Cocktail Shaker Art and Deception
The
Fairmontbar
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If unplugging your mind from the rigors of work calls out than this is your remedy. They have a koa wood bar, the most prized cabinet and furniture wood in Hawaii, on the lower level of the lobby that with a floor to ceiling rear housing some of the worlds most classical cocktail shakers. Every time I go to this magical paradise I deliberately walk down to this bar and gawk at the artistic examples of barware mastery. Penguin shakers, classic crystal and stainless steel shakers, barbell shakers, cocktail shakers, there is such history there that the plating is worn off. Not that this inspires work for me, being that it ties in with After 5, but it just exemplifies that you are here to enjoy, grab the sunscreen get a Mai tai and forget about time. A cocktail for breakfast? No problem. Hawaii has a way of shedding that mainland guilt associated with drinking alcohol before five o’clock.
Ladyslegfrosted_2
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So who invented the cocktail shaker ? How long has it been around? Well, these bar tools have elements of the cocktail connoisseur for a long time. Early shakers go back thousands of years BC in Egypt, South America and Mesopotamia. Bartenders discovered cocktail shakers as an efficient, showy bar tool in the late 1800s. The popularity of cocktail shakers really surged in the 1920s when martinis became the “In” drink. Enter prohibition. Bummer.
The cocktail shaker as well as the alcoholic drink were pushed underground spawning the world of speakeasies. During this time the shaker took on a life of its own and transformed into a piece of art. In order to disguise the barware, as well as provide a place to store your booze, they deceptively took the form of airplanes penguins, skyscrapers, bowling pins, barbells, rocket ships, and even a women’s leg. This was prime time for the cocktail shaker. It was in its hay day.
Nambe_shaker_2
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Eventually being massed produced this bartenders tool became a standard household item for anyone who had a home bar. The drink shaker was eventually overshadowed by the electric blender, and that as you can imagine, stole the show. Turbo blend my cocktail with a flip of a switch? Wow. Since then we have discovered that beating alcohol to death at 2,000 rpm with a metal blade and 110 volts of power is just not cool. How would you like your martini Mr. Bond… Shaken or stirred? How about in a blender…not. Let’s leave the blender to the daiquiris, margaritas and any of the other sweet tropical drinks that need to beaten. (By the way they do make daiquiri to die for at the Fairmont swim up bar, I digress). Anyway, not to get too off topic here but the cocktail shaker has seen a strong resurgence as of late. When we sent out our first After 5 catalog with its impeccable timing of 9/11 in 2001, yes that really did happen, the country basically curtailed air travel. As a result many people turned towards home entertaining.
They bought more things for the bar, kitchen, the home, and possibly invigorated a new appetite for the venerable cocktail shaker. Are we responsible for this renewed interest in these stainles steel cocktail mixers? No, I seriously doubt it but maybe the timing of our little After 5 catalog might have been OK after all.