Speak Easy By John Wyman

Shaken ... not stirred

It is inevitable ... time marches on. And with it consumer's tastes for popular alcoholic beverages change. When I began my career in the restaurant industry, I was 16 years old and employed as a busser at Cafe de France, a quaint French restaurant located in a suburb on the outskirts of Washington D.C. Sixteen being an impressionable age, to say the least, I loved myjob as a busboy and the independence it gave me. The menu was classic and the wine list extensive, but my fascination with the operation centered on the bar and the man behind it. Julian was his name, and making a mean drink was his game. As the youngest brother of the owner's wife, he was given more latitude than might have been normal. The bar was his hunting ground, and the liquor it promoted, his weapon. Drinks were deftly mixed to woo and subdue conquests du jour, or to disable and maim potential competition.

Sweet cocktails were all the rage, and from the bottoms of shakers, I was introduced to the adult pleasures of the Singapore sling, planters punch and the everpresent bacardi cocktail. It was definitely a time when the Mai tai ruled and scotch was what the old guys drank. Mixed drinks in the seventies and early eighties were nothing more than a reaction to the classics. The advent of available mixers and fruit juices, and an overall willingness to break with tradition, gave way to some wonderful, albeit now dated cocktails. But just as Julian (my idol) aged and moved on, so did trends in drinking. The excesses brought about by the amount of alcohol one could ingest by masking it with fruit and syrups led to the forced temperance of wine consumption.

White zinfandel hit the market head on. One didn't have to be a connoisseur to enjoy this wine. Syrupy sweet and pink, White Zinfandel immediately gained a reputation as ambient and a pleasurable drink. California hit it big. No longer were potential wine drinkers faced with a choice between mysterious foreign labels and bulky domestic packaging. They now had a sleek, easy-to-drink option that was perceived to be the height of sophistication among certain groups.

The late eighties fueled an explosion in wine consumption that has continued through today. The popular sweet wines of the eighties: Spatlese, Riesling, and white An captured the interest of many a fruity cocktail drinker. As time went by, the massive marketing and promotional machine of wine producers continued to educate and refine the public palate. By the early nineties, consumption of hard liquor had diminished and Chardonnay was hip. Popular cocktails included ffizzy navels, amaretto sours and pina coladas. By this time, consumers as a whole had become more responsible. People could freely admit that drunk driving was bad, excessive consumption was frowned upon and generally limited to private gatherings, and smoking, the classic cocktail companion, was under full-scale attack ... enter the liquor distributors.

Faced with declining sales and a more educated market, they saw the need to "spiff up" their offerings. Brands deepened and marketing flourished. As consumers, people were ready to reward themselves for good behavior and once again embraced hard liquor. With the past as our professor we were shown the civility of a good cocktail.

With the onslaught of the late nineties, the new millennium hanging over our heads and many a dot.com millionaire spending lavishly during this age of decadence, we witnessed a resurgence of the classics. Martinis, sidecars, cosmopolitans, oldfashions, plus a plethora of single malt scotches and boutique bourbons were consumed not only for the obvious reasons, but also for the airs and ambiance they effected. Having expressed all this, unabashedly in awe of how many years and trends I personally have witnessed, takes us to the present, where sure, there will always be the next new thing, but at the same time there is a comfortable medium. Today one can walk into a bar or drinking establishment, and not detect a particular pattern except people enjoying their cocktails responsibly and having a lot of fun. We all know what we like, and trends don't necessarily dictate habit. As consumers, we are educated and confident. Moving easily from micro brews to manhattans, we like our scotch on the rocks and our sauvignon blanc crisp. So, having worn myself out reflecting on the past, I think I'll reward myself with a Singapore sling.

Singapore sling

1 ounce gin

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 ounce cherry brandy

1 ounce lemon juice

splash of creme de noyeux

shake above with cracked ice and serve,unstrained into a highball glass