Need help with today's NYT strand? Today's theme, “On the Rocks,” is not as easy as it looks, although you'll get to the right answer quickly

Below are some helpful hints for Strand #196 and the answer when you need it We will start with the hints and then lead you to the full solution to Strand #196

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #196

The official theme for NYT Strands #196 is “On the Rocks"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: ‘special drinks’

If you're still unsure, here are some handy words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still having trouble? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions Today it starts with 'O' and ends with 'D'

Scroll down to see what it is

OLDFASHIONED

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

Drumroll please

Spangram was OLDFASHIONED

Strands #196

“On the rocks”

??

??

Hello Strands fans! This cocktail is quite difficult to make unless you are a cocktail drinker, and you may not know exactly what it takes to make the perfect Old Fashioned

I can't say this is my favorite, but I've had it at least a couple of times, so I had a slight advantage When I spotted WHISKEY in the upper left corner, I assumed this was about more common spirits

When I spotted BITTERS in the upper right corner, I realized this was about OLDFASHIONED cocktails The spangram was very long and reached the left side of the grid twice, neatly cordoning off SUGAR in the process

From there I racked my brain trying to remember the other ingredients, finding WATER at the bottom, which led me to CHERRY Now all that's left is the orange in the bottom right corner to complete the puzzle

Are you reading this in a slow time zone? Yesterday's article on Strand's solution to the 195th round can be found here