The Feminization of Alcohol: A Diatribe

[Mazeman]

This thread has really thrown me..................... a drink is a drink and you are entitled to drink whatever turns you on. Is a male drinker any less of a man if he sits in a bar slurping a Cosmopolitan?

Yes. I'd also say the same thing if he couldn't change a tire.

Now the bigger question is why we should bother focusing on this fact. Why it should matter to us. Why we should care....

But to answer your question.... there's no doubt... he's a dandy.

 

[Tom C]

Hmm...back in the '40s, '50s and '60s there were dozens of regional breweries. Just in the NYC area we had favorites like Piels, Rheingold, Schaefer, and Ballantine. They all brewed about the same thing - very light, easy-on-the-palatte, inexpensive suds. But the current selection of small and macro-breweries is staggering, and they're producing beer with exceptional flavor and character. Beer has become something to be savored instead of tolerated. Sort of the opposite of what this thread proclaims. It's all a matter of perspective, folks.

 

[GeorgeIV]

Manliness isn't about what you drink or even how you shave. It's about personal responsibility, self reliance, and respect for others. A gentleman should respect others' decisions, especially when the decision is based on a matter of taste.

An inability to change a tire demonstrates a lack of self reliance. A taste for a cosmo demonstrates an understanding of one's own taste regardless of stereotypes.

A respect for tradition is something completely different from a reliance upon tradition.

The OP mentions Hemmingway and denounces sweet drinks. Wasn't it Hemmingway that enjoyed daquiris (lime juice, simple syrup, rum on ice) so much? That's a sugary, fruity drink.

The drinks (like the clothes) do not make the man. The man makes the man.

By the way, I'll have a neat whisk(e)y or a stirred Martini

 

[Scotto]

Read any historical cocktail book and you'll find plenty of sugary concoctions. However, a lot of that came out of the poor quality of liquor available and/or the "medicinal" value that needed covering up with something sweet.

The most alarming thing to me is not the "feminization", which I don't agree with, it is the insidious turning of cocktail culture into something which is a vehicle for getting a buzz. Vodka and its incarnations aren't there to be savored, but are there to get people drunk. The cocktail can be every bit as creative, exciting, and delicious as any chef's creation; creating slurpees with alcohol to swill down at a frat party is culturally a very sad place.

 

[jadam318]

The most alarming thing to me is not the "feminization", which I don't agree with, it is the insidious turning of cocktail culture into something which is a vehicle for getting a buzz. Vodka and its incarnations aren't there to be savored, but are there to get people drunk. The cocktail can be every bit as creative, exciting, and delicious as any chef's creation; creating slurpees with alcohol to swill down at a frat party is culturally a very sad place.

+1 - Well said

 

[Sabledog]

Here's another vote for "Back off the Blue Moon!"


Totally agree with the Bud Light Lime crap, but Blue Moon does actually have beer taste--one of my favorites for hot summer drinking!

I really like single malt scotch and dark beers, but I wish I liked gin at all... so many opportunities for Manly drinks with gin!

This thread reminds me that the same thing is happening in the coffee world (thanks to Star$s). I think they wouldn't know what do to if you asked for a straight double shot espresso, and you might not like what you got if you got one

 

[stobes21]

Read any historical cocktail book and you'll find plenty of sugary concoctions. However, a lot of that came out of the poor quality of liquor available and/or the "medicinal" value that needed covering up with something sweet.

The most alarming thing to me is not the "feminization", which I don't agree with, it is the insidious turning of cocktail culture into something which is a vehicle for getting a buzz. Vodka and its incarnations aren't there to be savored, but are there to get people drunk. The cocktail can be every bit as creative, exciting, and delicious as any chef's creation; creating slurpees with alcohol to swill down at a frat party is culturally a very sad place.

Your first and second paragraphs seem at odds with each other. As you stated, lots of syrupy cocktails have been developed specifically to cover the taste of bad alcohol. Yet if the alcohol tasted so bad it had to be covered it seems to me there would be only two reasons for people to drink it: for medicinal reasons (a small portion), or to get a buzz. My understanding of cocktail culture, at least in the US, is that much of it was popularized during prohibition specifically to cover cheap booze and let people get drunk without really tasting the awful swill so many of those places served. Thus, nothing has really changed: syrupy cocktails were developed for and continue to be used to provide an easy means to become intoxicated. Not all cocktails are used that way, and we should not write off all of them simply as drunk-tinis, but the use of the cocktail as a vehicle for becoming inebriated has always been a part of cocktail culture and always will be.

Now, I agree with you completely about the merits of good cocktails and it does seem a waste to see great classics like the daquiri turned into little more than slurpees that get you drunk.

 

[Noebie]

Cocktails should be clear or brown.

