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By Root 338 0

St Raphaël, Amer Picon, Byrrh, etc. These have never really caught on in the UK, though Dubonnet itself used to be seen as part of gin and Dubonnet, a mixture that once reduced me to complete silence. Next in line comes Campari, which as everyone knows has made an immense impression on the British market in the last twenty years or so. Not my cup of tea, alas. But, hurray, an acceptable drink can be cobbled together from this and another innocuous potation. Take two parts Italian vermouth and one part Campari (or in another recipe one of each), mix them with ice and add Pellegrino or soda water and a slice of orange, and you have an Americano. Good at lunchtime and before Italian food.

If you feel that, pleasant as it is, it still lacks something, throw in a shot of gin and the result is a Negroni. This is a really fine invention. It has the power, rare with drinks and indeed with anything else, of cheering you up. This may be down to the Campari, said by its fans to have great restorative power.

Today I offer some further remarks on the interesting and neglected topic of not drinking. “Did you miss it?” is of course the question most people want to ask a temporary abstainer, though in my experience they’re usually too polite to use those actual words. The answer depends on what exactly “it” is understood to mean. Did I miss the alcohol as such? No, not I, thank God, and if there ever was something to be thankful for, that’s it.

Come on, didn’t I ever wish I could escape from worry and boredom and tension and my accountant? Well yes, of course I did, and at such times I found myself thinking with more respectful appreciation than ever of Hoyt and Rothes. These two great men (Americans, needless to say) conducted at some time in the sixties a tremendous survey of the effects of alcohol on Western civilization. After not sparing us endless harrowing facts about the premature deaths, wrecked careers and broken homes, they still came to the conclusion that without it—alcohol—our society would have collapsed from its own internal stresses about the year 1912. So wistful thoughts of gin and tonic at a testing time are not to be frowned upon.

Next question: did I miss having drinks in the sense of glasses of liquid? Yes indeed, or rather I certainly would have done if I hadn’t made a point of being always surrounded by a huge variety of delicious soft drinks. It’s quite obvious that a sizeable part of one’s desire for, and pleasure in, an alcoholic drink comes from non-alcoholic benefits like quenching thirst and allaying hunger. It follows, and it’s also true, that two easy ways of cutting alcoholic intake without strain are to put a bottle of mineral water on the table with the necessary glasses and to advance the time of the meal. There’s more to it than just food sobering you up.

What can the well-disposed chap who’s still on the booze do for his chum who’s off it? Well, the first thing the chum doesn’t need is a full-dress, Security Council-type discussion on why he’s off it, how long for, etc., every time he asks for his Slimline on the rocks. Then, the thoughtful host at a Bloody Mary party will have a bit of straight tomato juice available. If the drinks are more general, he’ll put out a fruit juice or two, including apple juice because it looks like a real drink and the non-drinking chum will appreciate that.

Also Angostura bitters: tonic or soda water with Angostura tastes pretty much like a real drink, I’m told—it doesn’t sound right to me. Also Perrier, now becoming accepted as the classy all-purpose nondrink. For my money, ginger beer is the best in this department, vigorous reviving stuff with an edge to it. But, naturally, it is sweet, and what the non-drinker longs for is a dry thin-texture soft drink with a bit of flavour.

Ah, but when?

A liqueur (rhymes with secure) is a strong sweet drink flavoured with herbs, fruits or other vegetable materials. Until quite recently liqueurs were seldom drunk except alongside the brandy after dinner as part of a rather slap-up evening. Now, some of them have become