Drinks from the past

[CrowsInMyGarden]

When I was growing up my parents hardly drank. My aunt and uncle would come over to our house 3-4 times a year to play cards and would bring a bottle of wine. It would be Blue Nun or Black Tower. My sister who is 9 years older than me brought home a Mateus Rose in the oval bottle, I thought she was so sophisticated.

If there was a special occasion and something fizzy was required then it would be Cava. When did Cava stop being the replacement champagne and Prosecco take over? I think I preferred Cava.

At Christmas there would be a bottle of Martini and a bottle of Cinzano, maybe a Sherry. There would still be half a bottle of each left by the next Christmas. Wouldn't happen in my home now.

I can remember going out with friends in the 80s. My friend used to drink "Bezique, Lime and Soda with ice" I think Bezique was a kind of offshoot of Bacardi that isn't made any more.

Are there other drinks that aren't around anymore that people have fond memories of? I know Cinzano and Martini are still available but back in the day they were THE drinks and have now just faded into the background.

For the non drinkers there was TaB, the first diet coke style drink. Were there any others like this?

V&O - vodka and orange. Often the orange was cordial 🤢 rather than a Britvic. I couldn’t drink Pernod and black!
A friend drank Port and lemon because that’s what her aunts drank 😂
Snakebite (and black), Black and Tan (half and half), lager and lime, lager top…

Pernod and coke was my drink when I was trying to look fancy.

I came on to say Bezique and lemonade, I seem to remember being at a launch night for it in a local wine bar when I was 16.

Malibu & coke, loved it when I was in a nightclub in the early 80s! Moved on to vodka type drinks after, like Vodka Source, and my sister used to drink a Moscow Mule, vodka & ginger ale.

@Caramac045 we were ahead of our time with Cherry B and Cider . It was the forerunner of all the fruity ciders on sale today only much stronger 😁

Diamond White/White Lightning, Snakebite and black, Archer's and lemonade.

When I was a kid, the celebration fizz was Pomagne! Otherwise Harvey's Bristol Cream, Bells and ginger ale, or Blue Nun. But my parents rarely drank at home, and only infrequently down the pub. There just wasn't the disposable income to spend on booze.

Pina Colada
Bacardi and coke
Gin and It
Stickies - nobody has stickies any more: Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Drambuie, creme de menthe, etc.

And, what everyone else said.
Also agree with earlier comments about Cava being better than Prosecco.

Precisely what I was going to say. They were great.

Dubonnet or Martini with soda for total sophistication 😂. I also loved a port and lemon or a dark rum and coke . Brandy and Babycham if I was feeling rich. We found a pretty rough pub that would serve us under age and we would have a vodka and lime in a cocktail glass for 19 pence !

Babycham! I used to drink it with brandy.

I didn’t drink it myself but I remember the adverts for Double Diamond and also “beer at home means Davenport’s, that’s the beer lots of cheer.”

I buy cava all the time . I hate prosecco

snowball (advocaat and lemonade), lager top, shandy (still love a bitter shandy now on a hot day)
Parents had wine with every meal - I can remember getting a sherry sized glass on special occasions from about age 5, (libefraumilche, blue nun, black tower, Mateus etc ) which is quite shocking by today’s standards I suppose.

once I left home I drank southern comfort and lemonade but pretty much gave up drinking by 19 as preferred a joint and a cup of tea.

Does anyone remember Gold Label Barley Wine which came is a small brown bottle. I didn’t drink it but remember someone who did. She used to get absolutely hammered on it.

A friend of mine would drink Campari and soda as she thought it was "classy".🙄
I drank Bacardi and coke, she thought it common.
Drank an awful lot of WKDs when they were popular. So so sweet and sugary.

Oh my yes! My great aunt drank it every night, 2 bottles, to ‘help her sleep’.
I drank it as if my dsis went to the bar and ordered 1 plus a coke, I had the alcohol as they looked similar. I was underage.
Actually it was pretty rank tbh.

When I was a teen we used to neck Pomagne before going out and then sneak a quarter bottle of voddy or gin into clubs in our bags. We were going to pubs and clubs regularly from the age of at least 15. I found this in a box of old school stuff recently

Fabulous marketing slogan !

Rum and black

Reef they were like drinking sludge

snowballs home made with advocat lemonade and lime juice
those mega Watney's huge cans of beer which were nigh on impossible to open
Davenports beer at home
Pony mini drinks bottles

You can still get archers and Bacardi breezers if anyone fancies a trip to their past,I believe you can also still get diamond white tho they’ve dropped the alcohol percentage (not surprised).I also used to knock back the odd hooch and metz (anyone remember the rather scary adverts for that with the judderman?)

Loved Archers and Lemonade, but not now.

Recently had another go at Southern Comfort and Lemonade - then with soda. Like that.

I am afraid my two favorite winter drinks are still Sherry (I like a Harvey Bristol cream but also various sherry brough home from holidays) I also LOVE Tia maria and drink it in a small glass with lots of ice.

My nan used to ask for "Gin and it". I think It was a sweet vermouth but I could be misremembering.

My mum said if she was on a date in the 60s and it wasn't going well (didn't like him) she'd ask for a brandy and babycham. That was the most expensive drink and meant he was unlikely to ask you out again.

Lager top or lager and lime was big when I worked in a pub in the 80s