93 Fun Facts About Cocktail

One theory traces 'cocktail' to coquetier, the French word for which breakfast item, said to have held early New Orleans drinks?

Eggcup: the tale has a New Orleans apothecary serving brandy and bitters in a coquetier until customers mangled the word; dictionaries are unconvinced and still list the origin of 'cocktail' as unknown.

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

Aperitif: the word goes back to the Latin aperire, 'to open', because the drink, usually something dry rather than sweet, is meant to open the appetite for the meal to come.

What do you call an alcoholic drink served after a meal, rather than before it?

Digestif: it is poured at the end of a meal in the old belief that it settles the stomach; the usual choices, sipped neat, are brandies and sweet or bitter herbal liqueurs.

Antonio Benedetto Carpano is credited with creating the first modern vermouth in the 18th century in which Italian city?

Turin: Martini & Rossi and other houses grew up in the city in the wake of Carpano's creation, and together they made Turin the centre of the world's vermouth trade.

A classic margarita is served in a glass whose rim is coated with what?

Salt: a lime wedge run round the rim makes it stick, and careful bartenders coat only the outside so none falls into the drink; the chilli-lime seasoning Tajín is a common swap.

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

Olive: the usual choice is a green olive or a twist of lemon peel; ask for the martini 'dirty' and a splash of the olive's brine goes into the glass as well.

Vermouth, the aromatic partner of gin in a martini, belongs to which category of drink?

Fortified wine: vermouth is wine strengthened with spirit and steeped with herbs and spices; its name is the German Wermut, wormwood, the plant that gave it its classic bitter edge.

In the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, pranksters told victims a man in a nearby bar was doing what?

Insulting them: victims stormed off to confront Tom Collins, who did not exist, and newspapers joined in with made-up sightings; a drink of the same name was in Jerry Thomas's bar guide two years later.

Which carbonated mixer tops a Tom Collins?

Club soda: plain fizzy water lengthens the lemon and sugar into a tall cooler; swap the soda for champagne and you have, more or less, a French 75.

The first printed definition of the cocktail, in an 1806 American newspaper, called it an excellent potion for what?

Electioneering: editor Harry Croswell called the mix of spirits, sugar, water and bitters an excellent electioneering potion, since a person who had swallowed a glass of it was 'ready to swallow any thing else'.

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

Gin instead of soda water: at Florence's Caffè Casoni, bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have stiffened the Count's Americano by swapping its soda for gin, keeping the Campari and sweet vermouth.

When making a mojito, how should the mint leaves be treated?

Gently bruised, not shredded: a light press releases the mint's fragrant oils, while over-muddling lets out bitter flavours and leaves a gritty, muted drink.

The IBA recipe for a Manhattan calls for a dash of which bitters?

Angostura: a dash seasons the rye and sweet vermouth; the famous tale that the drink was invented at a banquet thrown by Winston Churchill's mother is a myth, since she was abroad and pregnant at the time.

The daiquiri is usually credited to Jennings Cox, an American of what profession working in Cuba around 1898?

Mining engineer: Cox ran American iron-mining operations at the village of Daiquirí near Santiago de Cuba, whose Taíno-derived name the rum, lime and sugar drink took.

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

Red Snapper: the gin-based version; the name was reportedly adopted at a New York hotel bar in the 1930s because 'Bloody Mary' sounded too coarse for its clientele.

The name piña colada literally means what in Spanish?

Strained pineapple: colada is Spanish for strained, a nod to the freshly pressed and sieved juice the drink should be made with; Rupert Holmes took the name to number one in 1979 with 'Escape (The Piña Colada Song)'.

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

Cointreau: bartender Toby Cecchini rebuilt a rough pink bar drink around it and fresh lime juice at the Odeon restaurant in the late 1980s, and the IBA's official recipe still names the brand.

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

Copper: the drink was a 1940s scheme to shift slow sellers, Smirnoff vodka and a Hollywood pub's ginger beer; its promoter then toured bars photographing bartenders with the mug, which made it the drink's badge.

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

Oakland: Bergeron said he mixed it at his Trader Vic's restaurant for friends visiting from Tahiti, one of whom cried 'Maita'i roa ae!', roughly 'out of this world', which gave the drink its name.

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

Cognac: the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans took its name, and its house drink, from the Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils brandy it sold; the bar is thought to have switched to rye when a vine pest wrecked French vineyards in the 1870s.

Jerry Thomas, author of America's first cocktail book, was known by which nickname?

