60 Fun Facts About Cocktail

One theory links the origin of the word "cocktail" to a French word for what item?

Bartender Dale DeGroff traces it to coquetier, the French eggcup in which mixed drinks were supposedly served.

What is a pre-dinner drink meant to sharpen the appetite called?

Usually dry or bitter rather than sweet: the job is to wake the appetite, not satisfy it.

What do you call a drink taken after dinner to settle the stomach?

Richer, sweeter or herbal, and drunk on the belief it helps digestion; its opposite number, the aperitif, goes before the meal to wake the appetite.

Merchant Antonio Benedetto Carpano launched sweet vermouth in 1786 in which city?

Turin remains the home of vermouth; the sweet style is sugared before fortification and usually carries 10-15% sugar, which is why it anchors a Manhattan.

Which spirit forms the base of a Margarita?

Tequila, triple sec and lime, sometimes a little simple syrup, served with a salted rim.

Which of these is a common garnish for a classic Martini?

Green olives are a quintessential garnish for a classic Martini, often used to complement its savory notes, especially in a "dirty" Martini.

Vermouth is officially what kind of drink?

It is wine strengthened with distilled spirit and steeped with botanicals: roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs and spices.

The 'Tom' in a Tom Collins points to an 'Old Tom' style of which spirit?

Old Tom is a sweeter style; the same early recipe book lists a John Collins made with Holland gin, now known as genever.

A Collins cocktail typically includes a base spirit, lemon juice, sugar, and what carbonated mixer?

Collins cocktails are characterized by their refreshing blend of a base spirit, lemon juice, simple syrup, and being topped with carbonated water, often club soda.

In what year did a US paper first print a definition of the alcoholic 'cocktail'?

The Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York, printed it on May 13, 1806, three years after the word's first known appearance in print.

The Negroni was born around 1919-20 when Count Camillo Negroni asked for what change to his Americano?

The Americano itself, equal parts vermouth and Campari topped with soda, dates back to the 1800s under the name Milano-Torino.

The mojito, a Cuban punch of rum, sugar, lime, soda and mint, requires the mint leaves to be treated how?

Bruising releases the essential oils; the drink is then topped with crushed ice and soda.

The Manhattan is one of how many cocktails named after New York City boroughs?

Its cousin the Brooklyn swaps in dry vermouth, Maraschino liqueur and Amer Picon.

Historians credit the daiquiri to Jennings Cox, an American of what profession working in Cuba around 1898?

Daiquirí is also the name of a beach and an iron mine near Santiago de Cuba, from a Taíno word.

A Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka goes by what name?

The Bloody Maria uses blanco tequila and the Virgin Mary drops the alcohol altogether.

The name piña colada literally means what in Spanish?

Legend credits Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí with a coconut, pineapple and rum morale-booster whose recipe died with him in 1825.

The cosmopolitan is made with vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice and which orange liqueur?

Dale DeGroff popularised the citrus-vodka version in the mid-1990s; the drink is a member of the gimlet family.

A Moscow mule of vodka, ginger beer and lime is properly served in a mug made of what?

Health advisories suggest a stainless-steel lining to avoid copper leaching; the drink is technically a 'buck'.

'Trader Vic' Bergeron claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1944 at his bar in which city?

Rival Donn Beach claimed a 1933 origin; the drink reached Hawaii in 1953 via a Matson hotel menu.

The Sazerac, sometimes called the oldest American cocktail, is named after a brand of what?

Sazerac de Forge et Fils cognac was the original base; rye later replaced it, with Peychaud's Bitters and an absinthe rinse.

'Professor' Jerry Thomas published the first American bartender's guide in which year?

At the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco he earned $100 a week, more than the US Vice President.

What was Jerry Thomas's flaming signature drink, developed at the El Dorado saloon in San Francisco?

Thomas established the image of the bartender as a creative showman.

A martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives is called what?

A dirty martini adds olive brine, and the so-called Churchill martini skips vermouth in favour of a 'bow in the direction of France'.

The Martinez, a possible martini ancestor, was served at San Francisco's Occidental Hotel to travellers catching what?

Jerry Thomas's 1887 guide printed a Martinez recipe with Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino and Boker's Bitters.

The Singapore Sling was reputedly created around 1915 at the Long Bar of which establishment?

Bartender Ngiam Tong Boon supposedly made it look like fruit juice so that women could drink alcohol in public unnoticed.

Giuseppe Cipriani of Harry's Bar named the Bellini after a 15th-century painter because of the drink's what?

Its sisters are the Puccini (mandarin juice) and the Rossini (strawberry purée).

The mint julep is famously the symbol of which sporting event?

Spearmint is the traditional choice in Kentucky; the drink belongs to a family of 'smashes' that also includes the mojito.

The original spritz veneziano, created in Venice in 1920, used which bitter aperitif as its flavouring?

The spritz became an IBA official cocktail in 2011 and the Aperol version was ranked the world's ninth bestselling cocktail.

Which London bartender is credited with creating the espresso martini in the 1980s?

The bar is usually given as the Soho Brasserie around 1983; the drink contains neither gin nor vermouth, so it is no true martini.

Roughly what alcohol concentration does a Long Island iced tea reach with its five spirits and splash of cola?

Robert 'Rosebud' Butt claims to have invented it in a 1972 triple-sec contest at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York.

The old fashioned is dubiously credited to the Pendennis Club in which city?

The story rests on a 1930s Waldorf-Astoria bar book; the term 'old-fashioned cocktails' actually dates to 1880 and the earliest recipe is from Chicago in 1888.

