Cocktail 10.3.1
Cherrie Patete
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink or non alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, shrubs, and bitters. Cocktails vary widely across regions of the world, and many websites publish both original recipes and their own interpretations of older and more famous cocktails.[1][2][3]
The origins of the word cocktail have been debated (see section Etymology). The first written mention of 'cocktail' as a beverage appeared in The Farmers Cabinet, 1803, in the United States. The first definition of a cocktail as an alcoholic beverage appeared three years later in The Balance and Columbian Repository (Hudson, New York) May 13, 1806.[4] Traditionally, cocktail ingredients included spirits, sugar, water and bitters;[5] however, this definition evolved throughout the 1800s to include the addition of a liqueur.[6][5]
In 1862, Jerry Thomas published a bartender's guide called How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion which included 10 cocktail recipes using bitters, to differentiate from other drinks such as punches and cobblers.
In the modern world and the Information Age, cocktail recipes are widely shared online on websites. Cocktails and restaurants that serve them are frequently covered and reviewed in tourism magazines and guides.[9][10] Some cocktails, such as the Mojito, Manhattan, and Martini, have become staples in restaurants[11] and pop culture.
When a combined drink contains only a distilled spirit and a mixer, such as soda or fruit juice, it is a highball. Many of the International Bartenders Association Official Cocktails are highballs. When a mixed drink contains only a distilled spirit and a liqueur, it is a duo, and when it adds cream or a cream-based liqueur, it is a trio. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs.[13]
The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository (Hudson, New York) May 13, 1806; editor Harry Croswell answered the question, "What is a cocktail?":
Dale DeGroff hypothesizes that the word evolved from the French coquetier, for an eggcup in which Antoine A. Peychaud, creator of Peychaud's Bitters, allegedly used to serve his guests a mix of cognac with a dash of his bitters.[17]
It was customary to dock the tails of horses that were not thoroughbred [...] They were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. By extension, the word cocktail was applied to a vulgar, ill-bred person raised above his station, assuming the position of a gentleman but deficient in gentlemanly breeding. [...] Of importance [in the 1806 citation above] is [...] the mention of water as an ingredient. [...] Lftman concluded that cocktail was an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, not a "purebred", a thing "raised above its station". Hence the highly appropriate slang word used earlier about inferior horses and sham gentlemen.
Cocktail historian David Wondrich also speculates that "cocktail" is a reference to gingering, a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would "cock its tail up and be frisky."[19]
There is a lack of clarity on the origins of cocktails.[23] Traditionally cocktails were a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters.[5] By the 1860s, however, a cocktail frequently included a liqueur.[6][5]
The ingredients listed (spirits, sugar, water, and bitters) match the ingredients of an Old Fashioned,[25] which originated as a term used by late 19th-century bar patrons to distinguish cocktails made the "old-fashioned" way from newer, more complex cocktails.[15]
The first "cocktail party" ever thrown was allegedly by Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1917. Walsh invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday. The party lasted an hour until lunch was served at 1 p.m. The site of this first cocktail party still stands. In 1924, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis bought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Boulevard, and it has served as the local archbishop's residence ever since.[29]
Cocktails became less popular in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, until resurging in the 1980s with vodka often substituting for the original gin in drinks such as the martini. Traditional cocktails began to make a comeback in the 2000s,[33] and by the mid-2000s there was a renaissance of cocktail culture in a style typically referred to as mixology that draws on traditional cocktails for inspiration but uses novel ingredients and often complex flavors.[7]
Brian: I am the last barman poet / I see America drinking the fabulous cocktails I make / Americans getting stinky on something I stir or shake / The sex on the beach / The schnapps made from peach / The velvet hammer / The Alabama slammer. / I make things with juice and froth / The pink squirrel / The three-toed sloth. / I make drinks so sweet and snazzy / The iced tea / The kamakazi / The orgasm / The death spasm / The Singapore sling / The dingaling. / America you've just been devoted to every flavor I got / But if you want to got loaded / Why don't you just order a shot? / Bar is open.
