Drink: Preppy Drinks Never Go Out of Style

William Brinson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Ed Gabriels. Prop stylist: Susan Brinson.

Madras, sea breeze and Brighton Beach breeze.

I pored over "The Official Preppy Handbook" for innumerable hours when it came out in 1980. Some of its jokes were lost on me, but I loved the detailed, annotated illustrations. It was like an intro anthro class: these were not my people, and I was as fascinated by them as I would be years later by the Yanomami.

Last month I recalled some of the handbook's lessons when I spent a long weekend on Nantucket. I went sailing. I ate heaps of steamers and lobster and corn. I took long walks in the dunes and made up rotten limericks the whole time. No one would mistake me for a preppy, but I did wear pink one night. And on my final afternoon, I stopped into a bar and asked for a drink I hadn't had in decades: a madras. It was the drink of choice for one of my closest college friends, a true prep, and I only ever had one when we drank together.

Nothing seems easier or, as drinks favored by young adults go, more transitional, than fruit juice and vodka. Perhaps nothing seems duller, too, than its variations: the screwdriver; the Cape Codder; the sea breeze; and, of course, the madras. A little grapefruit or orange juice here, cranberry there, lime wedges and vodka all around. What we've got, essentially, is spiked fruit juice, and there's nothing wrong with that. At the bar where I work, I get plenty of calls for Cape Codders, but my customers are more likely just to order them by their ingredients, elided into vodkacran.

These days, we routinely drink juices that we never considered in the '80s, and there's no reason not to liquor them up, too. I've played with coconut water and pomegranate juice, some newish liqueurs and non-lime-wedge garnishes, and for very little work, the results can be surprisingly satisfying. But it's fun, and easy, to upgrade preppy staples. A splash of triple sec and a great big curl of orange peel deepen the flavor in a madras. A shake of hot sauce and a salt-and-chili-powder rim perks up a sea breeze. Using freshly squeezed juice whenever possible certainly makes a difference. And if you prefer gin to vodka, as I usually do, go ahead and use it; this goes for tequila, too. I like a good splash of club soda to finish these drinks and calm down their fruity sweetness.

I suspect a true prep wouldn't want to mess with tradition. This summer, he can just avert his eyes and stick with a G. & T.

 

Preppy Summer-Reading List

"Collected Stories and Other Writings," John Cheever

"Commencement," J. Courtney Sullivan

"Losing Mum and Pup," Christopher Buckley

"Seating Arrangements," Maggie Shipstead

"Selected Poems," James Merrill

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