Professor: Thomas was a showman who juggled bottles as he mixed and dripped with diamonds; his 1862 How to Mix Drinks set down recipes that until then had been passed on by word of mouth.

What was the flaming signature drink of Jerry Thomas, first mixed at the El Dorado saloon in Gold Rush San Francisco?

The Blue Blazer: Thomas set whisky alight and poured it back and forth between two mugs in a long arc of blue flame; the story goes that he invented it for a gold miner who demanded 'some hell-fire'.

A martini garnished with a pickled cocktail onion is called what?

A Gibson: nobody knows when the onion arrived, as the earliest recipes had none; one story credits Walter Gibson, a San Francisco businessman, in the 1890s, another the illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.

In one origin story, the Martinez was mixed at San Francisco's Occidental Hotel for travellers about to catch what?

An evening ferry: the boat ran to the nearby town of Martinez, which tells a rival story of its own, that a barman in one of its saloons invented the drink.

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

Raffles: barman Ngiam Tong Boon is credited with the pink gin sling at the hotel's Long Bar, where by long custom guests still brush their peanut shells onto the floor.

Venice bar owner Giuseppe Cipriani named the Bellini after a 15th-century painter because of the drink's what?

Pink colour: the blush of white-peach purée in prosecco reminded Cipriani of the pink in a Giovanni Bellini painting; it began as a seasonal special, served only while the peaches were ripe.

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

The Kentucky Derby: Churchill Downs has promoted the julep as the race's drink since 1938 and is said to pour some 120,000 of them over Derby weekend, nearly all in souvenir glasses.

Which bitter red liqueur, created in Venice in 1920, is commonly poured in a Venetian spritz?

Select: the Pilla brothers' distillery launched it in Venice in 1920 and it is still commonly poured in the city's spritz, even though the IBA's official recipe for the drink names Aperol instead.

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

Dick Bradsell: he shook vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur and sugar at London's Soho Brasserie around 1983, reputedly for a customer who asked for a drink to wake her up.

A Long Island iced tea contains no tea, so which mixer gives the drink its tea-like colour?

Cola: just a splash tints the mix of vodka, gin, rum, tequila and triple sec the colour of iced tea; Robert 'Rosebud' Butt says he invented it for a 1972 contest at a Long Island inn, a claim a Tennessee town disputes.

The old fashioned is dubiously credited to the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen's club in which Kentucky city?

Louisville: a 1930s Waldorf-Astoria bar book said the drink was first made at the Pendennis Club for a whiskey distiller, yet 'old-fashioned cocktails' were being ordered by 1880, a year before the club was founded.

Margarita is the Spanish word for which flower, also the name of an older cocktail family it may descend from?

Daisy: daisies were 19th-century mixes of spirit, citrus and liqueur, and historian David Wondrich reads the margarita as one remade with tequila, perhaps for Americans who crossed the border to drink during Prohibition.

Dallas socialite Margarita Sames claimed she invented the margarita at a 1948 party in which Mexican resort?

Acapulco: Sames said she mixed it for guests at her holiday home there, but rival claims abound; Carlos 'Danny' Herrera, who ran a roadside restaurant near Tijuana, was hailed as the drink's inventor in his own obituary.

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

New York: the red-wine float was sold as the Continental Sour and the Southern Whiskey Sour before the city's name stuck, and the drink itself is thought to have come out of Chicago in the 1880s.

Where was the piña colada proclaimed the official drink in 1978?

Puerto Rico: the island made it the official drink in 1978 but still argues over who invented it; San Juan's Caribe Hilton credits its barman Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero in 1954, and a restaurant two miles away credits its own.

Where did Americans drink their illegal cocktails during US Prohibition?

Speakeasies: illicit bars that flourished from 1920 to 1933; with beer and wine scarce, drinkers turned to spirits, and sweet mixers were stirred in to hide the taste of rough bootleg liquor.

Which TV series turned the pink cosmopolitan into a famous cocktail order in the late 1990s?

Sex and the City: the cosmopolitan was Carrie Bradshaw's signature order, glass in hand in scene after scene, and the show carried what had been a big-city club drink to a national audience.

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

The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks: David Embury's other three basics were the Martini, Sidecar and Jack Rose; he was a tax lawyer who had never worked behind a bar, only, as he put it, as a consumer and shaker-upper for his guests.

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

Orgeat: the name comes from orge, French for barley, which the syrup was first made from before almonds took over; it is what gives a Mai Tai its nutty sweetness.

