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27 June 2007
Today's lost drinks→[More:]As a child, I recall my parents having an occasional bottle of Cold Duck, and throwing parties where Pink Squirrels were in abundance. In today's world . . . not so much. Reclaim these drinks of yore!
Let's see...my parents used to drink Sidecars and Tom Collins daquiris. I'm not sure if those have fallen out of favor or not (?) but I never hear anyone ordering them.
Manhattans were the favorite drink at my parents' cocktail parties, back in the late 50s/early 60s -- I recall sneaking downstairs very early on Sunday morning and eating all the leftover maraschino cherries that had spent the night marinating in bourbon-dregs in partly-empty glasses. I don't know if Manhattans are still popular; the only mixed drinks I see being ordered frequently nowadays are all those wacky non-trad martinis (which are an abomination, in my martini-traditionalist opinion, but of course this is not meant to condemn you or your beverage choices should you enjoy them).
Yes, the first drink I thought of was the sidecar, followed by the Sazerac.
Mmmm, I remember holiday dinners where I was allowed a glass of Cold Duck. (Odd that they never shared a good bottle of wine with the kids. Hmm... five kids... tight budget... maybe not so odd.)
My parents used to make frozen daiquiris for parties, and margaritas (frozen or on the rocks) as a concession to our tenure in Texas.
Though Dad preferred a glass of wine and Mom a bourbon on the rocks, once in a while, they'd order whiskey sours before dinner, and give me the cherry. Predictably, when I first started ordering in bars, I ordered whiskey sours. I still like one, every now and then, on a hot day.
Elsa, whiskey sours are delicious...thanks for reminding me about them!
We drink Mojitos almost every day when we get home from work - it's a great summer thirst quencher and cooler-downer. The mint and the lime and the soda together....mmmm...
My mom and dad never threw that many parties and if they did it was strictly beer. My parents mostly went to parties and drank copious amounts of beer. My father mostly hung at a bar without my mother and drank too much beer. Once my father ordered a Jack and Coke while we were gambling together in Las Vegas. It surprised me and disgusted me a little. Not because of the drink, but because he was/is an alcoholic and seeing him drink gives me the creeps.
My cousin made a drink called Pink Panty Pull-downs for a get-together she was having. Her latest beau was there and she only knew him for a few days. Pink Panty Pulldowns should come much later in the courting phase if you ask me.
In the Keys we made lots of drinks. One was Apple Puckers, but we called them Mother Puckers.
There used to be drinks on sale in Britain when I was a kid called Pony (the little drink with the big kick, the advert said) which I believe was some kind of sweet sherry type of thing, and Cherry B, a vile, sweet cherry brandy derivative, probably also a fortified wine.
They were "ladies' drinks", as is Babycham, a mildly alcoholic perry (made from pears) which at one time used to be described as 'champagne perry', until those pesky cheese-eating surrender monkeys across the Channel objected. I thought Babycham had disappeared into obscurity, but teh intarweb tells me it's still being made.
Hm... my parents were mostly drinking beer, wine, Manhattans and Martinis, which they mostly still do... But I remember that they had pretty much everything in the bar - blue, green purple, - everything! And they knew how to make things like a Grasshopper or Pink Squirrel, though they didn't drink them themselves. (Yes, we had a bar! with draft beer, no less! dang! i'll never, ever be as cool as my parents.)
mischief, you are, in so very many ways, a doppleganger of my ex-husband. If you two met, you would each be struck by lightning and turned to ash, I think.
There's a fantastic bar in Chicago called The California Clipper that makes many old-timey drinks and does it very well. Their Perfect Manhattans are indeed perfect.
Cold Duck! We got to have a sip on New Year's Eve.
My grandparents drank VO and water. They taught me to mix one proper at a very young age and I'd always cop a taste before handing it over.
Aunt Ida drank Manhattans. She wore green pants and hugged too hard.
My dad was mostly beer, but went through a period of where he couldn't get enough Dark and Stormies. There are many interesting stories from that period. Unfortunately, I was old enough to drink with him by then, so I remember very few of them.
Seeing that box now brings back all kinds of childhood "just for grownups" intrigue. It's for 2-4 Adult Players. It was the one game on the board game shelf I wasn't allowed to touch or open. I had no idea why the guy on the cover looked like that, but it sure was mysterious. Does anyone today still play this game?
Stingers. *shudders*. I vividly remember my over-dressed, braying aunt's most recent visit to my family. I was 18 or so. One night I cooked dinner: marinated grilled chicken, grilled vegetables, jasmine rice, peanut sauce, and a cool cucumber salad with rice vinegar, followed by a sorbet.
