Forget the 80's...

modern cocktails are very noughties.

 

With cocktails sometimes being consigned to the era of bad hair and even worse… shoulder pads! The lingering image still remains of blue and green drinks sporting a tiny umbrella and the only enduring memory of a night on the multi-coloured wonders is the head splitting hangover greeting you in the morning. Its fair to say sometimes these drinks get a bit of a bad rap!


In the last decade cocktails or mixed drinks as they are sometimes referred as these days, have gone through somewhat of rejuvenation in look and in customer requests. Gone are the cocktail umbrellas and the “fruit bowl” style garnishes and in are the mint sprigs and lemon zests and I for one couldn’t be happier.


Today’s cocktail bar is incredibly different to the one seen in a very famous 80’s film starting Tom Cruise, you know the one I mean! The general perception of cocktails are of a bartender in a Hawaiian shirt filling a glass with lots of alcohol, lots of ice and a varying array of fruit juices to mask as much of the dodgy rum he used as possible! However today’s bartender or mixologist as they are known in the industry are generally professional career staff and as proud of their job and drinks as any chef you’ll find in a kitchen. These mixologists’s spend hour upon hour working on new flavour combinations, finding new ingredients, and creating new serving styles; all in aid of when that customer takes the first sip it’s the best drink they’ve ever had. And most importantly the myth that cocktails are loaded with alcohol; if this was true you would never be allowed to open a cocktail bar outside of the Caribbean! But seriously in actuality the majority of cocktails served these days contain only 2 units of alcohol and when compared to a standard pint which contains 2.8 units or a large glass of wine at 2.4 units cocktails are less alcoholic than generally the nation’s favourite tipples.    


With today’s health conscious approach to life, it’s paved the way for cocktail bars to become a favourite in most city destinations. The greater knowledge base of staff and the use of fresh produce such as lemons and limes, strawberries and raspberries, mint and other herbs all combined with generally a double measure of spirit, means no chemicals, all natural sugars and thankfully no dreaded E numbers. Take this for example, a pre-made bottled drink found in most bars these days contain up to fifteen ingredients to make it essentially taste like a vodka, lemon and soda, we would call it a Vodka Collins and it includes just three ingredients! 


So next time you’re planning a night out and the potential for cocktails enters the evening, give them a go, if you can’t find a drink you like in the menu then just ask the bartender for help. A rule of thumb for drinking cocktails; if you generally drink vodka order vodka cocktails, if you like rum, go with rum cocktails, that way you won’t be stuck with something you really dislike.  

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