There's been a lot of creative energy poured into mixology lately, and it seems like a fresh new cocktail is welcomed into the world just about every week. But today, this Friday the 13th, we are here to report a cocktail death. On July 25th in New Orleans, Sex on the Beach was laid to rest.
A vodka-based recipe with a mini Kama Sutra's worth of variations (some versions call for peach schnapps, cranberry juice, and orange juice; others melon liqueur, Chambord, and pineapple juice), this fruity drink with the saucy name was born sometime in the 1980s and lived a full - if short - life, famously making a cameo turn in the "Last Barman Poet" scene in the 1988 Tom Cruise film, Cocktail.
Now Sex on the Beach is no more.
Is this a joke?
Well, yes. But like many jokes, there's an element of seriousness behind it.
A ceremony that now takes place annually at the Tales of the Cocktail drinks festival, the "Cocktail Funeral" is a grand affair complete with mourners, casket, and jazz-style processional. The tradition began in 2008 with a farewell to the Appletini and was followed by the burial of the saltily named, Jägermeister-laced cocktail, the Red Headed Slut in 2009. The idea behind all this deadpan pageantry is to lay to rest (symbolically, anyway) a drink that deserves to be "retired."
Styles change. So far the "departed" have all been creations of the 80s and 90s - a cocktail era that tended to be short on fresh ingredients and culinary craftsmanship, but high on "flair" bartending techniques, bottled mixes, and racy names.
This year Sex on the Beach was voted off the island, so to speak, through a poll on Tales of the Cocktail's website. The "funeral" took place during a torrential rainstorm, which put a bit of a cramp on the festivities, but if you'd like to get an idea of what the procession through New Orleans' French Quarter more typically looks like, check out this footage from 2009:
Readers, do you think the Sex on the Beach cocktail was heartlessly dispatched before its time - or not soon enough? Do you think there's room in the world for every kind of cocktail - or is there one you'd especially like to see ushered to its final resting place?
Nora Maynard is a longtime home mixologist and an occasional instructor at NYC’s Astor Center. She is a contributor to The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries and is the recipient of the American Egg Board Fellowship in culinary writing at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow. She previously covered food and drink in film at The Kitchn in her weekly column, The Celluloid Pantry.
Related: Favorite Cocktails: What Are Your Top 5 Picks?
(Image: Nora Maynard, made with Gravestone Generator. Video: Jonas Halpren for Drink of the Week, used with permission.)
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Sex on the Beach used to be my favorite cocktail, back in the late 80's / early 90's. I liked it because it didn't taste too "boozey" but wasn't overly sweet like daiquiris. (I don't really like the taste of alcohol.) Back then, they were primarily made from cranberry juice.
I think the name killed the cocktail - once I got past my early 20's, it was a bit embarrassing to order a drink called "sex on the beach". Also the lack of standardization - you never knew what you might get when you ordered one. But I'll drink a toast to sex on the beach - still tasty after all these years!
I think almost all drinks with stupid names should be killed and bured, regardless of their taste. I hope 2011 says goodbye to the Adios Motherf*cker
I'm amazed it wasn't already dead. As much as I hate drinks like this and powwlita's AMF, my favorite mixed summer drink has a dirty name. I guess I can't really judge at all.
As long as there are young men and women who want to party and celebrate, there are going to be frothy, frilly cocktails with silly names. And since mixologists continue to play around, someone somewhere in a decades' time or so will stumble upon the ingredients of a Sex On The Beach unknowingly and give it a new name and bring it back.
Me, I just order my chosen cocktail by naming the ingredients (cranberry juice and vodka). It's a hell of a lot easier.
Never had a red headed slut, and now that I know there is jaeger in it I'm going to have to make it now. Even if its dead (with that name I guess that's necrophilia ew)
I love that someone came up with this idea. I bet they can go on doing this forever. Pick up a book about mixology that has some good history and you'll find drink after drink that had a brief spell of popularity before (in all likelihood) never being made again.
I'm not interested in drinks with "dirty names". I outgrew those kind of cocktails by the time I was legally old enough to order them myself.
Not to say that I don't like a fruity cocktail, but they tend to be simple like vodka gimlets and vodka & cranberry. Regarding the latter, I wonder if the name "Cape Cod" is falling out of the cocktail lexicon; I never hear anyone order those by that name.
@verily -- I was just at a wedding reception and tried to order a Cape Cod to no avail. I had to say vodka, cranberry juice, lime wedge, ice, highball. They didn't know what a Sea Breeze was either (Cape Cod plus grapefruit juice). They looked like seasoned bartenders.
I think cosmopolitans have superseded Cape Cods, though the Cape Cod recipe is standardized, and the cosmo isn't, so it's sometimes a Cape Cod and other times has triple sec and other things in it to make it more of a fruity drink and less of a rocks drink.
Also, yes, sex on the beach needs to go, but I just can't get behind an organization that's trying to get rid of appletinis!
I wish we could dispatch (and then bury in concrete, Mob-style) all the stupid "tini" variations. Appletini, Chocolatini, you name it. Just because you drink it in a martini glass doesn't make it a frigging martini.
i'm finding that unless you go somewhere that is known for having a "mixologist" versus a "bartender", very few know drink names other then the standard issue party drinks/shots. like most stated i always have to clarify what a Cape Cod- or my favorite a French Connection is.
As long as they don't kill the "Slow Comfortable Screw", I'll be fine.
I typically just drink Long Islands, but the the SCS is like meeting up with a comfortable old friend.
Am I just blind, or has the "Share" button disappeared? I wanted to share this article via Facebook.
I only know this drink as the kind with the peach schnapps; I'm not sad to see it go.
Hopefully soon to be followed by the Purple Fuck and anything that tacks "tini" on the end.
Apparently I've explored beer and wine since college but never expanded my cocktail horizons.
I have so many good memories with Sex on the Beach! I hate to see it go. Then again, maybe it's best to end with good memories in mind.
Sad to see they also retired my favorite shot, the Redheaded Slut.
The world certainly doesn't need more cocktail snobs. I'm certainly as picky as the next gal about the quality of her cocktails, but if someone is a fan of Appletini's or SOB's, then who are we to stop them getting their Tini on. I find this kind of sad.