I was driving this morning and listening to NPR. The news was about the increasing decline in miles traveled by car in the USA. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, for example, Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer miles in April of 2008 than they did in the same month in 2007. The NPR news was talking about an even steeper decline in the summer – usually a heavy travel period. Parents were driving less, day camps were less frequented as in past years. An estimate going around is that in the first half of 2008, motorist miles fell by 30 billion compared to the same period in the prior year.

So the rising oil prices may be creating an ideal economic climate for long- sought change and of course major opportunities even for shifting in consumer behaviors.

I recently read an IRI article that stated: “With an estimated $535 extra spent per household on gasoline this past year, coupled with rising CPG product prices, U.S. consumers have certainly felt their budgets strain. Yet, the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry does not appear to have been negatively impacted. According to the latest Times & Trends report, ‘Gas Price Impact: How Spending at the Pump Affects Spending at the Register,’ from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the leading global provider of enterprise market solutions for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries, total CPG industry sales have benefited as consumers shifted spending from luxuries, such as dining out and entertainment. However, consumers have altered shopping patterns, decreasing their number of store visits to conserve gas.

Numerous consumer surveys and restaurant company earnings statements have revealed that high gas prices drove reduced restaurant spending. As a result, consumers presumably prepared food at home more, which created increased opportunity across several CPG categories, including frozen and refrigerated meal solutions. The IRI gas price assessment found that dollar sales growth across these categories improved markedly as gas prices increased, and volume sales growth, which was in a negative trend, improved as well.”

What I liked in this report was that new opportunities are arising, in particular in convenient meal solutions and home entertainment categories.

This is music to my ears.

Really, think about it: People are staying more at home, they therefore go less out to bars and restaurants…but our civilization is based on very social values. People still want to see friends and family and still enjoy a good meal and drink.

So I put two and two together and I am thinking: Perfect for Stirrings.

Let’s look at some numbers: 40% of all drinks in a bar or restaurant in the USA is a cocktail. However, at home, this number dwindles to less than 10%. Why? Simple reason: Making cocktails at home is difficult. Replicating the multi-ingredient task of bartenders in our own kitchens is not easy. One needs to first buy all the ingredients, then mix them under precise instructions and then serve. It takes time. It is a hassle.

When I first discovered Stirrings – as a consumer – 3 years ago, I fell in love immediately. I pride myself in being a really good Gourmet Chef. I can hold my own in a kitchen, learned from friends that are among the best in the business and when I make a dinner, I prepare everything from scratch, and love to please my friends with Nouvelle Cuisine concoctions that I spend some time in creating. But in the age BS – Before Stirrings – my liquid offerings were usually bland and lacking fantasy in comparison to my dishes. We had beer, wine and the occasional tonic or ginger ale for those who wanted spirits.

Then came Year 0 of my Stirrings love story. All at once, I was able to make cocktails without worrying about how to make them, but importantly the quality of these mixers was real. I knew I could serve them around my dinner parties of Foie Gras, Lamb Rack sous-vide and Liquid Death by Chocolate desserts. They were all-natural, with a final taste that was always balanced. I could even use them for some of my molecular gastronomy I was dabbling into (yes I am a disciple of Ferran Adria).

Not only that, but I could now match cocktails with food, offer 3 or 4 different cocktails to my friends and actually watch them shake their own cocktails. All at once the dynamic of the party was changing. People were involved in my entertaining. They were part of the great evening experience I was trying to give them.

I always joked by saying that spirits are a social lubricant. Used in great moderation they are. My parties were becoming livelier by the day.

And ever better, was the fact that my friends now did the same thing. Discovering new Stirrings Cocktails and trying to upstage us at the next party THEY were throwing.

So when I read about gas prices soaring (and I hate that), I also read that it is a great opportunity for Stirrings. Mix the best mixers for better entertainment and a society that will stay more at home, still entertaining, and I have only one thing to say: WELCOME TO THE COCKTAIL REVOLUTION!