Fancy Aunt drank nine stingers before dinner, half a bottle of wine with dinner, and a few cordials after. We watched, our eyes wide with anticipation.
We retired. Soon, I heard her arise. She spent a long, loud evening in our shared bathroom.
The next day, she casually told me that I must have given her food poisoning.
I own a copy of Pass-Out, but it's been a very long time since I played it. Minus the getting-drunk part, it's a pretty crappy board game. And either people are going to get drunk anyway, in which case we might as well play Personal Preference or Claim to Fame or Facts in Five or spades or Wario Ware or something, or they're not, in which case I feel pretty weird about trying to strong-arm 'em into it.
on lack of preview: oooooooh, Dark & Stormy! My (late, much-missed) father made a point of always having ginger beer in the fridge in case anyone wanted to join him in a Dark & Stormy.
Dad had a stock story he would always tell about the waiter (and family friend) who introduced him to the drink. I must have heard that story a hundred times, each time delivered with the same fondness and the same relish at giving someone else the best lines. It's not even that good a story, but he loved telling it.
It being sultry and hot (with storms promised) here today, I might have to provision the fixin's for one tonight, and raise a glass to my dad.
My parents drank vodka tonics in the summer and scotch and sodas in the winter. Beer with lunch, wine with dinner. My mother told me in all seriousness that drinks with a funny name were tacky and ladies should never order them. So much for the sex on the beach. Although one night a few years before he died my dad made us Grasshoppers - I have no idea what was in them but he waxed all nostalgic for his 20s. And we had bloody marys on Thanksgiving and whiskey sours on Christmas morning. My grandfather famously made his first pitcher of whiskey sours at 11:00 every morning and kept replenishing it all day but my mother told us that it was necessary and medicinal and hush, y'all.
I drank undetermined number of Long Island Iced Teas one evening (when I was in college) and later fell down, removing a large area of skin from my back and nearly exposing four of my ribs.
My parents have a wet bar in their living room, but my father stocked it with half-gallon bottles of Fedco's (now defunct, it was like a membership Target) house label. I don't know what he buys now.
My great-uncle used to make Mai Tais after every holiday meal. He had all the ingredients in a little suit case that he always brought with him. He and my great aunt would make a big ceremony over the Mai Tais and we would all smile and pretend to drink them before sneaking off the the kitchen to dump them.
Riunite and Canei. Both had massive commercial exposure in the late 70's-early 80's, and though both are still available, it ain't the same.
I'm a big sidecar fancier; I drank them with my brother at The Rose in Chicago, served to us by a bartender who looked exactly like our mother, albeit with a platinum bleach job and tobacco breath.
My grandfather was a Jameson, neat, drinker. But my grandma drank sidecars and manhattans. Whisky used to make me think of them, but I married a Jameson drinker, so now it makes me think of him.
My parents were both into rusty nails, which seem old-fashioned enough that most bartenders need instruction to make them. My mom also liked highballs with bourbon and ginger ale.
The last time we were out with my aunts, my brother ordered a rusty nail and I ordered a Jack Daniels & ginger ale. My aunt looked at us and said, "You guys drink old people drinks."
Mum drank a lot of gin & tonics w/lime (she's been sober 29 years - yay mum!). I used to be shanghaied into being bartender and made a lot of them for her. I'd make them fairly weak, but she just glared at me and drank them that much quicker. She also liked bourbon and branch. Other than those two drinks I remember a lot of beer. Usually Coors sometimes Bud or Miller or Michelob.
Grappa is due for a revival, I think. At his 60th wedding anniversary, my nonno saw me down a shot of grappa without flinching and exclaimed (for best effect imagine heavily accented english) "You are a man!"
most forgotten drinks are on the menus at Chinese restaurants. I miss Cold Duck; it was kind of a sparkly soda with a bit of a kick. Great with turkey.
Grappa is great! None of my friends like it, but I drank it all the time in Italy, and my dad got ahold of some excellent stuff earlier this year (which is now, unfortunately, all gone).
My mom's just started drinking like a champ in the last five years or so. Apparently, in her misspent youth she downed too much sweet wine and that put her off for years. Now she's finally getting behind gin and tonics.
My dad's ma liked sweet wine with ice cubes; my ma's dad was the kind of alcoholic who liked Southern Comfort straight at breakfast.
(And last night, I mixed gin and tamarindo jaritos and it was delicious).
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