Per David Wondrich, the margarita is a remake of which older cocktail family?

Margarita is Spanish for 'daisy'; a 1937 British book already had a 'Picador' with the same tequila, triple sec and lime proportions.

One origin story says the margarita was invented in 1938 for dancer Marjorie King, allergic to all spirits except which?

Carlos 'Danny' Herrera supposedly mixed it at his restaurant Rancho La Gloria; an Iowa editor had already found a similar drink in Tijuana in 1936.

A whiskey sour with a float of full-bodied red wine on top is usually given which city's name?

Adding egg white makes it a Boston sour; the drink's earliest mention is in a Wisconsin newspaper from 1870.

In 1978 which territory proclaimed the piña colada its official drink?

The Caribe Hilton in San Juan claims bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero created it in 1954, the year a new coconut-cream extraction method was invented.

The first published definition of a cocktail, in an 1806 New York newspaper, said it was 'vulgarly called' what?

Editor Harry Croswell called it 'an excellent electioneering potion' that 'renders the heart stout and bold' while it 'fuddles the head'.

Where did Americans drink their illegal cocktails during US Prohibition?

Cocktails boomed because wine and beer were scarcer than spirits, though the liquor quality was far worse than before.

The 1980s cocktail resurgence often swapped gin for which spirit in drinks like the martini?

Cocktails had slumped through the late 1960s and 1970s; a mixology renaissance followed in the mid-2000s.

The Manhattan, daiquiri and old fashioned all appear among the six basics of which 1948 cocktail classic?

David A. Embury's book remains a touchstone; the Savoy Cocktail Book came out earlier, in 1930.

The Mai Tai is made with rum, lime, Curaçao and which almond-flavoured syrup?

Donn Beach claimed a 1933 origin, though a colleague said he was really describing his Q.B. Cooler.

At Harry's New York Bar in Paris, Petiot first mixed tomato juice and spirits for a member of which distilling family?

Petiot later insisted the drink was 'nothing but vodka and tomato juice' until he took it over and added the seasonings that define it today.

Which entertainer was credited in 1939 with a tomato juice-and-spirits 'pick-me-up' called a Bloody Mary?

Petiot conceded Jessel's claim to the basic mix but insisted he was the one who turned it into the seasoned drink served today.

In 1934 Fernand Petiot refined the modern Bloody Mary in the King Cole Room of which New York hotel?

The King Cole Bar is named for the Maxfield Parrish mural of Old King Cole that still hangs behind it.

A Bull Shot swaps the tomato juice in a Bloody Mary for what?

The savoury, soup-like result was a mid-century favourite that has largely disappeared from menus.

What is the name of the sake-based variation of the classic tomato-juice brunch cocktail?

Almost every base spirit has spawned its own variant name, from the Danish Mary with aquavit to the Bloody Maria with tequila.

In a Virgin Mary, the spirits are replaced with what?

The alcohol-free version keeps all the seasoning, which is why many drinkers say they can barely tell the difference.

Some drink historians think the classic tomato-juice cocktail was named after which silent-film star?

Rival theories credit Queen Mary I of England or a waitress named Mary at a Chicago bar called the Bucket of Blood.

The Bloody Mary appears on the IBA official cocktail list in which category?

The International Bartenders Association groups its list into three eras, and the Bloody Mary sits alongside the Cosmopolitan and Espresso Martini rather than the pre-war Unforgettables.

The Caesar, Canada's Clamato-based cousin of the Bloody Mary, was invented in 1969 in which city?

Restaurant manager Walter Chell created it for the opening of an Italian restaurant, and within five years it was the city's most popular mixed drink.

Walter Chell said the Caesar was inspired by which Italian pasta dish?

He reasoned that if tomato and clams worked on a plate they would work in a glass, which is why the drink is built on Clamato.

By 1994, roughly what share of Mott's Clamato sales in Canada were being used to mix Caesars?

Calgary's mayor went on to declare 13 May Caesar Day in 2009 in honour of the city's signature drink.

A Caesar is traditionally served in a highball glass rimmed with what?

The garnish is usually a celery stalk and a lime wedge, mirroring the Bloody Mary it grew out of.

The modern pisco sour was invented in the early 1920s at Morris' Bar in which city?

American Victor Vaughen Morris opened the bar in 1916; his Peruvian bartender Mario Bruiget later added the egg white and Angostura bitters.

The caipirinha, declared Brazilian Cultural Heritage in 2003, originated in which state?

Rio named it intangible heritage in 2019 despite its roots in Piracicaba; the cachaça, sugar and lime drink placed third on TasteAtlas in 2024.

Barman Harry MacElhone said the French 75 was named after what?

The 75 mm French light artillery piece lent its name to the gin, champagne, lemon and sugar drink popular in a brandy form during World War I.

The tequila cocktail paloma is named after which bird?

It is usually built with grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos, lime and a salted rim.

Which tiki pioneer invented the zombie at his Hollywood restaurant in late 1934?

The multi-rum drink went national after being served at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In which 1953 novel does James Bond invent the Vesper cocktail of gin, vodka and Kina Lillet?

Kina Lillet is no longer made, so bartenders substitute Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano; Bond calls it a 'special martini'.

The Painkiller, a rum and pineapple drink topped with grated nutmeg, originated where?

The recipe calls for four parts pineapple juice to one each of cream of coconut and orange juice, with two to four ounces of rum.

The Harvey Wallbanger adds which Italian liqueur to a vodka-and-orange-juice screwdriver?

The yellow herbal liqueur made the drink a 1970s American favourite.