In food, clean and lean are the watchwords of the day. It seems everybody with an eye to culinary fashion -- and to the mirror -- is shunning junk food and trans fats, noshing on fresh, seasonal produce and Zoning his or her way to six-pack abs with fish-rich, low-carb diets.
Now, if only these gastro-purists weren't spoiling it all at cocktail hour. White Russians and frozen mudslides? Dr. Robert Atkins is probably spinning in his grave.
Which brings me to my main beverage prediction for 2004: In the New Year, clean and lean will finally belly up to the bar.
The movement has already begun. Breweries, never ones to miss a marketing op, recently began capitalizing on the Zone diet craze with low-carbohydrate beers. Expect more gym-bunny brews to follow on the heels of popular Sleeman Clear, Labatt Sterling and Molson Ultra.
Not to be outfoxed, the big spirits companies have weighed in with their own self-serving message, namely that vodka, gin, whisky and tequila are even more Zone-friendly than carb-reduced lagers. As I write, Diageo, the liquor conglomerate, has just issued a press release touting Smirnoff vodka, Crown Royal whisky, Johnnie Walker Scotch and Tanqueray gin as completely carbohydrate-free.
It doesn't count, of course, if you carbo-load your cocktail with sweet fruit mixes or soda pop. But I predict the message will stoke new interest in straight-up shots and leaner cocktails, such as classic dry martinis and Manhattans.
Not that the low-carb phenomenon isn't drawing chuckles from some quarters. Chris Stearns, a Vancouver-based bartender and contributor to Lumière Light, a new cookbook inspired by the famed Vancouver restaurant, notes that beer, which is brewed from grain, is far from ideal for washing down an Atkins lunch. "If there's any drink that's high in carbohydrates, it's beer," he says. "It's bread stew."
Stearns adds that low-carbohydrate beer is the Diet Coke of the alcohol world. "It's like the fib everybody tells themselves."
Still, he sees virtue in training the spotlight on quality spirits, mainly when they're allowed to shine in classic, candy-free cocktails. Stearns is writing two books on cocktail history due out next year and says all those cloyingly sweet concoctions made with off-the-shelf mixers are ripe for a backlash. "These are the junk foods of the drinks world, full of artificial flavours and colours. It's only a matter of time before the collective palate tires of them."
As evidence of that fatigue, he points to oaky chardonnay, a heavy and faintly sweet style of white wine that was all the rage just a few years back but is now on the wane. "Oaky chardonnay is an easy flavour to perceive because it's so obvious. Then, two or three years ago, there was a backlash against oaky chardonnay as a kindergarten wine." And when it comes to cocktail mixes, he says, the new fashion is for freshness, as in fresh fruit juices.
Dale DeGroff, a New York-based bartender and author of The Craft of the Cocktail, concurs. For years, chefs have wrapped themselves in the flag of fresh, seasonal ingredients, he says, and that aesthetic is starting to spill over into drinks. "It's taken over in the kitchen, and people are starting to demand that in their cocktails as well. They want fresh ingredients and they want seasonal ingredients."
DeGroff's hot list of fresh cocktail flavours for 2004 includes zesty grapefruit and pomegranate juices, as well as fruit syrups made from lychee, mango and passion fruit.
The bartender has been busy concocting trendsetting new cocktails for a long list of liquor brands and bars, as well for private soirees, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch's 70th birthday bash at his SoHo loft and a party hosted by "the guy who owns eBay."
Also on the rise are cocktails seasoned with genuine ingredients such as ginger root and mint. On the subject of mint, DeGroff sees no end to the mojito craze. But even that drink is getting a makeover, morphing into a martini-style short cocktail in which the rum gets infused with mint or fresh ginger and is shaken with ice -- without the traditional soda top-up.
"Now we're seeing flavoured mojitos. We're seeing mojito martinis served in a cocktail glass without ice."
Despite the popularity of the mojito, vodka still rules the cocktail roost, as evidenced by the continuing allure of the 1980's cranberry-lime invention the cosmopolitan. "I think it's still the most ordered drink in the world right now," DeGroff says. "It's here to stay. It's a modern classic. When it's made well, it's a great drink."
But in keeping with the times, it's worth noting that the cosmo's pink (some might say feminine) demeanour is being replaced by a cooler, clearer hue, thanks to white cranberry juice, which has given birth to the newly fashionable white cosmopolitan.
New spirits destined for star billing in 2004 include small-batch bourbons and ryes -- ideally served straight up -- as well as premium gins such as Hendrick's and Tanqueray No. 10, which play down the pine scent of classic juniper-based gins so derided by vodka fans in favour of infusions of fresh "botanicals," such as coriander and rose petals.
One of DeGroff's candidates for a new gin-based classic is the Golden Ten. Mix a shot of Tanqueray No. 10 with four ounces of tonic water, top with half an ounce of Pimms Cup No. 1, then squeeze in a lime wedge and garnish with a thin cucumber slice and mint sprig.
For New Year's, he suggests his Champagne X Ten. Mash together five mint leaves, two medium strawberries and two lime wedges with an ounce of triple sec in the bottom of a bar glass. Add one ounce of Tanqueray No. 10 and shake with ice cubes. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice and top with champagne. Garnish with a strawberry and mint sprigs.
Stearns is a fan of Hendrick's, a new gin that stresses rose petals and cucumber. "I think it's just right for right now, because you're trying to sell gin to a vodka-drinking public, so you need something subtle. It's real gin, it's true to its roots. It's great in a martini because it's got so much stuff going on, and the mix of cucumber with vermouth flavours is nice."
As for wine, the big buzzword for 2004 is syrah, as signalled by a recent Wine Spectator cover story titled, "Syrah: The Next Big Red." The grape goes by the name shiraz in Australia, where it tends to produce a heavy, fruit-forward wine that's taken the Canadian market by storm. But now syrah, mainly as interpreted by winemakers in France and California, is all the rage with oenophiles looking for a spicier, more food-friendly red that still delivers big flavour and complexity.
Partial to white? Learn how to say viognier (vee-ON-yay). Full-flavoured yet food-friendly and delicately floral, it is to chardonnay what syrah is to shiraz.
And Zone dieters will be happy to know that both syrah and viognier (not to mention all other dry wines) are low in carbohydrates.