Fernand Petiot is said to have perfected the Bloody Mary in 1934 at the King Cole Bar of which New York hotel?

The St. Regis: Petiot told the New Yorker in 1964 that the drink 'was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over'; the peppery seasoning that defines it today was his addition.

A Bloody Mary with beef bouillon in place of the tomato juice is called what?

Bull Shot: the drink is traced to a 1950s chat at a Michigan supper club between its owner and an adman on the Campbell's Soup account, who was struggling to sell the firm's canned beef broth.

A Bloody Mary drunk to ease a hangover is a classic 'hair of the' what?

Dog: the phrase is short for 'the hair of the dog that bit you', from an old belief that a rabid dog's bite could be cured by pressing the same animal's hair into the wound; in drinking, the bite is last night's alcohol.

Which savoury bottled sauce joins Tabasco as a standard seasoning in a Bloody Mary?

Worcestershire sauce: Fernand Petiot, the barman who turned a plain mix into the modern drink, said he began by covering the bottom of the shaker with black pepper, cayenne and a layer of the sauce.

One theory names the Bloody Mary after which 16th-century English queen, notorious for burning Protestants at the stake?

Mary I: 'Bloody Mary' was the nickname her persecutions earned her, and one story has the red drink borrowing it; rival tales credit a waitress at a Chicago bar called the Bucket of Blood or a friend of the comedian George Jessel.

Which American novelist has a double daiquiri without sugar named after him?

Ernest Hemingway: he ordered doubles at Havana's El Floridita, made with grapefruit juice and maraschino in place of sugar, and the drink became the Papa Doble; a life-size bronze of him now keeps his place at the bar.

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

Calgary: Walter Chell, a manager at the Calgary Inn, created it in 1969 for the opening of the hotel's Italian restaurant Marco's, 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?

Spaghetti alle vongole: Chell reasoned that if tomato and clams worked together on a plate they would work in a glass, which is why the Caesar is built on Clamato, a clam-and-tomato juice.

Order a martini 'dry' and the bartender will make it with what?

Very little vermouth: early martinis were close to half vermouth, but through the 20th century its share shrank to a dash, and an 'extra dry' martini may get none at all.

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

Celery salt: the rim and a celery stalk dress a drink Chell first called simply the Caesar; the 'Bloody' sometimes added came, he said, from an English customer who pronounced it a good bloody Caesar.

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

Lima: the bar's owner was an American, Victor Morris, who had gone to Peru to work on the railways; Chile claims the drink too, but its version leaves out the egg white and bitters.

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

A field gun: the French army's quick-firing 75 mm gun of the First World War; the name is usually read as a warning about how hard the mix of champagne and spirit hits.

The name of the tequila cocktail paloma is the Spanish word for which bird?

Dove: nobody knows who named the tall mix of tequila, lime and grapefruit soda; one popular guess points to the old folk song 'La Paloma', another to pomelo, the Spanish for grapefruit.

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

Donn Beach: born Ernest Gantt, he wrote his recipes in code so that rivals could not copy them and, the story goes, limited each customer to two Zombies because they were so strong.

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

Casino Royale: Bond orders three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken until ice-cold with a lemon peel, then names the drink after Vesper Lynd.

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

British Virgin Islands: born in the 1970s at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, the drink now legally belongs to Pusser's Rum, which trademarked the name and later made an American bar called Painkiller rename itself.

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

Galliano: the vanilla-and-anise liqueur in the tall yellow bottle; its American importer launched the drink around 1970 with a cartoon surfer called Harvey Wallbanger, whose slogan promised that he 'can be made'.

In which Italian city was Aperol, the spritz's best-known bitter, born in 1919?

Padua: the Barbieri brothers launched it there in 1919 after seven years of experiments, aiming for a bitter of unusually low strength; it went global only after a bigger drinks group bought the brand in 2003.

Which liqueur gives the aviation cocktail its pale sky tint?

Crème de violette: Hugo Ensslin's 1916 recipe used the violet liqueur with gin, lemon and maraschino; Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book dropped it and many bartenders followed suit.

The bee's knees cocktail takes its name from Prohibition-era slang meaning what?

The best: 'the bee's knees' was 1920s slang for something excellent, like 'the cat's whiskers'; the drink's honey and lemon are thought to have been there to hide the taste of bathtub gin.

The boulevardier swaps the gin in a Negroni for which spirit?

Bourbon: the drink first appeared in a 1927 bar book as the signature of Erskine Gwynne, an American who edited a magazine called The Boulevardier, then vanished for some 80 years until bartenders dug it up again.

