Hard times and hard liquor

I know from experience of the 90s that the hemline economy is real. I didn’t see my legs for years as I trundled round in floor-length hippy skirts, waiting for interest rates to fall.

If only I’d had a cocktail to enjoy.

Cocktails are apparently selling in record numbers these days. During the lockdown, beer sales were down 14% but spirit sales were up 7%.

And now we’re seeing another mini boom. AG Barr, the Scottish drink manufacturer, found a 13% increase in customers ordering cocktails compared to before the pandemic.

Why?

Cocktails certainly spark joy. They taste nice, look pretty, and get you drunk quickly. They suggest a fun time is ahead.

But cocktails were derided in the 1960s as fusty and old-fashioned. In the 2000s they became tacky with their embarrassing Pornstar Martini names.

Now they’re as classy as sourdough. They have sprigs of thyme in them and look like something from Peaky Blinders, which might explain things...

Apparently, there’s a specific correlation between the popularity of cocktails and economic inequality. The first high point of cocktails was in the age of boom and bust. The low point was after the second world war, as the economy recovered.

It’s true that you can’t make a statement with a pint of bitter like you can when you order a drink served with an umbrella in it - Del Boy will tell you that. So perhaps, despite their relative expense, their popularity is down to a hang-it-all approach to happiness. A liquid two fingers up to current woes. Afterall, if you can’t smile while drinking a pina colada then when can you?