1925 Drinks Long & Short by Nina Toye and A H Adair

4

Drinks—Long and Short

yet the experience of the most accomplished hostess, charm she never so wisely. These specifics work slowly, and by the time their virtues begin to tell, dinner is a third over. But start the proceedings with a cocktailand see how, as if by magic, your guests unbend from their proud estate, mark how their tongues wag,and with what lively interest they engage their respective-partners! It would be interesting to learn how many hostesses owe their reputation for brilliant and successful entertaining to that modest ally, the cocktail. Do not forget, however,that there are cock tails and cocktails. Many of them are not everybody's meat,and a few are poison to some. The dry cocktail has its votaries, and to these a sweet concoction is anathema, while the lover of sweet flavours will make a medicine-taking face on tasting the purest gem of a dry collection. Consider well your company,the menu and the occasion before selecting the appropriate cock tail which should be as inevitable as the mot juste. It is a subtly artful affair, this process of selection. One cocktail will make an admirable prelude to champagne, another will attune the pilate to hock or cider cup, but neither of these would be the proper introduction to claret or burgundy, while whisky-and-soda, though apparently a neutral drink, requires a different herald. Does the party threaten to prove heavy