Post #733890 by Humuhumu on Sun, Dec 28, 2014 8:06 PM

tikicoma -- thank you so much for that awesome article find! My husband works in a library, so he's working on getting me that article. In the meantime, he found this one from the New York Times in 1991: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/14/garden/de-gustibus-what-s-that-duck-doing-in-my-drink.html

That article states that Orchids of Hawaii was 39 years old in 1991, meaning the company started in 1952. It also notes that the business began as an orchid import company, and only later expanded into cheapo drink doo-dads like drink umbrellas (the article states that company owner Ted Uchida invented the structure that lets the little umbrellas open and close). This answers a question I saw posed elsewhere here on TC by aquarj and SuperEight, who had seen old ads for Orchids of Hawaii advertising a flower business, and what appeared to be an Orchids of Hawaii-branded flower stand in an old hotel image.

There's no mention of what year the ephemeral drink garnish expansion of OoH happened, though, nor of what we're interested in here: when they expanded further into decor. This article is focused solely on the drink garnishes (with a small nod to mugs).

It's a horrifying reflection of its time:

The American Festival Cafe in Rockefeller Center buys orange plastic rattlesnakes to spear through pieces of lime in its margaritas, pink flamingos to set off its fuzzy navels (vodka, orange juice and peach schnapps), and red dragons for its frozen strawberry daiquiris.

"Presentation is definitely more important than taste," said Rodney Clark, a bartender at Tropica, a restaurant in the Pan Am building which garnishes its drinks with straws encased with paper fruit. "It sets the whole mood. Someone comes into a bar to have fun. They see something that looks pretty, and they order it."

I have a stomach ache just from reading the article.