147 Fun Facts About Cocktails

Which Cuban highball mixes white rum with crushed mint, lime, sugar and soda water?

Mojito lore traces the drink to 'El Draque', a 16th-century remedy named after Sir Francis Drake, whose crew took lime, mint and rough cane spirit off Cuba against scurvy and dysentery.

Legend has the Manhattan invented at an 1870s banquet thrown by the American mother of which future British PM?

Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome, supposedly hosted the Manhattan Club banquet for Samuel Tilden, but she was in Europe around the time of Winston's birth that winter, so historians call the tale fiction.

The short tumbler also known as a rocks glass or lowball shares its name with which whiskey cocktail?

The Old Fashioned gave its name to the glass it is served in; the drink was itself named in the 1880s, when drinkers tired of fancy new mixtures asked for cocktails made the old-fashioned way.

The Sazerac, rinsed in absinthe or Herbsaint, is the official cocktail of which city?

New Orleans got the Sazerac as its official cocktail from the Louisiana Legislature in June 2008, only after a bill to make it the state cocktail was voted down.

Which three-piece cocktail shaker has a built-in strainer and a small cap on top?

The cobbler shaker's built-in strainer, a three-piece design patented in 1884, lets a home bartender pour straight from the tin, where a two-piece shaker needs a separate strainer.

Besides tequila and lime juice, a classic Margarita is shaken with which French liqueur?

Cointreau, a triple sec, completes the classic recipe; one of several rival origin tales credits socialite Margarita Sames, who said she first mixed the drink for guests in Acapulco in 1948.

Orgeat syrup, made from almonds, is a classic ingredient in which tiki cocktail?

The Mai Tai was named, Trader Vic said, when a friend visiting from Tahiti tasted his 1944 creation and cried 'Mai tai roa aé', which he translated as 'out of this world'.

Which style of beer is mixed with bubbly to make a Black Velvet?

Stout, usually Guinness, gives the Black Velvet its colour; the drink is said to have been created at Brooks's Club in London in 1861 to mourn the death of Prince Albert.

Tonic water was originally mixed with gin to make which bitter antimalarial drug more palatable?

Quinine, the bitter cinchona-bark antimalarial, was taken by the British in colonial India with soda, sugar and their gin, so the daily dose went down as a drink rather than a medicine.

The Kentucky Derby's mint julep is traditionally served in a cup of silver or which other metal?

Silver or pewter cups are held only by the top and bottom edges so frost can form on the outside; the Derby's premium versions have come in gold-plated cups with silver straws.

Which cocktail typically includes both gin and green Chartreuse?

The Last Word, equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime, was on the Detroit Athletic Club's menu by 1916, then lay forgotten until Seattle bartender Murray Stenson found it in an old book in 2003.

Adding an egg white to a Whiskey Sour gives a variant named after which US city?

A Boston sour is the egg-white version, usually shaken first without ice so the white whips into a foam; float red wine on top instead and it becomes a New York sour.

Which New Orleans fizz is famous for its long shake and orange flower water?

The Ramos Gin Fizz, created by Henry C. Ramos at his Imperial Cabinet Saloon in 1888, took so long to shake that the bar kept some 20 bartenders and 'shaker boys' busy on that one drink.

The Clover Club cocktail takes its name from a club in which US city?

Philadelphia's Clover Club was an all-male circle of journalists and lawyers who met at the Bellevue hotel, yet the frothy raspberry-and-gin drink named for it came to be seen as a ladies' drink.

Which creamy vodka-and-coffee-liqueur cocktail is the Dude's drink of choice in The Big Lebowski?

The White Russian has no known Russian roots: the name only nods to its vodka. It was fading from fashion until The Big Lebowski (1998), whose hero the Dude drinks little else and calls it a 'Caucasian'.

The Aviation cocktail gets its delicate tint and floral note from which liqueur?

Crème de Violette was in Hugo Ensslin's original 1916 recipe, but the liqueur was so hard to find that Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book simply left it out, and many bartenders followed.

Which cocktail of white rum, pineapple juice and grenadine is named after a silent-film star?

The Mary Pickford is said to have been invented in 1920s Havana in honour of the star; Basil Woon's 1928 guide to drinking in Cuba recorded it as pineapple juice, Bacardi and a dash of grenadine.