All of this blue, purple and green cocktail nonsense is just glorified koolaid

:^)

 

[Miles]

There have been a number of excellent remarks regarding the unfortunate state of present-day cocktail enjoyment, and while I too rankle at the "martini menus" filled with bananachocotinis and rumandcoketinis, I just let it slide. Well, actually SWMBO sometimes has to calm me down a little when I go off on a tirade about them, but it's really just the result of being a martini purist.
But I digress...
I am a fan of the art of mixology, and have a nice collection of vintage books on the subject as well as a collection of assorted potent potables for "experiments". I have put together my own recipe for a gin martini based on a number of old reference books and tempered by my knack for balancing drink flavors. It is a revered classic, and is mixed with reverence for the historical nature of the drink. This said, I also enjoy neat scotch, rye, high end tequila and rum, as well as the strongest imported or microbrewed ale I can find.
Manly stuff, right?
The other half of my fanatical mixological bend includes the world of tropical drinks, such as those made popular in polynesian themed restaurants from the 40's to the early 70's. These drinks are amazing works of art when crafted using the original recipes of the old masters of the tiki drink. A properly made zombie or navy grog will elicit applause from nearly anyone with the good fortune to sample one. These drinks are crafted from a number of different types of rum, along with fresh juices, sometimes honey, and the ideal is to make these concoctions have a proper balance to them, where the different flavors come and go in stages or phases. The original purveyors of this type of drink (Trader Vic, Donn the Beachcomber) would often limit the customers to a maximum of two, or sometimes only one apiece due to the powerful nature of the beverages. Powerful enough to drop a lumberjack, in some instances. Now these drinks are indeed fruity by nature, however I would take offense if it was implied that it was any less manly to participate in the delicate art and science of creating, balancing and enjoying them. A man is much more than the sum of what he takes into his system, right? So I say to each his own. Drink and let drink, and maybe through example, advice, or buying rounds we can begin to bring back the tradition of enjoying a drink for its qualities, not for it's ethanol percentage.

 

[Emmett]

The OP mentions Hemmingway and denounces sweet drinks. Wasn't it Hemmingway that enjoyed daquiris (lime juice, simple syrup, rum on ice) so much? That's a sugary, fruity drink.

Hemingway also committed suicide. Awesome as his drinking and fishing exploits were, I wouldn't hold him up as the exemplar of manhood.

 

[TimmyBoston]

Actually, it is called marketing.

To-may-to, To-mah-to.

 

[Obsessed]

To-may-to, To-mah-to.

As in a Bloody Mary, a drink with a female name. It's all starting to make sense now . . .

 

[Argonaut]

Bourbon, straight. Beer, brown.

 

[Torcams]

I agree that there is a dichotomy that exists in today's cocktail scene.

On the one had, we have the dizzying array of flavored vodkas for mixing in all sorts of horrible "martinis". Has the martini name cheapened over the years - you bet!

On the other (and arguably more significant) hand, we have a burgeoning cocktail culture developing and alive today - one that is interested in going back to the roots of great cocktails; people who are deconstrucing vintage ingredients and making them on their own. A tremendous number of blogs today are dedicated to this subject. And many vintage, lost and forgotten spirits are being resurrected by these folks.

And in terms of manly spirits, the choices of single malts, and boutique boubons is staggering. Mothballed distilleries are being reopened in Scotland to feed our thirst. I can go out and put together a collection of 10 ryes to taste easily. The market is asking for ever more quality products.

I say that we are at the zenith of quality cocktail/spiritdom.

I think Stobes21 put it pretty damn well: "Sure, along with the above has come an increasing popularity in ridiculous "-tinis," fruity beers, and of course the oxymoronic "flavored vodkas." But that is a small price to pay in my opinion for the incredible variety and availability of good booze we see."

 

[mmack66]

The Force is strong in those that can tell the sexual orientation of a man based solely upon what kind of a drink he orders.

 

[WittyAg]

I'm pretty sure folks drank meed in the middle ages and have also drank wine for centuries as well. Granted, some of the shots that are out there nowadays are getting ridiculous (beer shot dropped in red bull anyone?).

 

[JoeH]

Read any historical cocktail book and you'll find plenty of sugary concoctions. However, a lot of that came out of the poor quality of liquor available and/or the "medicinal" value that needed covering up with something sweet.

+1

People have been drinking anything that could be fermented for thousands of years, some sweet, some not so sweet. It sounds to me that the "manly" drinks we're talking about are the ones that require you develop a taste for them--nobody really enjoys their first drink of scotch.

 

[arghblech]

...nobody really enjoys their first drink of scotch.

No kidding! Mine was worse because I just poured myself a glass of it. Yep, a glass. It was pretty lousy scotch, too.

 

[BigRich]

really[/I] enjoys their first drink of scotch.

That's a pretty broad statement and I think it really depends on the situation, scotch, and person involved. My wife's first scotch was the old Ardbeg 17 year old bottling, in our favorite bar with me and she loved it. Mine was J&B out of my roommate's giant bottle at a party and it was less than stunning.

 

[Confuzius]

I like single malt scotches, I like Manhattans, I like Whiskey Old Fashioneds, I like Martinis -made with just gin and vermouth, I like a good oatmeal stout and I like Belgian Trappist ales.

I also from time to time very much enjoy a properly made Cosmopolitan, Daiquiri or Margarita, and my girlfriend appreciated that I can make them for her.

Sometimes the best beer is an ice cold Coors Light or PBR. It's a matter of situation and taste.

I can also change a tire, and help you choose a colour palette for the bathroom remodel.

The problem is the same thing that makes frozen pizzas and take out so proliferous, people don't want to take the time do do things themselves when they can get it premixed in a bottle, from there it's a slippery slope from pre-fab margarita mix to any other sickly sweet ready to drink cooler.