If you ask any Shoreditch bartender their single least favourite request, it’s almost certainly going to be: “Make me something like off of Mad Men.” Classic cocktails are having a moment – and have been for a while now. Painstakingly researched cocktail menus, like the one at Hawksmoor, scattered with finds from antique books, were groundbreaking in 2006; now you’ll find liquid archaeology on menus from Ibiza to Shanghai.
Does this mean these drinks are timeless or just the return of a fad? Well, there are few fads as easy to spot as the cocktail fad. The creamy, ‘lude-friendly disco drinks of the 1970s; the flaming cocktails that helped 80s bankers create their very own Bonfire of the Vanities (and open up Shoreditch to artists when the thing blew up); the sticky, liqueur-led fruit ‘martinis’ of the early 90s; the molecular mixology trend from the beginning of this century; the list goes on…
But longer-lived drinks go in and out of fashion with every generation. A connoisseur’s drink becomes a must-have bar call. Said must-have bar call shows up on menus from small-town gastropubs to Kathmandu discos. The drink gets mangled. People wonder why on earth anyone would drink it – and the original cocktail returns to being the choice of connoisseurs.
One classic lifecycle centres on the Margarita, once consumed only by sophisticates who had travelled to Mexico. Killed off by the frozen Margarita machine for the big end of a decade, it’s now very much on the march back up. With the exception of the Martini, which James Bond kept in style even during the age of the Banana Daiquiri, the drinks that escape this cycle tend to be the ones that never peaked.
The Manhattan hasn’t ever touched icon status; the Whiskey Sour has popped up in movies and on menus for decades without ever having a fashion moment. Yet, it’s hard to think of a time when a good bartender wouldn’t have known these drinks.
And the Old-Fashioned? A cocktail that probably dates back over 200 years, and the ultimate “drink like something off of Mad Men”? Given it’s impossible to make in quantities at a busy bar, it’s well on its way to becoming a fashion victim.
For hundreds of cocktail recipes, plus the true history of the Martini, the Old-Fashioned, the Manhattan and the Margarita, visit uk.thebar.com.