The pisco sour is claimed as a national drink by Peru and which neighbouring country?

Chile and Peru both claim the pisco sour, and the grape brandy in it; the drink is usually traced to American bartender Victor Morris, who opened Morris' Bar in Lima in 1916.

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

An eggcup is a coquetier in French, and one tale has New Orleans apothecary Antoine Peychaud serving brandy and bitters in one until the word was mangled into 'cocktail'; dictionaries simply say 'origin unknown'.

What do you call a dry drink served before a meal to whet the appetite?

An aperitif 'opens' the meal, from the Latin aperire, to open, and is usually dry rather than sweet, unlike the digestif poured after dinner.

Merchant Antonio Benedetto Carpano introduced the first sweet vermouth in 1786 in which city?

Turin is where Antonio Benedetto Carpano first sold his sweet, spiced vermouth in 1786; it proved so popular, the story goes, that his shop had to stay open around the clock.

What type of alcoholic beverage is vermouth classified as?

Vermouth is a fortified wine, wine strengthened with a little spirit and flavoured with herbs, so unlike the spirits on the shelf beside it an opened bottle slowly fades and belongs in the fridge.

Pimm's, a gin-based fruit cup, has had its own bar since 1971 at which tennis Grand Slam?

Wimbledon opened its first Pimm's bar in 1971 and the drink has been a staple of the tournament ever since; James Pimm first served it at his oyster bar in the City of London.

A Collins, such as the gin-based Tom Collins, is a spirit, lemon juice and sugar lengthened with what carbonated mixer?

Club soda tops the Collins; the Tom Collins is often tied to a hoax of 1874, when pranksters sent friends storming into bars to confront a 'Tom Collins' who had supposedly slandered them.

The first printed definition of a cocktail, in 1806, joked that its drinkers would 'swallow any thing else', a boon to whom?

Political candidates: the paper called the drink 'of great use to a democratic candidate'. Its editor, Harry Croswell, was a Federalist who had been convicted of libelling President Jefferson, with Alexander Hamilton arguing his appeal.

The sidecar combines brandy and lemon juice with which third ingredient?

Orange liqueur, usually a triple sec, completes the sidecar; Harry MacElhone's 1922 book credited the drink to London bartender Pat MacGarry, though in later editions he named himself as its inventor.

The Penicillin, an IBA official cocktail, is built on which spirit?

Scotch whisky is the Penicillin's base: Sam Ross created it at New York's Milk & Honey in 2005, its honey, lemon and ginger under a float of smoky Islay malt echoing a cold remedy, hence the name.

Gosling Brothers claims the dark 'n' stormy was invented just after World War I on which island?

Bermuda is the Dark 'n' Stormy's home: Gosling's of Hamilton says the drink was first mixed from its Black Seal rum and local ginger beer just after World War I, and it holds a trademark on the name.

The Negroni was created around 1919–20 in which Italian city?

Florence is the Negroni's birthplace: at Caffè Casoni around 1919, Count Camillo Negroni reportedly asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to swap the soda in his usual Campari-and-vermouth for gin.

In a Negroni sbagliato, or "mistaken Negroni", what replaces the gin?

Sparkling wine replaces the gin; sbagliato is Italian for 'mistaken', after the story that a bartender at Milan's Bar Basso reached for the wrong bottle while making a Negroni.

Along with Ernest Hemingway, which US president was famously fond of the daiquiri?

John F. Kennedy counted the daiquiri among his favourite drinks; it had boomed in 1940s America, when wartime rationing made whiskey scarce while Caribbean rum stayed easy to get.

What does the Spanish name "piña colada" literally mean?

Piña colada means 'strained pineapple', a nod to the freshly pressed and strained juice that went into the drink.

Coco López, the Puerto Rican invention at the heart of the piña colada, is what product?

Cream of coconut: Ramón López Irizarry found an easier way to get the cream out of coconut pulp, blended it with cane sugar as Coco López, and the Caribe Hilton says its bartender built the piña colada on it.

Paris bartender Fernand Petiot's 1921 vodka-and-tomato drink was originally called what?

