Vintage Cocktails FAQ: A Matter of Taste
A lot of my friends drink only beer or wine. I’m afraid they won’t like a “sophisticated” cocktail.
First of all, I don’t think there’s anything inherently unsophisticated about beer and wine. Your beer-drinking friends probably have a favorite beer, right? They might prefer a lager to a stout, or a pilsner to brown ale. That doesn’t make them a beer snob; it just means they’ve developed taste preferences. Wine drinkers can be very particular about their likes and dislikes. Some love the crisp acidity of a Sauvignon Blanc, while others prefer the rich, buttery complexity of a well-made Chardonnay. Your friends are ideally suited to trying something new, something out of the ordinary. Their palates are plenty sophisticated, whether they know it or not.
There are hundreds of cocktail recipes, so it’s a bit unrealistic to expect your friends to like them all. (Even I have favorites.) But I’d go so far as to say your friends would fall head over heels in love with a whole bunch of them. There is a cocktail for every taste. Just because these classic cocktails have elements of sophistication, delicacy, and complexity, doesn’t mean they aren’t truly delicious, and an enormous amount of fun to drink.
Your friends might even claim to not like cocktails, but they’ve probably never been served an impeccably made classic like the ones we’d be serving at your party. With a little gentle prodding, a whole new world of cocktails will open up to them. Remember, these are drinks that your guests will not only want; these are drinks that your guests deserve.