DECEMBER 28TH, 2007
The 80s decade of dumb drinks
A recent email from a restaurant manager friend said, Were throwing an 80s bash on New Years Eve in Sister Sorel and Im trying to research what cocktails were popular at that time. I was thinking Sex on the Beach, Blow Job shots and White Russians, but thats where I ran out. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please send them my way!
Since, unlike my friend, I came of age in the decade that popularized blender drinks, wine coolers, DeKuyper Peach Schnapps and cocktails with sexual names, I readily responded to her first three stabs at drinks of the period. Oh, yeah, those qualify. And dont forget about Sombreros, Mudslides, Slippery Nipples, B-52s, Woo-Woos, Kamikazes, Alabama Slammers and California Root Beers. Aaah, the sweet nectar of spring break another 80s phenomenon. (Yeah, I know, spring break has been around at least since Where the Boys Are, but it didnt become a huge, regularly televised event until the MTV decade.)
In the 80s, cocktails were climbing out of an era in which innovations in inebriation focused on drugs instead of booze. Courtesy of Ronald Reagan, it was morning again in America, and a new generation of young adults entered college with the intention of launching high-paying careers. They toasted to their bright future as yuppies with a new crop of appropriately cheerful (but naughty sounding!) drinks based on vodka, schnapps, Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream and any other sweet liquor meant to be speed-poured into a glass a la Tom Cruise in Cocktail (Where he pours, he reigns.).
Those of you who remember the Decade of Dumb Drinks: What were your faves? Did the Sex on the Beach and its ilk pave the way for todays candy-flavored martinis, or does every era simply have its own ridiculous cocktails?
rinkboston.com/2007/12/28/the-80s-decade-of-dumb-drinks/
irish car bomb
fuzzy navels,
flaming dr pepper
bloody brains