Posts Tagged beer

As we tune out and wind down, let’s not forget how the beverage world has changed this decade. Very few people carried individual water bottles wherever they went. Did they even sell those 35-pak cases at Costco? OK, I know not everyone recycles, but drinking water is good for us, right? Now we’ve even flavored them and forced people to make major water decisions when dining out: Tap or expensive? Maybe that approach will stay in the decade we’re leaving behind. Hope so.

Artisan beers became a craze, and big brewers needed to step down into the craft market. Wait, for many that became a significant financial step upwards. Look at the popularity of Blue Moon and the significant number of brewers making Hefeweizens. Slice of lemon, please.

Remember expensive bottles of French wine? OK, they still exist as do the reserve wine lists, but as the recession took its toll on our dining out and dining-in budgets, we learned to embrace new regions of the world and become familiar with other wines and sparklings such as Malbec, Cava, and Prosecco. What was being poured in Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa became of greater interest to us as we scoured those regions for our new vintages.

No longer were we limited to American wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. We learned Thomas Jefferson was right: Virginia became an established wine region with award-winning wines from Barboursville, Chrysalis, and Jefferson Vineyards.

We even became fascinated by different wine glasses for different wines. What was once limited to high-end stores and fancy restaurants became more commonplace on the shelves at Target as Riedel moved into the consumer space with its 4 and 6-boxed items. A glass for red, one for white, and the emergence of the flute instead of the floating half circle for sparkling! Of course, those who follow every trend knew they needed a specific glass for a specific pour. Stop, not that one, that’s for Zinfandel only!

We even bought the whole wine lineup including the darling of the opening set, the Rabbit, and the multitude of decanting carafes. We became serious wine drinkers, and as we traveled wine regions, we became more knowledgeable, and less intimidated, by what we drank!

As we look forward, we’ve gone back to the old cocktail routine and elevated the bartender to a drink specialist who has studied the chemistry, or alchemy, of an ingredient-shaken beverage. Specialty cocktail menus re-emerged and the high priced, fun-sounding cocktail helped many restaurants survive.

We became caffeine freaks with an almost unstoppable fascination with coffee drinks, both hot and iced. It was clearly the Starbucks decade, a title the company hopes to regain in the upcoming year. Grocery stores proudly introduced coffee bars. We decided one double espresso was too limiting and added caffeine-based energy drinks to our daily consumption routines. All these steps hit soda sales as they plummeted, and the old brands started to lose the high fructose corn syrup and explore cane sugar drinks.

We were a thirsty group and little has quenched our thirst as we reach for the next tantalizing trend.

Tags: beer, champagne, coffee, soft drinks, trends, wine