John Lennon said the Brandy Alexanders Harry Nilsson gave him in 1974 tasted like what?

Milkshakes: Lennon said the creamy drinks 'tasted like milkshakes'; the night ended with him and Nilsson heckling the Smothers Brothers and being thrown out of the Troubadour in March 1974.

Along with cognac and cream, which liqueur completes a Brandy Alexander?

Crème de cacao: the chocolate liqueur also went into the original gin Alexander, said to have been made snow-white for a dinner honouring Phoebe Snow, a railway's advertising heroine who always dressed in white.

The Bramble, created in 1984 London, gets its blackberry flavour from which liqueur?

Crème de mûre: the blackberry liqueur is drizzled over the crushed ice so that it bleeds down through the drink; its creator was recalling the blackberry-picking of his childhood on the Isle of Wight.

The Clover Club cocktail is named after a men's club in which American city?

Philadelphia: the Clover Club met at the city's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel; its pink drink of gin, raspberry and egg white fell out of fashion and was all but forgotten for decades before the cocktail revival brought it back.

Which Bermuda rum company holds a US trademark on the name Dark 'n Stormy?

Gosling's: the trademark means a bar cannot legally sell a Dark 'n Stormy made with any other rum, and the company has gone after rival brands, and even a cocktail blog, for using the name without its Black Seal.

Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye says a real gimlet is half gin and half what?

Rose's lime juice: Terry Lennox tells Marlowe 'a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else'; the Savoy Cocktail Book gave the same 50/50 spec, though modern bartenders pour far less cordial.

Which floral ingredient sets a Ramos gin fizz apart from a plain gin fizz?

Orange flower water: Henry C. Ramos added it, with egg white and cream, to his fizz in New Orleans in 1888; the drink needed such long, hard shaking that he hired relays of 'shaker boys' to keep up with orders.

The grasshopper, an after-dinner drink, gets its green colour from what?

Crème de menthe: the green mint liqueur is shaken with cream into a dessert in a glass; claimed by Tujague's in New Orleans, the drink caught on across the American South mid-century, and Wisconsin blends it with ice cream instead.

Pat O'Brien's bar in New Orleans made famous which rum and passion-fruit cocktail during the Second World War?

Hurricane: with whiskey scarce in wartime, distributors made bar owners take dozens of cases of rum to get a single case of it, so O'Brien's barmen sweetened the surplus and served it in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp.

Which San Francisco spot began serving Irish coffee on 10 November 1952?

Buena Vista Cafe: owner Jack Koeppler and travel writer Stanton Delaplane spent that night recreating a drink Delaplane had met at Shannon Airport, first poured by chef Joe Sheridan to warm passengers off a stormbound flying boat.

The Jungle Bird debuted in the 1970s at the Aviary Bar of a Hilton hotel in which city?

Kuala Lumpur: beverage manager Jeffrey Ong created it as the welcome drink for the Kuala Lumpur Hilton's guests and served it in a bird-shaped ceramic vessel at the hotel's Aviary Bar.

Which Italian bitter makes the Jungle Bird unusual among tiki drinks?

Campari: the bitter red liqueur is shaken with dark rum, pineapple, lime and sugar; tiki historian Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry, who revived the recipe, said the Campari was the only thing that made it interesting.

The Last Word, revived in the 2000s, originated at an athletic club in which city?

Detroit: the Detroit Athletic Club's mix of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime lay forgotten until Seattle bartender Murray Stenson found it in a 1951 bar book in the early 2000s and put it on his menu.

The IBA says the mimosa is 'also known as' which British drink dating from 1921?

Buck's Fizz: named for London's Buck's Club, where barman Pat McGarry is said to have first poured it; purists insist on two parts champagne to one of orange juice, where a mimosa is half and half.

Sam Ross's Penicillin, created in 2005 at Milk & Honey, is built on which spirit?

Scotch whisky: the Penicillin is blended Scotch with honey-ginger syrup and lemon, floated with smoky Islay malt; Ross named it for Alexander Fleming's drug because the ginger, honey and lemon echo a hot toddy's cold remedies.

James Pimm first served his gin-based Pimm's cup at what kind of London business?

An oyster bar: Pimm is said to have mixed his herbal gin drink for customers eating shellfish, as an aid to digestion in one telling and to improve rough gin in another; it is now a fixture of the English summer.

The Rob Roy cocktail of the 1890s is said to honour a new Broadway show of which kind?