'Bucket of Blood', after a Chicago nightclub, is the name Harry's New York Bar lore gives Petiot's 1921 original; at New York's St. Regis he later tried, and failed, to rename the drink the Red Snapper.

The Moscow mule's copper-mug tradition is traced to a marketing push for which vodka brand?

Smirnoff was the brand: Heublein's John G. Martin, who had bought its rights in 1939, pushed the Moscow mule together with a Hollywood pub owner stuck with unsold ginger beer, and the copper mug became the drink's badge.

The modern cosmopolitan is usually credited to Toby Cecchini at which Manhattan restaurant?

The Odeon in Tribeca is where Toby Cecchini and colleague Melissa Huffsmith-Roth built the cosmo in 1988 from Absolut Citron, Cointreau and lime, reworking a vaguely described South Beach drink.

Which juice gives a cosmopolitan its pink colour?

Cranberry juice is there for the colour: Cheryl Cook, who claims the original 1980s recipe from Miami's South Beach, said she added 'just enough cranberry to make it oh so pretty in pink'.

The Singapore sling was reputedly created around 1915 at the Long Bar of which hotel?

Raffles Hotel credits bartender Ngiam Tong Boon with the Singapore sling, first sold as a gin sling; at its Long Bar guests are invited to brush their peanut shells onto the floor.

Which Harry's Bar cocktail of white peach purée and prosecco is named after a Venetian Renaissance painter?

Bellini's pink glow reminded Harry's Bar founder Giuseppe Cipriani of the pinks in Giovanni Bellini's paintings; swap the peach for strawberry and the drink becomes a Rossini.

The IBA lists the mimosa as "also known as" which British cocktail dating from 1921?

Buck's Fizz takes its name from London's Buck's Club, where barman Pat McGarry is said to have first served it in 1921; it uses two parts bubbly to one of orange juice, a mimosa equal parts.

Which cocktail did London bartender Dick Bradsell invent in the 1980s for a model who wanted something to 'wake me up'?

Espresso martini began as Bradsell's 'vodka espresso' at the Soho Brasserie around 1983; he said the coffee machine sat right beside his station, so coffee was already on his mind when the model made her request.

The caipirinha is built on which Brazilian sugar-cane spirit?

Cachaça is distilled from fresh sugar-cane juice rather than the molasses behind most rum; a 2003 Brazilian decree defined the caipirinha as cachaça, lime and sugar, and the IBA lists it as an official cocktail.

Tequila topped with grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos makes which Mexican cocktail?

Paloma is Spanish for 'dove'; the drink is tequila, lime and grapefruit soda over ice, often with a salted rim, and for all its popularity nobody knows who first mixed it.

In Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, which cocktail is 'half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else'?

Gimlet is the drink Terry Lennox and Philip Marlowe bond over in the 1953 novel; the Savoy Cocktail Book gave the same half-and-half recipe, though modern tastes run drier, up to four parts gin to one of cordial.

The French 75 cocktail takes its name from what?

A field gun: the drink salutes the firepower of the French 75 mm of World War I; Harry MacElhone's early '75' was quite different, a mix of Calvados, gin, grenadine and absinthe.

The French 75 is ordered in which classic 1942 film?

Casablanca brings Yvonne, jilted by Rick, back to his café on the arm of a German officer, and French 75s are what the pair order.

Swapping the gin in a Negroni for bourbon gives you which cocktail?

The Boulevardier first appeared in Harry MacElhone's 1927 Paris book Barflies and Cocktails, credited to Erskine Gwynne, an American expatriate who ran a Paris magazine of the same name.

In Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, the first drink James Bond orders is which Italian cocktail?

The Americano — Campari, sweet vermouth and soda — is Bond's first order in Casino Royale; in 'From a View to a Kill' he insists on Perrier, reasoning expensive soda is the cheapest way to improve a poor drink.

Which potent tiki cocktail, created in 1934 Hollywood, was famously limited to two per customer?

Zombie servings were capped at two per guest at Don the Beachcomber, whose founder guarded his recipes with coded ingredient names; Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry later tracked down and published the originals.

The Hurricane is most associated with which New Orleans bar?

Pat O'Brien's made the Hurricane famous in the 1940s, when, the story goes, it had rum to use up that wartime distributors pressed on bars short of whiskey; the name comes from its glass, shaped like a hurricane lamp.

