Some people have a tendency toward generosity with a few drinks coursing through their veins, but a new study suggests that what exactly you've decided to down may determine how good a tipper you'll be.
The study by research company Restaurant Sciences found that bourbon and blended whiskey drinkers were the most generous tippers, offering up gratuities of 22.69 percent and 22.67 percent respectively. Drinkers of Scotch, rum and cordial/liqueurs were the stingiest, tipping 20.12 percent, 19.81 percent and 19.66 percent.
Interestingly, Scotch drinkers wound up with the highest check totals, which averaged at $69.05. Perhaps that explains why they chose to tip less on the whole than other drinkers -- a classic case of sticker shock.
We sometimes balk at studies that draw broad conclusions from too-small sample sizes, but that's not our issue with this one. It analyzed more than 4 million checks at family, casual, upscale and fine dining U.S. restaurants, plus nightclubs and hotel bars.
We're reluctant, however, to brand drinkers of cordials and liqueurs as the stingiest tippers of all; 19.66 percent isn't so bad in the scheme of things. On the whole, drinkers of beer, wine and spirits were relatively generous, tipping slightly more than 20 percent. In a world where some people tip nothing and instead offer up lame excuses, that's not so terrible.
Still, tipping 20 percent may not cut it these days. The era of tipping 15 percent is long behind us, and tipping 20 percent -- a common practice, if our HuffPost poll is to be believed -- may also be on its way out. Last year, the New York Post reported that some people tip between 25 and 30 percent in New York City restaurants.
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