Focus: 18th Birthday Parties

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Mai Tais? Martinis? MIXOLOGISTS? Sadly not in my day…

I take a look at how 18th Birthday Parties have changed in the last decade – and why I wish I’d had the option of Social and Cocktail. I remember my 18th birthday well. Wait, no – let me rephrase. I remember the beginning well. And then I remember the feeling after. Oh, the feeling after. It’s pretty much requisite that on your 18th birthday you head out to have a few drinks. I mean, come on!

The keys to (semi) adulthood are finally being bestowed, and now you’re legally going to be able to go into the shop and buy a pack of Strongbow, rather than bribe your older brother with promises of menial labour (chores). I for one was incredibly excited by the idea. There’d be no more sitting in the park with my ‘gang’, handing around a can of warm lager and pretending we liked the taste. I imagined myself in upmarket bars with a signature cocktail in one hand – the popular, surely delicious type with the olive (it was years later I tried my first actual martini, and boy, did that come as a shocker).

Back when I turned 18, ‘alcho-pops’ were the thing. I was the youngest of my group, and so most of my contemporaries were getting served in pubs before me. They’d be on the Hooch or the Breezers – those candy-coloured, lollypop-flavoured excuses for a drink that were packed so full of sugar I’m surprised they didn’t solidify half-way to our lips.

And so on my 18th we headed out into ‘town’ – a gaggle of us, thinking we looked so grown up, although now I see our group in my mind’s eye – the girls teetering unsteadily on heels; the boys in shiny shirts and doused with enough Lynx to make a rhino choke. We pottered from bar to bar, and I was thrilled every time I got to flourish my passport with a grin. It was fun, I’m sure. But I know I wasted a lot of money. I know we spent far too long crushed at the bar, being jostled and shouting above the music, only to not find a seat because it was so crowded. I know the group got separated and Claire ended up bawling in the doorway of C&A because Dean had been spotted snogging Amy, and I know I drank so many of those damn alcho-pops that I’m surprised I’ve still got all my teeth left.

What I know now, from experience and also seeing how times have changed, is that having a good party – especially if it’s your birthday – is all about spending time with your friends. You don’t want to be getting hoarse from yelling in the ear of your mate while Shakira booms in the background. You don’t want to be clutching your handbag in fear that anyone who looks sideways at it has designs on your phone (Nokia 3210, in those days).

What you DO want is to be the host with the most.

You want to put on your best glad-rags but know you’re not going to be trawling around the cold streets for hours, exhausted from having no where to sit down when you do find shelter. And you want to pick the songs! Hosting your own party is clearly the way forward, but what about the drinks?

Back then someone would have bought a huge bottle of Tesco Value Vodka and we’d have helped ourselves with Minute Maid juice. Not exactly inspiring. Back then there wasn’t the craze for cocktails, and oh how I wish there had been. I’ve always been a sucker for something pretty and inventive, and I can imagine my friends loving the concept.

But not only do the youth of today get to branch out with Moscow Mules, Singapore Slings and Margaritas, but now there’s the option of having a cocktail bar in your house. With your own personal barman! From only £25 per head, Social and Cocktail provide packages that give each person a total of five cocktails – working out at way cheaper than the fistfuls of pocket-money I drunkly handed over. While I was mingling with my friends, a professionally trained mixologist could have been serving at the specially designed mobile bar, shaking up Cosmos, Mojitos and Daiquiris for all my super-impressed friends.

And for those under 18, or who have decided to stay sober, there are non-alcoholic versions as well. So yes, it could have been so different. I might not have found myself with a splitting headache the next day, minus one shoe, wondering who on earth I spent the evening talking to and assuming I’d been robbed, before remembering I’d willingly handed over so much money.

I could instead have been applauded for having the insight to host a fabulous party in my own home. Well, now I know. The next opportunity I have to throw a bash, I am going to hire my own Social and Cocktail personal barman and enjoy expertly made cocktails for half the price they’d usually cost. And if anyone misses the sugar of the alcho-pops? Well, I believe they have a candy-floss machines too. Job done.

Rebecca Milford

@Rebecca_anne_m