Which band's 1972 American tour, launched with a party in Sausalito, turned the tequila sunrise into a craze?

The Rolling Stones met the drink at the Trident in Sausalito, where Mick Jagger tried one at the kickoff party; Keith Richards later wrote that the 1972 outing became known as the 'cocaine and tequila sunrise tour'.

The original tequila sunrise, from the Arizona Biltmore hotel, was coloured with crème de cassis, a liqueur made from which fruit?

Blackcurrant cassis, lime juice and soda went into Gene Sulit's original at the Arizona Biltmore; the orange juice and grenadine version came from two California bartenders in the early 1970s.

A sex on the beach made without orange juice is known as what?

A woo woo is vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice, the sex on the beach minus its orange juice; swap the juices for blue curaçao and Sprite and you get a 'sex in the driveway'.

Besides the green mint liqueur, a classic grasshopper has cream and which other liqueur?

White crème de cacao gives the grasshopper its chocolate note; a French Quarter restaurant says its owner invented the drink around the end of World War I and won second prize with it in New York, though no record of the win survives.

Which musician introduced John Lennon to the Brandy Alexander during his 1974 "lost weekend"?

Harry Nilsson ordered the Brandy Alexanders at Los Angeles' Troubadour in March 1974; Lennon said they 'tasted like milkshakes', and the pair were thrown out for heckling the Smothers Brothers.

In Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, James Bond names his gin-and-vodka martini after which character?

Vesper Lynd lends the drink her name soon after Bond dictates the recipe; it cannot be made exactly today, because the Kina Lillet he specifies is no longer produced.

Scotch mixed with Drambuie makes which cocktail?

The rusty nail began life in 1937 as the 'B.I.F.', named for the British Industries Fair, and became a Rat Pack favourite under its current name in the 1960s.

A Scotch-and-amaretto duo shares its name with which Mafia film?

The Godfather is Scotch and amaretto; Disaronno claims it was Marlon Brando's favourite, and swapping the Scotch for vodka makes a godmother.

Which hangover cocktail did Harry Craddock say should be 'taken before 11am, or whenever steam and energy are needed'?

The first Corpse Reviver carries that note in Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book; of the sharper second he warned that four taken in swift succession 'will unrevive the corpse again'.

Ada Coleman's hanky panky adds dashes of which Italian digestivo to gin and sweet vermouth?

Fernet-Branca, two dashes of it, gives the hanky panky its bite; Savoy head bartender Ada Coleman devised it for actor Charles Hawtrey, who reportedly exclaimed 'that is the real hanky-panky!'

The Vieux Carré was created at the Carousel Bar of which New Orleans hotel?

Hotel Monteleone's head bartender Walter Bergeron created the Vieux Carré in 1938, naming it after the French Quarter around him, whose French name means 'old square'.

Which tiki cocktail, the 1973 welcome drink of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, adds Campari to dark rum and pineapple?

Jungle Bird was named for the birds guests could watch from the hotel's Aviary Bar; beverage manager Jeffrey Ong created it for the Hilton's opening in July 1973.

Which rum brand holds a US trademark on the Painkiller cocktail's name and recipe?

Pusser's Rum trademarked the Painkiller, first mixed at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke; when a New York tiki bar took the drink's name in 2011, the company's lawyers made it change it.

The Tom and Jerry, a hot spiced mix of eggs, rum and brandy, is a traditional American drink of which holiday?

Christmas is Tom and Jerry season; the name comes not from the cartoon but from Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn, heroes of Pierce Egan's 1821 novel Life in London.

The Harvey Wallbanger was launched in a 1969 ad campaign to promote which Italian liqueur?

Galliano, the yellow vanilla-anise liqueur, floats on top of the Harvey Wallbanger; its US importer's 1969 ads starred a cartoon surfer with the line 'Harvey Wallbanger is the name. And I can be made!'

Which vodka-and-orange drink is said to be named for the tool Americans abroad used to stir it?

Screwdriver lore says Americans abroad in the 1940s had no spoon and stirred with the tool; the name was in use in Turkey by the mid-1940s, and Time reported it from an Istanbul hotel bar in 1949.

