Drink
Cheap Booze: A Guide To Drinking Through The Recession
By Christine Sismondo
A lot of people associate cocktails with expense. I’m here to tell you it ain’t necessarily so.
After all, I’ve been either a student, educator or writer for most of my adult life and I’ve managed to drink more than my fair share of cocktails throughout systemic poverty. Two or three people’s share of cocktails, actually.
There’s a perception that cheap beer is going to be how we all ride out this recession. But have you looked into the price of hops lately? Beer isn’t actually all that cheap, if you really think about it. Why, just the other day, I was pricing a case of Carlsberg, which used to be an old man’s beer you could count on finding at the neighbourhood tavern. In fact, my partner in drinking crime relied on it as a fallback beer his whole life, calling it the “Holiday Inn” of beers. It’s now $43.95 at our beer store. That’s almost two bucks a bottle.
A decent wine? Depends on how much you’re willing to lower your standards, really, but I find it challenging to find something drinkable for under $10. That’s also about two dollars a glass.
A good 40-ouncer of whisky like, say, Forty Creek, on the other hand, comes out to less than a buck a shot. It’s a no-brainer. If you’re looking for value, it’s time to switch to liquor. It has the additional advantage of being “quicker.”
History bears this notion out. What did people drink during the Great Depression? Booze, obviously. And a lot of it. Of course, there were a few other reasons for that, the main one being that, during prohibition, it was much easier to smuggle around small bottles of liquor than kegs of beer or barrels of wine. But, what’s interesting is that a certain type of drinking emerged during this era, namely, the living room and hotel cocktail party, in which people got really creative about mixing bad liquor in order to make it more palatable. Granted, this ritual gave birth to a few overly sweet creamy cocktails which really ought to have been given up after bathtub gin went away. To be fair, this is not generally considered the “golden age” of the cocktail.
An era which is, however, considered a golden age for drinks is the late 19th century. Jerry Thomas’ bartending guide was in wide circulation by then and all sorts of great drinks, including the Manhattan, the Martinez (pre-cursor to a Martini) and, in all likelihood, the Tom Collins were invented in and around that era. But why am I talking about this era when we’re supposed to be talking economic downturn? Because a lot of smart economist-type folks are comparing our current economic downturn to the panic of 1873 – not the Great Depression.
So, looking back to the 1870s, we get some clues as to what we might be drinking for the next few fiscal quarters. And the breadcrumbs all lead me down the garden path to brown liquor.
Fortunately for us, there are some really decently priced and highly drinkable mass-market brands in that category. I’ve already mentioned Forty Creek but should also tip my hat to Alberta Springs, a slightly pricier but still affordable contender in the category.
As far as bourbon goes, I like Wild Turkey’s price-quality ratio and I’m sure it will return to our shelves as soon as they solve a minor production problem and are allowed back into the LCBO. One notch up is Maker’s Mark, my current bourbon of choice.
While I wouldn’t want to sip too much of it, the downright cheap El Jimador is an excellent reposado Tequila for margarita-making purposes. Another rung up the ladder is Milagro, which is affordable and quite drinkable. After that, tequila on a budget is tough. Unless you’re in Guadalajara. There, I’ve found I can’t afford not to drink it.
If you’ve been maxing out your line of credit to buy expensive vodkas, you are the poster child for frivolous status-driven purchases. You may, in fact, be the reason for our current financial crisis. The rest of us our paying the price for your Grey Goose excess. Thanks a lot. So do us a favour, tighten your belt and buy Stoli instead. No, we’re not referring to the blueberry-flavoured kind. Plain old Stolichnaya. It worked for the Ab Fab girls and, for the price, it’s about the best on the market.
For gin, which is really the poster child of depression-era drinking, Plymouth is my top value-for-dollar choice. It’s good, clean fun and about two thirds the price of my all-time favourite, Hendrick’s.
In the 1870s, absinthe also grew really popular. The reason for this? It could be got for about two cents a glass. At today’s prices for mostly sub-standard quality (with the exception of Taboo from British Columbia) you’re better off looking to others in this category. Pernod is cheap and, while you’re in the European oddities aisle, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Italian and French aperitifs are very reasonable priced, highly civilized and already the “next big thing” in New York and San Francisco. Vermouth’s status has risen substantially and those who are really driven are actually making their own.
So, now the big question: How are we to consume all this relatively cheap alcohol? After all, the mix is what drives up the prices in all the high-end cocktail bars. The truth is, though, that simple cocktails made with good ingredients need not be expensive. Think of the mint julep, made with mint (free – at least in the summer), sugar (still affordable if it isn’t all converted to bio-fuel) and our old friend, bourbon. That’s a cost effective drink.
While the julep is a summer drink, simple wintery drinks from the late nineteenth century are all low on frills. An Old Fashioned, for example (invented slightly earlier than the era we’re speaking of) is whisky, orange, bitters and sugar. Simplicity and perfection in a glass. And a Manhattan (a taste for which you really ought to work on acquiring) is simply sweet vermouth, bourbon or rye and bitters.
Grown-ups with sophisticated palates have always found a way to drink well through hard times. It’s what gets us through them, in fact. I’m actually looking forward to the exploring new recession-era cocktails – it could well be a new golden age.
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