When you sip your next cocktail, you might want to consider that they were invented to mask the taste of bootleg spirits during the years of Prohibition.
And if you haven't tasted a Mary Pickford, a Bees Knees or a Scoff Law, you can head over to Douglas College on Oct. 17 for A Class Act, the annual fundraiser to support students.
This year's event - A Taste of the '20s - includes samplings of six Prohibition-era cocktails, wine, beer and chocolate, along with live jazz and a chance to compete for live and silent auction prizes.
Guests are invited to dress in keeping with the theme. The 1920s were a time of economic growth and major changes in social, artistic and cultural life. Jazz music became mainstream, young women, known as flappers, wore short skirts, drank, smoked and generally flouted social conventions. It was a decade of prosperity and excess after the horrors of the First World War.
Technology - cars, telephones, motion pictures and electricity - was changing the way people lived and in most countries, women won the right to vote.
Along with this new spirit of excitement and excess came Prohibition, which made it illegal to manufacture, import or sell any type of liquor, although drinking was not illegal. Smuggling liquor developed into a huge industry and led to the rise of organized crime in major U.S. cities.
Local wine consultant John Gerum, put together the tasting menu for A Class Act and Linda Baker of the Chocolate Festival is working with Gourmet Warehouse to offer samplings, information and recipes highlighting the wide variety of chocolate. Students from Douglas' Hospitality and Marketing programs will be hosts, servers and chocolate ambassadors through the evening.
Ticket prices have been kept reasonable due to the support of sponsors such as Canstar Restorations, Konica Minolta, Mott Electric, The Tri-City News and The New West and Burnaby NewsLeader.
A Class Act - A Taste of the '20s takes place Oct. 17 at the David Lam campus of Douglas College in Coquitlam. Tickets cost $75 each and available at douglascollege.ca/foundation, or by calling 604-777-6176.
Cocktails date back to the 1920s at Douglas College's A Class Act - A Taste of the '20s will have plenty of them on Oct. 17.
