And the sun slips down bedding heavy behind - Rhum cocktails and eighties staples


Alert: these are the cheesiet pictures ever, this is the cheesiest set ever. The eighties have called and they want it all back kind of cheesy! I thought that since I have been on such a roll with talking about music, I might just as well go on and finish the week with some cheesy, corny 80's revival. I was born in the early seventies - and saying it like this makes me feel ancient, it was last century!! - so when I became a teenager it was smack in the middle of the eighties. With all its neons and its high intensity colours and the shoulderpads and the mop hair and the perms and cherry lipstick and Mugler and Gaultier and Chantal Thomass.


I grew up listening to cheesy pop, bubblegum pop, Kylie Minogue all pinky and virgin like wearing her fashionable 80's looks - I did dress a bit like Kylie! - Madonna in her golden years of being like a virgin and wearing her crucifixes and her bustiers - I did dress A LOT like Madonna - Rick Astley and his boring songs, Wham! in all their glory, Spandau Ballet - I think I may have mentioned my long lasting luuuuuurve for Martin Kemp - with their charm and insightful lyrics, Human League and their colourful eye make up, Culture Club and Boy George's groundbreaking persona, Classic Nouveaux, Alphaville - they're still big in my Japan! - Duran Duran. Oh, Duran Duran. They are the face and the sound and the fashion of the 80's all in one band!


So when I think of myself being twelve, thirteen, I think of Duran Duran and Rio, Duran Duran and Hungry like the Wolf, Duran Duran and The Chauffeur (hence the title for this post), I think of Wham and their Club Tropicana and I think of what to me were the staples of the time. The colours. All those colours. The bright pinks, the vivid oranges, the dazzling yellows, the riveting greens and all those blues! I had a turquoise blue bikini that literally glowed under the Summer sun! Summer, that's another 80's staple as far as I'm concerned. I always seem to think about sun and sand and Summer and beach parties when I think of the 80's. And Summer drinks. Those long drinks filled with colour and brightness and dreamy allure...


I remember those posters that used to be sold with illustrations of the time, and there was this very specific type of illustration being done in the 80's, and it was all about those colours and the cocktails. What is it about me and the 80's and the cocktails? I didn't drink back then, mind, I was a kid! But I remember so vividly those posters with drinks, colourful cocktails with those tiny cocktail umbrellas and the cherries and the orange slice and the pinneaple and the straw! Those tu-toned, sometimes three-toned drinks in hues that seemed unreal and too bright, the green from the Pisang Ambom, the blue of the Blue Curaçao, the pink and the orange and that thick yellow of the Avocaat! This is the 80's to me. Fast paced party all night long to the sound of carazy music!


The heat, I associate the 80's to the heat and the need for refreshing beverages, I associate it to lousy literature, those sickly sweet romances every twelve year old girl would read hidden from her parents, where the characters always drank these classy, sophisticated cocktails and there was the dreamy bloke and the mean woman and the nice girl he fell for... I remember always laughing my head off with my best friend when we read these stories - I still don't get it how we were so cinical about those books, but I am glad we were! I really associate my memories of the 80's to those drinks, and I remember they were everywhere: on the cover of notebooks, on postcards, on writing paper, on fancy envelopes, on posters, even candles! I had a candle that mimicked one of those cocktails and I was crazy about it. So when I dove into the kitchen to make myself a rhum cocktail just the other day, it was no suprise I wanted to photograph it in just such a cheesy 80's mindset!


I bet there are millions of versions of this drink, mine is one of many for sure, but here's how I did it:
  • two fingers dark rhum
  • juice of two medium oranges, freshly squeezed
  • one tsp syrop de grenadine
  • ice, plenty of it!
Fill a tall glass with ice cubes. Drizzle the rhum over them, then the orange juice. Finally, add the grenadine and let it settle, making colourful patterns with the drink. If you want to be extra cheesy, pop the strawberry over the rim of your glass and enjoy yourself to the sound of Duran Duran and their amazing "The Chauffeur", pretending you're at some sort of Club Tropicana enjoying the sun!! I know I do! - and yes, I painted that horrid painting, but I love it!



Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Miranda!
      Obrigada por me fazeres lembrar os meus 12 anos! lembro-me perfeitamente dos posters com cocktails :)
      Olha deixo-te um link para a tal viagem à Islândia do casal brasileiro, mesmo que não gostes do Youtube, espreita. https://youtu.be/duDC5E_q6i8
      E, é verdade cheguei aos 44. Eu não sou mt de reclamar mas estava mesmo doente, foi pena.
      Sou doida por rum, o magnus passa o tempo a perguntar-me "ainda tens rum?" Ah e fiquei cheia de vontade de beber pisang ambon! E advocaat! (que eu adoro embora não goste de ovos,
      (estranho bem sei.) E sim aqui sóhá uma loja para vender álcool e é monopólio do estado, fecha sábado depois de almoço e só volta a abrir segunda feira. O viking está no golfe e eu telefonei-lhe para ele me trazer uma garrafa de pisang ambom, mas é feriado, está a loja fechada!!
      Morar na Suécia nao é só alegria ;)
      O teu livro já só me deve durar até ao fim desta semana, :(
      boa semana boa semana!!

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    2. Pá eu tinha mm uma visão romantizada da Suécia looool!!! NO entanto adorava conhecer certas zonas da Suécia, aliás, toda a escandinávia é o meu sonho. Eish Pisang Ambon já nem consigo beber, loool! Avocaat nunca gostei! Eu sou de vinhos, neste momento bebidas brancas só o rum, e prefiro rum escuro. Ena, o livro é pequenote, acho que se lê rápido - se é bom ou não, isso ainda aguardo feedbacks ahahahahah!!!

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  2. Sabia mesmo bem agora :D :D

    http://loveskitchen-mycooking.blogspot.pt/

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    Replies
    1. a mim tb, que isto está cá uma braaaasa!!

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  3. ahahhah os 80's <3 eu adoroooo não sejas assim ahahh como não amar!! olha-me isto! Da ja vontade de pôr um pink lipstick e beber um cocktail w/ a friend! E rum é mm o q mais gosto!!!! Vestias-te como a Kylie que interessa. Ag qd procuras Kylie já não é a minogue q aparacesse primeiro.... My heart cries..... o mundo ta perdido!!!

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  4. eu já nem procuro Kylie que é p n me gregoriar toda lol. yah aos 12, 13, 14 vestia assim umas cenas tip a roupa da Kylie no I Should Be So Lucky, alternando com um look Madonna no Like a Virgin - mas esse foi mais lá pelos 15 é q pegou duroo, quando dei em metaleira secsi!!

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  5. Pois olha minha linda,
    Identifico-me muito com este cheesy post, com todos os cantores cheesy que descreveste e que também foram a minha loucura e, embora nunca tenha vestido à "virgin" Madonna :))), adoro e sempre a dotei.
    Esta bebida, com este carrinho que se tem feito sentir e que é tão raro, levava-a já para o jardim e sentava-me lá fora a devorá-la, ouvindo os Duran Duran...
    Um beijinho,
    Lia

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    Replies
    1. obrigada, Lia!! De facto parece que por essas bandas tem estado um calor fora do comum!!! É aproveitar eheheheehh!!

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  6. estão cerca de 33 graus lá fora...manda vir sem parar que está com um aspeto fantástico!

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    Replies
    1. é bem verdade, está um calor que n se pode e só c cocktails geladinhos é que se aguenta!

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