More people also drank at home instead of at pricier bars, restaurants

Americans' love affair with top-shelf booze cooled last year as the recession took a toll on high-priced tipples.

A new report by an industry group shows people drank more but turned to cheaper brands. They also drank more at home and less in pricier bars and restaurants.
Industry growth slowed in 2009, with the amount of liquor sold by suppliers up 1.4 percent. That's the smallest increase since 2001 and below the 10-year average of 2.6 percent.
Last year, the lowest-priced segment, with brands such as Popov vodka that can go for less than $10 for a 750 ml bottle, grew the fastest, with volume rising 5.5 percent, after edging up 0.6 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the most expensive price range, roughly $30 or more for a 750 ml bottle (like Grey Goose, owned by Bacardi), fell the most, tumbling 5.1 percent.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said in its report Tuesday that liquor suppliers reported flat total revenue of $18.7 billion last year.
Kenneth Jolly of Milwaukee has been swapping his favorite, pricier liquors such Patron tequila, for cheaper brands such as Jose Cuervo to stay on top of his budget. For him, it's simple math.
"If you consume a lot on a regular basis and you have people come to your house, you have to adjust," said Jolly, a 27-year-old network technician in Milwaukee who buys liquor every other week. "If your body can take it, you might as well buy the cheaper liquor."

Sales in stores - which make up three-quarters of liquor sales - rose about 2.1 percent, while sales in restaurants fell 3 percent.
"People still want to entertain themselves, they still want to get together with family and friends, so a lot of people will move from a restaurant to their living room," council President Peter Cressy said.
Vodka remained Americans' favorite liquor, accounting for almost a third of all spirits sold and sales of $4.56 billion.

Sales volume for the cheapest versions of tequila rose 21 percent, the fastest of any type of spirit. That's most likely because entertainers are using pre-made margarita mixes to serve at home, said David Ozgo, the council's chief economist. Plus you can mix it before guests arrive, so they don't know what brand you use, said Joan Holleran, director of research at research firm Mintel.
Cressy said the fact that people were still drinking more spirits bodes well for the industry, still recovering from a long decline from the 1980s through the mid-'90s, when liquor sales fell by a third as drinkers turned to beer. Since then, an ever-increasing array of expensive liquors have fueled rapid growth.

The industry's goal to keep people drinking spirits - no matter the price - and it can then get them to pay for higher-priced drinks when the economy recovers. Most major liquor manufacturers make brands in a variety of price ranges. For example, industry giant Diageo plc, based in London, makes vodka brand ranging from cheap Popov to midpriced Smirnoff to expensive Ketel One and Ciroc.Mintel's Holleran expects people to start going out more this year, as they get bored staying home and want to treat themselves to little luxuries - like a night out. "You want to go out and have someone do all the work for you," Holleran said.

Of course, switching brands isn't the only way to economize.
Matt McCluskey, a 28-year-old researcher in California, started buying most of his alcohol at Costco, trying to save money by buying bigger bottles. Now he spends $36 for 1.75 liters of Maker's Mark bourbon, rather than $25 for less than half that at his local liquor store.

"It's a lot harder to pour. That's the only drawback," he said.

More people also drank at home instead of at pricier bars, restaurants

Americans' love affair with top-shelf booze cooled last year as the recession took a toll on high-priced tipples.

A new report by an industry group shows people drank more but turned to cheaper brands. They also drank more at home and less in pricier bars and restaurants.

Industry growth slowed in 2009, with the amount of liquor sold by suppliers up 1.4 percent. That's the smallest increase since 2001 and below the 10-year average of 2.6 percent.

Last year, the lowest-priced segment, with brands such as Popov vodka that can go for less than $10 for a 750 ml bottle, grew the fastest, with volume rising 5.5 percent, after edging up 0.6 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the most expensive price range, roughly $30 or more for a 750 ml bottle (like Grey Goose, owned by Bacardi), fell the most, tumbling 5.1 percent.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said in its report Tuesday that liquor suppliers reported flat total revenue of $18.7 billion last year.

Kenneth Jolly of Milwaukee has been swapping his favorite, pricier liquors such Patron tequila, for cheaper brands such as Jose Cuervo to stay on top of his budget. For him, it's simple math.

"If you consume a lot on a regular basis and you have people come to your house, you have to adjust," said Jolly, a 27-year-old network technician in Milwaukee who buys liquor every other week. "If your body can take it, you might as well buy the cheaper liquor."

Sales in stores - which make up three-quarters of liquor sales - rose about 2.1 percent, while sales in restaurants fell 3 percent.

"People still want to entertain themselves, they still want to get together with family and friends, so a lot of people will move from a restaurant to their living room," council President Peter Cressy said.

Vodka remained Americans' favorite liquor, accounting for almost a third of all spirits sold and sales of $4.56 billion.

Sales volume for the cheapest versions of tequila rose 21 percent, the fastest of any type of spirit. That's most likely because entertainers are using pre-made margarita mixes to serve at home, said David Ozgo, the council's chief economist. Plus you can mix it before guests arrive, so they don't know what brand you use, said Joan Holleran, director of research at research firm Mintel.

Cressy said the fact that people were still drinking more spirits bodes well for the industry, still recovering from a long decline from the 1980s through the mid-'90s, when liquor sales fell by a third as drinkers turned to beer. Since then, an ever-increasing array of expensive liquors have fueled rapid growth.

The industry's goal to keep people drinking spirits - no matter the price - and it can then get them to pay for higher-priced drinks when the economy recovers. Most major liquor manufacturers make brands in a variety of price ranges. For example, industry giant Diageo plc, based in London, makes vodka brand ranging from cheap Popov to midpriced Smirnoff to expensive Ketel One and Ciroc.

