hours basically. It’s basically like booking the shard in London.

@UndertheCedartree and @Classica thank you both for agreeing with me about the name "pornstar". I suppose because I first heard of it about three days ago that it really jars with me. Gross!

Will the 4th one not be all warm by the time you get to it?

I love high end cocktails and would expect to pay £15, but I wouldn't have more than 2 - your taste buds are gone by then :-). and I'd want something lot more original than a pornstar martini

Oh god no! I wouldn’t pay that for a view of Manchester.

I go to Australasia for cocktails. Max is £11. Nice bar and great cocktails. Smoky Old Fashioned is incredible and only £9.50.

This is an example of a cocktail tree. Really this is a really high end cocktail bar
That looks tacky af and the opposite of high end!

I didn't realise they all came at once?

That isn't good. A good cocktail is made upon request.

So if you've ordered a cocktail tree for 2 people, your 3rd and 4th drinks will be warm by the time you drink them.

It's pretty obviously aimed at groups of 4 or more, isn't it?

And I wouldn't pay over the odds for a view of Manchester. I occasionally used to work in one of the new super tall office blocks in Manchester, so I've seen the view and it's not spectacular.

Bluntness The bars at the top of the shard are not the sort of places that have porn star martinis on their menu as a general rule. They definitely don’t serve them on trees. I think cocktails at Hutong are about £15 but you’d get each one freshly made if you bought 4.

Tbh, whether it’s a rip-off isn’t really the point. I’d pay £15 for a cocktail, more if it was somewhere really special. But I’d be really annoyed if anyone other than me spent £60 of my money on cocktails without asking.

I love that people think ordering a cocktail tree is something posh and unique to high end cocktail bars. You can get a cocktail tree pretty much anywhere that serves cocktails. They're for bigger groups really.