"Margarita" is Spanish for which flower, linking the drink to an older cocktail family?

Historian David Wondrich sees it as a brandy daisy remade with tequila; a sidecar is another daisy.

Mariano Martinez introduced the dedicated frozen margarita machine in 1971 in which city?

Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez got the idea from a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine in 1971, when his bartenders could not keep up with blender orders; his first machine is now in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

A very dry 15:1 martini is nicknamed after which British field marshal?

The joke is that Montgomery supposedly attacked only with overwhelming numerical superiority.

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

The Gibson's earliest recipes used no onion at all: they differed from a Martini mainly in leaving out the bitters, and the pickled onion became its mark only later.

In 1806 a "cocktail" of spirits, bitters, water and sugar was also known as what?

A bittered sling: a sling was sweetened, watered-down spirit, so in the 1806 definition the dash of bitters was all that made it a 'cock-tail'.

Grenadine syrup was traditionally made from which fruit?

Pomegranate gave grenadine its name, from the French grenade; many commercial versions now swap the fruit for other juices or artificial flavour and colour.

Absinthe, the Sazerac rinse, was absent from the US market from 1912 until which year?

2007 is when absinthe returned: the US had banned it in 1912, and Lucid became the first genuine absinthe approved for sale in March 2007; the Sazerac is built in two chilled glasses, one rinsed with absinthe.

The Sazerac takes its name from a brand of which spirit, traditionally said to have been its first base?

Cognac: importer Sewell T. Taylor brought in Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils and his old bar became the Sazerac Coffee House; by tradition, rye replaced the brandy after phylloxera devastated French vineyards.

One claim says the B-52 shot was invented by Peter Fich at a hotel in which Canadian resort town?

Banff Springs Hotel is where head bartender Peter Fich is said to have created the B-52 in 1977; he named drinks after favourite bands, so the shot honours The B-52's rather than the bomber.

Tequila, the spirit in a Margarita, must be made from which plant?

Blue agave is the only agave allowed and must supply at least 51% of the sugars; tequila may be made only in Jalisco and parts of four other Mexican states, and agave spirits from elsewhere, such as Oaxaca's, are sold as mezcal.

Sloe gin is flavoured with sloes, the small plum-like fruit of which shrub?

Blackthorn sloes are steeped in gin with sugar, which makes sloe gin a red liqueur rather than a true gin, despite the name.

Which two-piece mixing setup, a metal tin plus a pint glass, needs a separate strainer?

The Boston shaker pairs a metal tin with a pint mixing glass sealed by a tap; most bartenders strain with a Hawthorne strainer, though some pour through the narrow gap between the two pieces.

Angostura bitters were developed as a tonic by a surgeon general in whose army?

Simón Bolívar's army: German doctor Johann Siegert, its surgeon general in the Venezuelan town of Angostura, devised the bitters as a tonic for his feverish, queasy patients; the firm later moved to Trinidad.

Angostura bitters bottles are instantly recognisable for what quirk?

An oversized label: legend says two Siegert brothers split the job, one designing the bottle and the other the label, and neither checked the other's measurements; the mismatch stuck once customers came to recognise it.

Until 2006, Campari's red colour came from carmine, a dye made from what?

Crushed insects: carmine comes from cochineal, a scale insect; Gaspare Campari coloured his 1860 recipe with it, and dropping the dye in 2006 is said to be the only change ever made to the formula.

Which French herbal liqueur became a favourite in Burnley, Lancashire, after local soldiers discovered it in France during World War I?

Bénédictine is drunk in Burnley with hot water as a 'Bene 'n' 'ot'; men of the East Lancashire Regiment brought the taste home, and the town's Miners' Club is reputedly the liqueur's biggest single customer.

Baileys Irish Cream was named after what?

A London restaurant, Bailey's Bistro, sat beneath the creators' Soho office and lent its name; David Gluckman and Hugh Seymour-Davies mixed the first sample in about 45 minutes from Irish whiskey, cream and chocolate drink powder.

Amaretto's almond-like flavour often comes not from almonds but from the kernels of which fruit?

Apricot kernels carry the same almond-scented compound as the nut, and Disaronno says it uses their oil; the name is a diminutive of the Italian amaro and means 'a little bitter'.