Mintel's Holleran expects people to start going out more this year, as they get bored staying home and want to treat themselves to little luxuries - like a night out. "You want to go out and have someone do all the work for you," Holleran said.

Of course, switching brands isn't the only way to economize.

Matt McCluskey, a 28-year-old researcher in California, started buying most of his alcohol at Costco, trying to save money by buying bigger bottles. Now he spends $36 for 1.75 liters of Maker's Mark bourbon, rather than $25 for less than half that at his local liquor store.

"It's a lot harder to pour. That's the only drawback," he said.

A decade ago, limoncello was virtually unknown in the U.S., outside of Italian-American families that made their own. Now the sweet, lemon liqueur from Southern Italy's Sorrento Peninsula is something of a fad -- one that had its pop-culture moment back in November when Danny DeVito stumbled onto a morning television talk show fresh from an all-night limoncello bender with George Clooney. In today's bleary celebrity culture, no sort of notoriety is allowed to escape commercial exploitation. Thus the announcement this month that Mr. DeVito is lending his name to a new brand of the lemon juice. Let's just hope that Mr. DeVito learns to drink his namesake the right way.
 
Limoncello
1 dozen large lemons
1 bottle vodka
2 cups sugar
3 cups water
Peel thin strips of lemon, avoiding the subdermous white pith. Steep the peels in vodka for a week or so. Strain. Make simple syrup by dissolving sugar in water over a medium flame. Once the syrup is cooled, add it to the lemon-infused vodka. Bottle and chill.
As Mr. DeVito discovered, limoncello is deceptively potent. At 60 proof, the liqueur has about three-fourths as much alcohol as an average vodka. But it is so candy-sweet that the alcohol seems to disappear altogether. Yes, that can be dangerous, but I don't know how one could actually drink glass after glass of the syrupy stuff.
Drinking well is a matter not only of what, but when and how much. The when used to matter a lot, and seems to have become something of a forgotten particular. For example, you wouldn't want to drink a Martini after dinner any more than you would have your coffee with the appetizer. And how much matters for reasons beyond just sobriety. A small cocktail or two before dinner has traditionally been thought of as a proper stimulant to appetite and conviviality; more than that is likely to render one sluggish in both respects.
The when and the how much are crucial with limoncello. In Italy, the liqueur is served as a digestivo, a stomach-settler at the end of a meal. In that context, one small glass is just the right amount, a bright and refreshing swig of dessert. But I find that even a single glass more is a hopeless surfeit. Limoncello is far too sweet to drink in any quantity.
That's why, for me, Mr. DeVito's limoncello endorsement is of limited value. Though I might well trust a whisky recommended by a man not known for moderation, I have to wonder at the taste buds of someone who can take more than a couple of limoncellos in a sitting.
The importer that Mr. DeVito has hooked up with, Harbrew, has made a sub-specialty of branding drinks with celebrity names, large and small. For example they offer "Bench 5," a five-year-old blended Scotch branded by Johnny Bench. Five years isn't anything to brag about when it comes to the age of Scotch whisky, and it's not clear to me how associating a whisky with a Hall of Fame catcher will sell the stuff. More sensible is the iced-tea concentrate the company brands with the likeness and signature of celebrity bass-fisherman Jimmy Houston.
That's not to say that Harbrew is only in down-market products. It has just introduced a Duke Ellington-branded X.O. Cognac priced at $150 a bottle. That's a tie-in that actually makes some semblance of sense, as Ellington was not averse to a good brandy, on its own or mixed in a cocktail.
In his autobiography, "Music Is My Mistress," Duke describes a choppy Atlantic crossing in 1939. The band was aboard a luxurious French ship called the S.S. Champlain (a passenger liner that would be sunk a little over a year later, when pressed into service evacuating refugees). With his signature style of embellishment, Ellington described the rough seas: "You could hear the propeller spin and scream, and then the boat would slap back on the sea with a bump and a crash." Most of the band had crawled off, queasy, to their berths. But Ellington held on at the bar with trumpeter Rex Stewart. "Our drink was champagne and cognac, half and half," Ellington wrote. "When the bar was ready to close, we would order enough to last all night if necessary." Which was no small amount of champagne and cognac, given that they drank a toast every time "the boat tossed with an extra flip."
Harbrew is trying to entice cognac drinkers to try the Ellington brand by offering free MP3 downloads of Duke Ellington and his orchestra. The company is also relying on music to help sell Mr. DeVito's limoncello.
When it hits stores in August, Danny DeVito's brand will have to find room on shelves crowded with newly arrived limoncellos. In trolling a few local shops I was able to find half a dozen different brands. Of these, I thought the ones that came closest to the fresh taste of a homemade limoncello were the Gioia Luisa, Villa Massa and Toschi brands.
If you'd like to try your hand at the homemade sort, it's easy enough to do. Peel fine shavings from the skins of a dozen lemons; avoid cutting into the bitter white pith, so that the peelings are pure yellow. Pile the peel into a glass container, and pour in a bottle of vodka. Let it steep for about a week, or until the peels have lost all their color, before straining out the lemon peels. Dissolve two cups of sugar in three cups of water on a medium stove, and let it cool. Add the sugar syrup to the lemon-infused vodka, to taste. Bottle your limoncello, and keep it chilled.
You can make a similar liqueur using oranges instead of lemons -- or just about any citrus at all. But whether you're pouring your own house limoncello or one of the burgeoning number of commercial brands, just remember that it is best after a meal, and that one small glass is plenty.