Getting the measure of short drinks

The trend cycle is exactly that: a cycle. Something in our distant memories is destined to return; something that feels inescapable now will soon become a distant memory. I am hoping the latter will be the case for low-rise jeans soon.

The 2010s, when I started drinking, was a culture defined by the clubs, soundtracked by artists like Kesha, the Chainsmokers and David Guetta. These long nights necessitated long drinks – most often two shots topped up with a mixer – and cocktails.

Here, the objective wasn’t to taste the alcohol, but have it masked or balanced by something fizzy or juicy. Mojitos, Woo Woos: you know the vibe.

But now, the pendulum has swung the other way, and we’re seeing a surge in popularity for shorter, stronger drinks: martinis, Manhattans, Old Fashioneds. This pendulum swing comes at an interesting time. We’re being told that as a society we’re drinking less. Perhaps we’re drinking in a more functional way?

In other words, as opportunities to go out and drink dwindle in a cost-of-living crisis, a short cocktail holds a purpose. You only need a few of them to get merry and you can see, in your glass, where your hard-earned money is going.

When Liam Davy, beverage director for (notable steak-and-cocktail restaurant) Hawksmoor, started designing menus 15 years ago, the brief was often a 50:50 split between long and short drinks. “Before, people would sit at a bar from 5-10pm and drink long drinks to sustain them over a real session,” he says. “Now they tend to go for shorter, sharper drinking windows of about two hours.”

Plus, he notes, short drinks tend to photograph better than long ones – an undeniable factor in this age of social media self-curation. If you went out for martinis and didn’t take a photo, did you even go out for martinis? (Guilty as charged.)

The enjoyment of short, strong drinks has historically felt like quite a macho thing – think Don Draper with an Old Fashioned or Jordan Belfont with his Absolut martinis every seven and a half minutes. Now, thankfully, we realise that gendering drinks is a mad thing, and we’re hearing more women and non-binary voices in the world of spirits, championing a wider range of cocktails. (And for the lady, perhaps a mojito? Ahem, perhaps not.)

This resurgence in stiff drinks comes in conjunction with a new-found fascination with old-school hospitality. Many new restaurants evoke old-fashioned, classic American bar culture. There’s One Club Row, inspired by “the brasseries of Paris and taverns of New York”; while Martino’s, in all its Italian-American splendour, has a section of its cocktail list marked “Old School”, offering martinis, boulevardiers and the “perfect” Manhattan. These are restaurants that offer a two-hour dinner booking, not a bar that allows for a night-long sesh.

We’re out for a good time, not a long time and we’re looking for drinks to reflect that.