Canada's Caesar cocktail differs from a Bloody Mary mainly by including what?

Clam broth is the difference: Walter Chell created the Caesar at the Calgary Inn in 1969 for a new Italian restaurant, taking his cue from spaghetti alle vongole, pasta with clams.

The rum-and-Coke's name "Cuba libre" was originally the slogan of what?

The independence movement's cry of '¡Cuba libre!' gave the drink its name around 1900, the year Coca-Cola was first imported into Cuba, so the rum-and-Coke cannot predate that despite wartime legends.

Lynchburg Lemonade is named after the Tennessee town where which whiskey is made?

Jack Daniel's is made in Lynchburg, but the drink was born in Alabama: Huntsville lounge owner Tony Mason mixed it in 1980, then sued the distillery after it launched a national campaign for the drink.

The Paper Plane cocktail's name was inspired by a song by which artist?

M.I.A.'s 2008 hit 'Paper Planes' was playing as Sam Ross worked on the drink for Chicago's Violet Hour; he first made it with Campari before settling on Aperol with bourbon, Amaro Nonino and lemon.

Which Dutch juniper spirit is the ancestor of gin?

Genever, the Dutch juniper spirit, is gin's ancestor: English soldiers fighting in the Low Countries brought home the taste and the name, later clipped to gin, and 'Dutch courage' is said to recall their tot before battle.

A stinger is brandy combined with which liqueur?

Crème de menthe, the white kind, is stirred with brandy for the stinger, long a high-society nightcap: millionaire Reginald Vanderbilt was said to spend hours mixing them for guests in his home bar.

Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail tops absinthe with what?

Champagne is poured over a jigger of absinthe 'until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness'; Hemingway's 1935 recipe ended 'Drink three to five of these slowly.'

The gin-and-mint South Side is said to have been the preferred drink of which gangster?

Al Capone's gang ran Chicago's South Side, and the story goes that its rough bootleg gin needed sweetening while his North Side rivals drank smoother gin with ginger ale; New York's 21 Club and a Long Island club also claim the drink.

Pink gin, Plymouth gin plus a dash of bitters, is thought to have been created by members of what?

The Royal Navy is credited: its officers took Angostura bitters against seasickness and added Plymouth gin, the Devon naval port's spirit, to make the medicine go down.

Which 1920s Paris cocktail is named after surgeon Serge Voronoff's notorious operations to rejuvenate ageing men?

Monkey Gland was Harry MacElhone's joke at Harry's New York Bar: Voronoff grafted monkey testicle tissue into elderly men, promising them longer, livelier lives.

Which admiral's 1740 order to water sailors' rum gave 'grog' its name?

Edward Vernon ordered his squadron's rum ration watered down in 1740; sailors named the mix 'grog' after his nickname 'Old Grog', earned by the grogram cloak he wore.

The bee's knees, gin with lemon and honey, takes its name from Prohibition-era slang meaning what?

'The best' is what 1920s slang meant by the bee's knees, like the cat's pyjamas; a 1929 newspaper article credited the gin, lemon and honey drink to the 'Unsinkable' Molly Brown of Titanic fame.

The 1988 bartending film Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise, won which dubious award?

Razzie for Worst Picture went to Cocktail at the 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards, which also gave it Worst Screenplay; it still grossed about $171 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.

Which cocktail packs vodka, gin, tequila, rum and triple sec into one glass with a splash of cola?

Long Island iced tea contains no tea at all; it merely looks like a glass of it. A New York bar and a Tennessee community, both in places called Long Island, each claim to have invented it.

Which child film star of the 1930s gave her name to an alcohol-free mix of ginger ale and grenadine?

Shirley Temple disliked the drink named after her, calling it too sweet. In 1988 she went to court to stop a bottled version being sold under her name.

Which 1998 Coen brothers comedy made the White Russian the favourite drink of its slacker hero, the Dude?

The Big Lebowski has Jeff Bridges's bowling slacker drinking the cocktail all through the film. Its popularity surged after the release.

Which actor became the first James Bond to speak the famous shaken-martini order himself, in the 1964 film Goldfinger?

Sean Connery only got to say the line in his third outing; in the first Bond film, two years earlier, the villain spoke it instead. The phrase itself first appeared in Ian Fleming's 1956 novel Diamonds Are Forever.

