Post #355168 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 5:34 PM

I would like to gently bring up the point about MIXING drinks versus BLENDING drinks again, and discuss if it is Tiki snobbery/purism, or a valid concern.
The evolution of a popular art form is often dictated by changing tastes and growing awareness, which is good. But just as often changes seem to be brought on by compromises that have to be made, and practicalities, and in retrospect it is hard to say if that one element that got compromised is negligible, or if it is one of the contributors to the devolution of the art form.

In observing mid-century modern Tiki culture, and looking at all the elements that fell into place to create it and endear it to the public in its heyday, the decline of the care of making the original cocktails certainly was a contributor to its downfall, to its (literally) watering down.

The change in public tastes made the Margarita the cocktail of choice in the 70s, so did it become too much hassle to have both, a top mixer and a blender behind the bar? Was the discarding of the mixer in favor of the blender one of the many little compromises that caused the "Gatoraid-ization" of the Polynesian cocktail?

This is not a trick question, I simply do not remember what my mixology adviser's (the Bum) stance on this is, but I would like to know.