Several days later, this article about the latest cocktail trend in the New York Times is still bothering me:

Six-Week-Old Martinis, Anyone?
By ROBERT SIMONSON
Published: December 28, 2010

WITH the precision mixologists take these days in building their more ornate creations, customers have grown used to waiting a few minutes for a drink. For the latest innovation in elite libations, however, they’ll have to wait six weeks or so.

Barrel-aged cocktails are being poured at bars from San Francisco to Boston. They are exactly what they sound like, complete cocktails aged in barrels, just as if they were wine or whiskey.

At Dram in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an aged Martinez, a 19th-century cocktail founded on gin and sweet vermouth, can be sampled. At the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Roof Club, there’s an [sic] cask-seasoned star cocktail, made of apple brandy and sweet vermouth...

It started at Clyde Common in, of course, Portland; the senescent cocktails there cost $10, "but in New York they can range from $13 to $25." Can't people find some slightly less ridiculous way to fritter away their fortunes? I shall not be separated from any of my cash for a drink that's been allowed to sit around.