An operetta: Reginald De Koven's Rob Roy, about the Scottish outlaw, opened on Broadway in 1894, and the Waldorf's bar is said to have marked it with a Manhattan made with Scotch instead of rye.

Which honeyed liqueur joins whisky in a rusty nail?

Drambuie: the liqueur of Scotch and heather honey was first paired with whisky in print in 1937, under the name B.I.F., but the drink took its famous name only a generation later, after the 21 Club and then the Rat Pack adopted it.

In one popular story, the sidecar was named for the motorcycle sidecar that carried which regular to a Paris bar?

An army captain: the tale, passed on by writer David Embury, has an American officer in wartime Paris arriving at his favourite bar in a motorcycle sidecar; the Paris Ritz and a London club's barman also get credit for the drink.

Whose 1972 US tour, launched at the Trident in Sausalito, spread the tequila sunrise?

The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger tried one at the tour's launch party at the Trident, and the band went on ordering them in city after city, making it the unofficial drink of the tour.

The Vieux Carré was created in the 1930s at which New Orleans establishment, now home to the revolving Carousel Bar?

Hotel Monteleone: bartender Walter Bergeron named his mix of rye, brandy, sweet vermouth and Bénédictine for the French Quarter outside, the 'old square'; the bar there has made one full turn every 15 minutes since 1949.

The White Russian's popularity surged after which 1998 film?

The Big Lebowski: Jeff Bridges's Dude drinks them throughout, calling one a 'Caucasian'; the name had been in print since 1965, but it took the film to turn a half-forgotten drink into a cult order.

A traditional mint julep is served in a frosted cup made of which metal?

Silver: packed with crushed ice, the metal frosts over and keeps the drink bitterly cold; the julep began as a rich man's drink, since few others could afford silver cups and a block of ice to crush.

Savoy bartender Ada Coleman gave her hanky panky its bite with which Italian digestivo?

Fernet-Branca: Coleman stirred two dashes of the bitter Italian digestivo into gin and sweet vermouth for overworked actor Charles Hawtrey, who drained the glass and declared 'By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!'

The Kir, crème de cassis topped with white wine, is named after the mayor of which city?

Dijon: Canon Félix Kir, a priest and Resistance fighter who became mayor in 1945, poured the local blanc-cassis for every visiting delegation and lent it his name; one story says wartime looting of red Burgundy left him only white to serve.

Since the 1870s, Angostura bitters have been manufactured in which country?

Trinidad and Tobago: army surgeon Johann Siegert first made the bitters in 1824 as a stomach tonic in the Venezuelan town of Angostura, which gave them their name; his sons later took the business to Port of Spain.

The spring-rimmed Hawthorne strainer takes its name from a café in which city?

Boston: the patent, filed in 1892, was assigned to the owner of the city's Hawthorne Café, and early models had the bar's name spelled out in their perforations.

The 2008 paper plane cocktail takes its name from a song by which artist?

M.I.A.: Sam Ross had her hit 'Paper Planes' on repeat while building the equal-parts whiskey drink; the Chicago bar that first served it misheard his voicemail and listed it as the Paper Airplane.

Which borough gives its name to a pre-Prohibition cocktail that is essentially a martini with orange juice?

The Bronx: the gin, vermouth and orange-juice drink was a huge hit in the 1900s; Waldorf-Astoria barman Johnnie Solon said he named it after the Bronx Zoo, since customers told him of the strange animals they saw after a few drinks.

A sex on the beach made without orange juice goes by what name?

Woo woo: vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice; both drinks were products of the 1980s craze for peach schnapps, which also gave bars the Fuzzy Navel.

'King Cocktail' Dale DeGroff made his name from 1987 to 1999 at which New York venue?

The Rainbow Room: DeGroff ran the bar atop Rockefeller Center from 1987 to 1999, reviving classic and forgotten pre-Prohibition recipes; many date the modern craft cocktail movement to his menu there.

The Black Russian was created in 1949 at the Hotel Metropole in which city?

Brussels: Belgian barman Gustave Tops mixed vodka and coffee liqueur at the Hotel Metropole in honour of Perle Mesta, the US ambassador to Luxembourg; the 'Russian' refers only to the vodka.

Tommy's margarita, created in San Francisco around 1990, replaces the triple sec with what?

Agave nectar: Julio Bermejo swapped the orange liqueur for agave syrup at his family's Tommy's Mexican Restaurant to amplify the tequila's agave notes, keeping fresh lime and 100% agave tequila.