Cocktail History Flashcards
Cocktails: An American Creation
The first quote comes from English writer and wit, Sydney Smith, who noted that in it’s first 30 years of existence, the United States of America had yet to bring anything notable to the global table. However, the second quote, from famed English traveler Charles Murray, notes that by 1839, Willard, or Mr. Willard, head barkeep at the City Hotel, had achieved international success as a mixologist and hospitality professional. This is the first comment in print of an English writer stating that the United States had risen to prominence in a particular field.
Hence, cocktails were the first distinctly American creation that anyone outside of the US paid American culture any credit for.
Cocktail Definition
A cocktail is, by definition, a mixture of 4 basic ingredients: spirit, bitter, sugar, & water.
NOT WIKIPEDIA:
When used to refer to any genericalcoholicmixed drink,cocktailmay mean any beverage that contains two or more ingredients if at least one of them containsalcohol.
This is incorrect.
Cocktail Etymology
The origin of the wordcocktailis disputed.
The first recorded use of the wordcocktailnot referring to a horse is found inThe Morning Post and Gazetteer in London, Englandon March 20, 1798.
Mr. Pitt,
two petit vers of “L’huile de Venus”
Ditto, one of “perfeit amour”
Ditto, “cock-tail” (vulgarly called ginger)
TheOxford English dictionarycites the word as originating in the U.S. The first recorded use of the wordcocktailas a beverage (possibly non-alcoholic) in the United States appears inThe Farmer’s Cabineton April 28, 1803:
Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head…
Call’d at the Doct’s. found Burnham—he looked very wise-drank another glass of cocktail.
Cocktail first definition
The first definition ofcocktailknown to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in 13, 1806, edition ofThe Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication inHudson, New York, in which an answer was provided to the question, “What is a cocktail?” The editorHarry Croswell replied:
Cock-tailis a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, andbitters—it is vulgarly calledbittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to ademocraticcandidate:
because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.
Garry Reagan in his “Joy of Mixology” on the first used of the word Cocktail
Garry Reagan in his “The Joy of Mixology” is particularly fond of a legend that taking us back to the days of the war between American Army of the Southern States and Mexico. Several skirmishes and one or two battles took place, but eventually a truce was called and the King Axolotl VIII of Mexico agreed to meet the American general and to discuss terms of peace with him. Before opening negotiations, however, His Majesty asked the general, as one man to another, if he would like a drink, and being an American general of course he said yes. The King gave the command and a few moments later a lady of overwhelming beauty entered the room with a drink in her hands. The General asked who the lady was, and the King proudly said: “That is my daughter Coctel.” The American general replied: “I will see that her name is honored for evermore by my Army.” Coctel, of course became Cocktail, and here we are. Another more believable story talks about Antoine Peychaud, a New Orleans pharmacist, the inventor of the famous Peychaud Bitters. It is said that the name Cocktail stems comes from the mispronunciation of the French word “coquetier”. The word means egg cup in which the famous pharmacist was serving his first Sazeracs.
First Cocktail Recipes Book
The first publication of abartenders’ guide which included cocktail recipes was in 1862
—How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant’s Companion, by “Professor”Jerry Thomas. In addition to listings of recipes for punches, sours, slings, cobblers, shrubs, toddies, flips, and a variety of other types of mixed drinks were 10 recipes for drinks referred to as “cocktails”. A key ingredient which differentiated cocktails from other drinks in this compendium was the use ofbittersas an ingredient. Mixed drinks popular today that conform to this original meaning of “cocktail” include theOld Fashionedwhiskey cocktail, theSazeraccocktail, and the Manhattan cocktail.
Highball Term
The termhighballappears during the 1890s to distinguish a drink composed only of adistilled spiritand amixer.
The First “Cocktail” Party
The first “cocktail party” ever thrown was allegedly by Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. ofSt. Louis,Missouri, in May 1917. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday. The party lasted an hour, until lunch was served at 1 pm. In 1924, theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louisbought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Boulevard, and it has served as the local archbishop’s residence ever since.
Prohibition and Cocktails
DuringProhibition in the United States(1919–1933), when alcoholic illegal, cocktails were still consumed illegally in establishments known asspeakeasies. The quality of liquor available during Prohibition was much worse than previously. There was a shift fromwhiskeytogin, which does not require aging and is therefore easier to produce illicitly. Honey, fruit juices, and other flavorings served to mask the foul taste of the inferior liquors. Sweet cocktails were easier to drink quickly, an important consideration when the establishment might be raided at any moment.
Cocktails in through the 60’s-70’s, 80s through Present Resurgence
Cocktails became less popular in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, until resurging in the 1980s withvodkaoften substituting the original gin in drinks such as themartini.
Traditional cocktails began to make a comeback in the 2000s and by the mid-2000s there was a renaissance of cocktail culture in a style that draws on traditional cocktails for inspiration but utilizes novel ingredients and often complex flavors.
