5 1980s Cocktails Remixed
The 1980s was the decade of lurid vodka cocktails with naff names that would make you cringe now if you had to order them at a bar. Often concocted from ingredients that were anything but ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’.
Fuzzy Navel aside, many 1980s cocktails, given a modern makeover and properly prepared, don’t deserve to languish in mixology’s forgotten and rarely visited alcoholic Hall of Fame.
As someone who spent their formative drinking years in the 1980s, when ordering a lager and black was the height of grown-upness, I have a certain fond empathy for this decade. The 1980s had what the decades don’t have now, and that is unselfconscious fun.
The cocktails of that era embodied that sense of fun. There was no posing for selfies with your drink in a cool bar and posting it on social media hoping to get scores of likes. You went out, drank a bit, danced around your handbags on the dance floor and had fun with your mates. Simple.
In a fit of nostalgia, I have recreated my favourite 1980s cocktails here remixed. And I hope you like them too.
Most of them use a highball glass which has to be filled with crushed ice. I’m guessing that crushed ice in a glass in the 80s was a clear sign of sophistication. I suggest you prepare by crushing a big bag of ice in advance or better still go out and buy a bag of the stuff.
So dig out your paper umbrellas and your jar of bright red maraschino cherries, slip into your shell suit, put on a Wham cd and crank up the volume.
Fluffy Duck
I like advocaat – there I’ve said it. I always buy a bottle (or 2) at Christmas. This recipe gives me an excuse to buy one any time of the year.
If you like a Snowball you will like a Fluffy Duck ~ and I know how weird that sounds.
Glass:
Highball
Ingredients:
45ml / 1.5oz London Dry Gin
45ml / 1.5oz advocaat
30ml / 1oz triple sec
30ml / 1oz freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions:
Shake all the ingredients over ice in a shaker.
Strain into a highball glass filled with crushed ice.
Top up with soda water.
Garnish:
Orange slice and bright red maraschino cherry
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Long Island Iced Tea
Still popular today and easy to remember the measures – even if you can’t remember the long list of ingredients and end up emptying the contents of your home cocktail bar into your shaker.
Why it is so called I don’t know. Perhaps because it looks like iced tea – although it isn’t.
Glass:
Highball
Ingredients:
15ml / .5oz London Dry gin
15ml / .5oz white rum
15ml / .5oz vodka
15ml / .5oz tequila
15ml / .5oz triple sec
15ml / .5oz simple syrup
15ml / .5oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
15ml / .5oz freshly squeezed lime juice
Instructions:
Shake all the ingredients over ice in a shaker.
Strain into a highball filled with crushed ice.
Top with cola.
Garnish:
Lemon
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Woo Woo
I chose this one because of the name and the fact that I like the flavours of cranberry and peach. Here I’ve substituted the vodka with a good cocktail gin because I can.
Glass:
Old fashioned
Ingredients:
45ml / 1.5oz London Dry Gin
22.5ml / .75oz peach schnapps
75ml / 2.5oz cranberry juice (not drink or from concentrate)
Instructions:
Shake all the ingredients over ice in a shaker.
Strain into an old fashioned filled with ice.
Garnish:
Lime
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Sex on the Beach
This recipe is in 2 parts. Despite the dated sexual innuendo it is rather fruitily good and deserves to be mixed more.
I’ve substituted the vodka again – guess what with – gin of course!
Glass:
Highball
The Beach part
Ingredients:
20ml / .75oz peach schnapps
30ml / 1oz orange juice
30ml / 1oz cloudy pineapple juice (never from concentrate – unless you want to recreate the awful 80s version)
Instructions:
Shake over ice.
Strain into a highball filled with crushed ice.
The Sex part
Ingredients:
45ml / 1.5oz London Dry Gin
30ml / 1oz cranberry juice
15ml / .5oz Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
Instructions:
Shake over ice.
Strain into the glass to sit on top of the beach layer.
Garnish:
Orange slice, fancy stirrer, paper straw, little paper umbrella, beach mat (no I’m only kidding on the last one)
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Blue Lagoon
Popular in the 80s because of the film with the same title, it was an old cocktail given a filmstar makeover. Despite its lurid blue hue that threatens to stain your lips and teeth, it is a long cool drink that will satisfy those drinkers with a sweet tooth.
Again I’ve substituted a good cocktail gin for the vodka for a more botanically rich cocktail.
Glass:
Highball (or a gin glass with a toucan on!)
Ingredients:
60ml / 2oz London Dry Gin
30ml / 1oz blue Curacao
30ml / 1oz freshly squeezed lime juice
30ml / 1oz simple syrup
Instructions:
Shake over ice.
Strain into a highball filled with crushed ice.
Top with a dash of lemonade.
Garnish:
Bright red maraschino cherry and orange slice
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