Ina Garten Crashed TODAY With Hoda And Jenna With This Boozy Surprise
"I think we need something," Ina Garten began. She started brushing her neck and tried a different tactic: "All those baked goods. You need something to wash it down." Hoda Kobt and Jenna Bush Hager, the co-hosts of "Today with Hoda and Jenna," agreed. As the show's Twitter account said in the tweet of this clip, they had received "a special holiday surprise" from Ina Garten. They suspected more was to come.
"So," Garten continued, "I actually also brought something else that I thought you might enjoy." A runner wheeled in a moving platform with three massive cocktail glasses — more like cocktail buckets. "Since it's 10 o'clock in the morning, I thought we all needed a cosmo."
"Is this how you drink your cosmos?" Hager asked.
"Only in a pandemic," Garten stated.
Garten then put to rest any worries the hosts and audience might have by explaining that during the pandemic's onset, she decided everyone needed a treat. So, she made the largest cosmopolitan ever. Conversation then steered toward her preference of a campari and soda during the holidays while Jeffery, her husband, can be satisfied with vodka and some olives.
Many might relate to Ina Garten
The segment's festive, alcohol digression prompted Hoda Kobt to relay how most people she knows want to meet Ina Garten. In fact, most seem starstruck by the possibility. That being said, Garten is also one of the most down-to-earth people you could ever meet. No doubt pouring a massive cosmo to ready oneself for the pandemic helped with this perception.
The turn to alcohol reflects what the country did at the time. Boston University (BU) reported that alcohol sales jumped by 54% during the lockdown. As one might imagine, the framing of this report did not share the bubbly tone of pouring a massive cosmopolitan. Rather, it noted that Americans already had a problematic relationship with alcohol and that was worsened due to the stresses of the pandemic. "There's never, in my lifetime, been a more stressful time," Miriam Komaromy, medical director of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center, told BU. "Turning to the substance that almost everybody has in their house is a pretty understandable response — but it's also potentially very damaging." It's an issue of treating drinks as a pseudo-medication. We don't need a massive cosmo to wash down baked goods. On occasions like Christmas, however, it is a reasonable treat.