It can be a little difficult to track down great recipes made with Pisco, disregarding its world-famous sour of course, but the Maggie Smith is one of our absolute favorites. It is an exceptional modern cocktail, and a standout recipe in the consistently excellent Death & Co cocktail book. Inspired by the standard daiquiri, the Maggie Smith retains many of its forbearers great qualities plus some really impactful and exciting differences. With its creamy texture and pearl color, the drink would make a true head-turner at a rooftop bar, but its fruity and spirit-forward profile will work excellently at everything from warm-weather happy hours to cool evenings at home.
Try our delicious cocktail recipes for every occasion. If you're looking to impress without the faff, try our easy cocktail recipes. Or, if you don't drink alcohol, we have you covered with our thirst-quenching non-alcoholic drink recipes.
I was sure that any combination of three bar staples would be either famous or revolting. Bartenders have had 160 years to play with the French herbal liqueur; surely one of them would have thought of mixing it with Scotch and lemon.
This drink was deliciously complex, with balanced sweet and sour flavors, so I went home to look up the name. My collection of cocktail books had nothing remotely close. On the internet, I found a rye drink called a Frisco Sour that bore a resemblance, though sometimes had lime and occasionally egg white. But nobody, it seemed, was or ever had been mixing Scotch, Bndictine and lemon.
Lemon juice, he says, is often the best match for a liqueur of 40 percent or more alcohol, as Bndictine is. The only thing the drink needed was a catchy name, and Ito threw out a few suggestions until one sounded right: Pantheon.
The book was published in 2019 with 115 recipes, and I expected it to slide precipitously from Recommended Christmas Gift to irrelevant tree shavings. But then I heard that another bartender featured in the book, Rogerio Igarashi Vaz, had begun serving Pantheons in his much-loved hole in the wall, Bar Trench. Igarashi Vaz says he tried many whiskies, but Cragganmore 12 has herbal notes that particularly suit the Bndictine.
Also still in mourning over the loss of Back Forty :( Those brunch time grits with the chipotle maple butter were too good for this world. They also had a red wine + tequila drink that was outstanding.
I lived in Cambodia for 15 years. Kampot, where the pepper is grown is my favorite place to visit. Lime & pepper is used as dipping sauce or marinating for any meat. Don t discard the crushed pepper reuse them.
Your timing on this post was fantastic. Just enough time for me to run to the store for strawberries and extra peppercorns and tequila before the Friday night BBQ. It pretty much made our Friday night. Though I will say they were plenty strong and a splash of club soda was a lovely addition.
Oh man, strawberries + black pepper is a dynamite combination I was first introduced to at a winery where they paired a pinot noir with fresh strawberries dipped in cracked black pepper. Delicious! I wonder if I can sub the vodka for red wine in this recipe?
This is amazing! For the obligatory second batch (who wants random black pepper simple syrup in the fridge when you can just have more Red and Blacks?) I used raspberries. I added club sofa to batch one and a lime La Croix to the second batch because the flavors were so strong, we felt it need to be diluted a little.
As soon as I read this I just had to make it. Except strawberries have disappeared from the store, but my craving was so big I decided I would try it with frozen strawberries which luckily I could find. Well, it was amazing even with microwave-thawed frozen strawberries, a rather cheap tequila and not a ton of patience (it was 10 pm). I made the syrup but dont have a coarse pepper grinder and I was too tired of turning the mill after grinding half a tablespoon, so thats how much I used. I also was too tired to do the final glass rim touch, so I used only sugar. The drink is very nice and the strawberries are to die for. I cant wait to make this again. Thanks so much for sharing.
Made this tonight! Well, sort of. I made the syrup stronger so I could use less and subbed gin for the tequila because I wanted those herbal notes. Delicious! I have some basil-infused vodka to try for Round 2.
Dear Deb,
This is completely random, but I was just thinking about how much I would love a homemade veggie burger and how great it would be if you had one up your sleeve :) so consider this a gentle request.
Love,
An adoring fan