Monday, April 20, 2009

Faux eaux

Two views this past week on alcohol-free cocktails. The WSJ’s Eric Felten has no use for them, and lists his many reasons why in his column of 3rd April.

The Washington Post’s Johnny-come-lately drinks writer, Jason Wilson, does a me-too on the 15th, although he thinks the virgin versions are just fine. Especially for serving to his 4-year-old and 7-year-old sons.

Wilson brings into the mix a Dutch bartender who’s created a cocktail book for children and an American blogger who’s created a book of mocktails for the enceinte set, called (and I am not making this up) Preggatinis.

Not only is that title a little too fey for me, but this woman actually reverse engineers her virgin drinks back to real cocktails, like you need instructions to chuck in a slurp of vodka or rum.

Uh…whatever sells your vanity-press-published books.

Frankly, her recommendations for pregnant women seem too sweet—if you’re not suffering from morning sickness, you’ll puke after drinking a “Cosmom” (OJ and orange syrup to add to the cranberry juice) or the “Folic Fizz (cantaloupe and strawberries).

Wait—isn’t the latter just a, you know, smoothie?

I am not mocking people who don’t want to ingest alcohol for whatever reason. But I pretty much hold with Felten: drink what you like without pretending it’s a cocktail wannabe.

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