A Snapshot Explosion Of Big Hair And Boozing In The 1980s

In the 1980s, Barcardi rum was the most popular distilled drink in the USA. Rum, the drink of old tars, pirates and last resort, was the tipple Americans most wanted. A drinks trade expert explained why rum was Number 1 in ’81: “Rum is vodka with a sweet taste, whereas vodka has no taste.

It’s for people who want to know there’s something in their drink besides orange juice.” Taste in the 1980s was moot. No-one had it, but you didn’t have it in varying degrees. Other 1980s drinks that seem to epitomise the decade of large hair, bedroom posters and shoulder pads that gave every bon viveur their own zip code were: Baycham, Cinzano Bianco and lo-cal ‘Lite beer’.

These snapshots are a bit hazy, a little out of focus. They’re a bit like the memories of getting wasted to Metallica and trying to comb your hair high enough to plug the hole in the ozone directly over your lacquered head.

h/t: flashbak