][1]According to a marketing email which popped into my inbox, men are crying out for ‘proper cocktails’. Apparently, we have looked on jealously as Sex and the City inspired women to sluice back the cosmos and flirtinis but, not wishing to look girlie, we stuck to man-sized pints of beer.
Fortunately, according to the blurb, Daniel Craig’s portrayal of the cocktail-gargling James Bond has sparked a new wave of interest in cocktails for men. And that’s before we look at the influence of the entire male cast of Mad Men who seem to get through at least a bottle of bourbon and one of gin during the course of each working day.
However, according to a poll, British men believe that despite this renewed demand, there are still only a handful of masculine drinks available to them in bars this side of the pond. A massive 40% of those quizzed say that men are expected to drink only beer and an additional 34% believe that most cocktails and long drinks are targeted only at women.
Despite rarely seeing a man perusing the cocktail menu in a bar, precisely due to the reasons stated above, around half of those polled say that they do actually enjoy drinking cocktails, with this figure jumping to 65% in the 25-34 age group.
Fortunately, and here comes the sales pitch, Drambuie have stepped in to save the day for blokes. According to the liqueur makers, trendy bars in Manhattan and London are fuelling demand for the classic Rusty Nail cocktail. I have to say that I always thought of Drambuie as something grandmothers drink rather than a real man’s poison but, no, according to Drambuie, the Rusty Nail is the ‘quintessential man’s cocktail’. They have a point, a potent mix of Drambuie and blended Scotch, the Rusty Nail is not for the faint-hearted. The Rat Pack were rather partial to it.
Drambuie have invented a couple of other cocktails (the Crushed Nail which muddles Drambuie with ice and lime and the Jamaican Nail which mixes Drambuie with ginger ale). You can try them at Edinburgh’s Hawke and Hunter.