Imbibe

Confessions of a Cross-Drinker

Drinking what suits your palate

-Lynda Calimano, starfishjunction.com

If you enjoy a vodka tonic after a long hard day at the office, a glass of red wine with a juicy porterhouse steak, and an ice cold beer at a summer barbeque, then you are a cross-drinker and you're in good company.

Cross-drinkers, a new label for an emerging and acceptable market group, can be defined as consumers with a palate mature enough to appreciate a variety of fermented beverages - whether it is wine, beer, or spirits.

It wasn't all that long ago that one's knowledge of wine was linked to pedigree and associated with cultural refinement, and ordering a beer as a meal accompaniment would make a sommelier tremble. Now, as consumers become more educated, they are becoming more experimental, even promiscuous, when pairing food and drink. Cross-drinkers are making deliberate choices. They are making their beverage selection based on personal preference and what their educated palate dictates to be the best drink to enjoy with the meal before them.