In an early English test of a spirit's 'proof', which substance was soaked in liquor to see if it still burned?

Gunpowder that still flared after a soaking showed the liquor was 'above proof'. In the United States the figure is simply twice the percentage of alcohol by volume.

Which singer-songwriter spun his 1977 hit Margaritaville into a chain of themed restaurants, stores and hotels?

Jimmy Buffett started small: his first Margaritaville shop opened in Key West in 1985. The song itself peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, his highest-charting solo single.

Giuseppe Cipriani created the Bellini as a seasonal Prosecco special at Harry's Bar in which Italian city?

Venice also supplied the name: the drink's pink glow reminded Cipriani of a painting by the 15th-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini.

Which HBO series about four New York women made the pink cosmopolitan its heroine's regular order on nights out?

Sex and the City was not the drink's first celebrity boost: Madonna had already helped make it popular earlier in the 1990s.

Which bar order, a glass of beer with a shot of whiskey, is said to have begun among Montana miners?

The boilermaker is traced to 1890s Butte, where it was first called a Sean O'Farrell and served only as miners ended their shifts. Drop the shot glass into the beer and it becomes a depth charge.

Which TV drama made the old fashioned the regular order of its hard-drinking 1960s ad man, Don Draper?

Mad Men gave Draper a drink far older than he was: 'old-fashioned cocktails' were already in print by 1880. That is a year before the founding of the Louisville club often credited with inventing it.

Which bartender's tool is used like a pestle to crush mint, fruit or sugar in the bottom of a glass?

A muddler mashes herbs, fruit and spices to release their flavour before the liquid goes in. Mojitos, caipirinhas and mint juleps all start with one.

Blind pig and blind tiger were alternative American names for which type of illicit establishment?

A speakeasy sold alcohol illegally, and the word is older than Prohibition: 'speak easy shop' turns up in a British naval memoir written in 1844.

Which hourglass-shaped bar measure, patented in double-ended form in 1893, typically holds 1.5 US fluid ounces?

A jigger was a bigger pour before Prohibition, when the word meant about 2 US fluid ounces. Cornelius Dungan of Chicago patented the familiar design of two unequal cones.

Which bar order means a single spirit poured at room temperature with no ice, water or mixer?

Neat means nothing at all is done to the spirit. Ask for the same drink 'up' and it is shaken or stirred with ice first, then served without the ice in a stemmed glass.

What name is given to the bartending style of juggling bottles and shakers, as seen in the 1988 film Cocktail?

Flair got its Hollywood moment after Touchstone Pictures hired bartender John Bandy to train Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown for the film.

Camillo Negroni, whose stiffer order gave the Negroni its name, is usually styled with which noble title?

Count Negroni is said to have asked for gin in place of the fizzy water in his usual long drink. In the same story, the bartender changed the garnish to orange to mark the new drink.

Which Dutch Caribbean territory gives its name to the citrus-peel liqueur that is dyed to colour blue cocktails?

Curaçao liqueur is flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha, an orange descended from Seville oranges planted by Spanish explorers in 1527. Its flesh is unpalatable; only the peel is prized.

Which bar term names a strip of citrus zest added to a martini or old fashioned as a garnish?

A twist may be named for its curled shape or for the squeeze that releases its oils into the drink. Bartenders cut it fresh from the fruit just before serving.

What name, coined in 1890s America, covers a spirit lengthened with a larger pour of fizzy mixer?

Highball arrived as a new word for whisky and fizzy water, a fashion that had crossed from Britain. One theory traces it to Irish slang in which a 'ball' was a glass.

Which grape brandy is the base of the frothy sour invented in 1920s Lima by American bartender Victor Morris?

Pisco is made in both Peru and Chile, and the two countries mix the sour differently: the Chilean version leaves out the egg white and the bitters.

London's Brooks's Club first mixed the Black Velvet, stout topped with fizz, in 1861 to mourn the death of whom?

Prince Albert was Queen Victoria's consort, and the dark stout was meant to put even the bubbly into mourning, like the black armbands worn by the bereaved.

A Bloody Mary made with gin as its base spirit is most often sold under which other name?

