NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, May 24 (game #82)

This is the toughest Strands puzzle I’ve yet played, I think. Whether you find it as difficult remains to be seen; maybe I was having an off day. However, if it does baffle you too, my hints below may help point you in the right direction.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #82) – hint #1 – today’s theme

NYT Strands today (game #82) – hint #2 – clue words

NYT Strands today (game #82) – hint #3 – spangram

NYT Strands today (game #82) – hint #4 – spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #82) – the answers

The answers to today’s Strands, game #82, are…

• SOUR
• MOJITO
• SPRITZ
• GIMLET
• DAIQUIRI
• MARGARITA
• SPANGRAM: COCKTAILS

• My rating: Very hard
• My score: 5 hints

This is officially my worst performance in Strands so far. I needed 5 hints to solve it – meaning I only found two on my own. Given that one of them was a by-default solve, when there was nothing else that would fit, that’s a terrible result.

What was the problem? Well, I definitely wasn’t on form, but equally I think lots of people might struggle here. Though the theme is not too obscure, some of the spellings are; I tried for a long time to find a word that used the J, the Q or the Z and just couldn’t come up with them. And let’s face it, both MOJITO and DAIQUIRI do have uncommon word structures. The task wasn’t helped by my never having heard of GIMLET, either. I’m just going to write this off as a bad day and move on, I think…

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday 23 May, game #81)

• MAFIA
• TWISTER
• CHARADES
• CELEBRITY
• TELEPHONE
• SPANGRAM: PARTYGAMES