Red Snapper is the most familiar of the spin-offs, alongside the Bloody Maria, made with tequila, and the alcohol-free Virgin Mary.

Which cocktail, a Manhattan made with Scotch, was named at the Waldorf Astoria in 1894 after a new operetta?

Rob Roy the operetta, by composer Reginald De Koven, had just premiered in New York. A Scotch Manhattan had already appeared in a London bar guide ten years earlier, without the catchy name.

The Blood and Sand cocktail takes its name from a 1922 bullfighting film starring which silent-screen idol?

Rudolph Valentino played the bullfighter. The cocktail, first printed in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, is one of the few classics built on Scotch.

Which showman bartender, famed for his flaming Blue Blazer, wrote the first drinks guide published in the United States?

Jerry Thomas, nicknamed 'Professor', made his signature drink by setting whiskey alight and pouring it between two glasses in an arc of flame. His 1862 guide earned him the title of father of American mixology.

The word vermouth comes from the German name for which herb, also the defining botanical of absinthe?

Wormwood, 'Wermut' in German, went into German wines from around the 16th century. Around then an Italian merchant began making his own version, and the French pronunciation of the word stuck.

St-Germain, a liqueur created in the 2000s by distiller Robert Cooper, is flavoured with which blossom?

Elderflower petals for St-Germain are picked over a few weeks each spring in France's Savoie region, and are often carried to collection points by bicycle to avoid damaging them.

Midori melon liqueur was launched in the United States in 1978 at a party in which New York nightclub?

Studio 54 hosted the launch at a party thrown by the cast and crew of Saturday Night Fever. The Japanese liqueur had been on sale since 1964 under another name; 'midori' simply means green.

Which Midwestern US state loves the brandy old fashioned so much that the drink became its official state cocktail?

Wisconsin made it official in 2023. A popular tale credits Korbel brandy samples at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, but the habit more likely took hold when other spirits ran short after the Second World War.

Which New York borough names a gin, vermouth and orange juice cocktail once ranked the world's third most famous?

Bronx cocktails trailed only the Martini and the Manhattan on a 1934 list of the world's most famous. The drink is essentially a martini with orange juice added, credited to a Waldorf-Astoria bartender.

Which French drink of white wine and blackcurrant liqueur is named after a 20th-century mayor of Dijon?

Kir was a plain local drink until Mayor Félix Kir let a Dijon liqueur maker use his name, then gave its rivals the same right. Made with fizz instead of still wine, it becomes a Kir royal.

Which French wine-based drink did both Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother famously take mixed with gin?

Dubonnet earned a Royal Warrant from Elizabeth II in 2021. She took hers before lunch with two cubes of ice and a slice of citrus; her mother liked an even smaller share of gin.

Spain's Basque Country gave the name kalimotxo to an equal-parts mix of cola and which other drink?

Red wine and cola were being mixed in the region by the 1920s, but the name dates from a 1972 festival in Algorta. It blends the nicknames of its two creators, Kalimero and Motxongo.

A 1936 New York court ruling said which rum brand must be used in any cocktail sold under its name?

Bacardi got the backing of the New York Supreme Court on 28 April 1936. The drink itself began as a plain daiquiri; the red version made with grenadine arose later in the United States.

The Fuzzy Navel, a hit of the mid-1980s, mixes orange juice with which sweet liqueur?

Peach schnapps was a novelty then: DeKuyper's Peachtree, the first sold in the United States, launched in 1984 and was the country's top-selling schnapps within a year.

Which type of cocktail strainer, invented in the 1890s, uses a coiled metal spring around its rim to hold back ice?

Hawthorne strainers take their name from the Hawthorne Café in Boston. They arrived as an improvement on the older Julep type, a perforated bowl with a handle.

What do bartenders call agitating an egg-white cocktail in the tin with no ice first, to build a foamy head?

A dry shake helps build the foamy head; a second shake with ice then chills the drink. One amaretto sour recipe calls for five seconds dry, then fifteen with ice.

Which cocktail stirrer was first made on a West Indies rum plantation in the 18th century?

Swizzle stick is also the nickname of the tree, Quararibea turbinata, whose branches were used on an 18th-century rum plantation. Tiki bars later turned the stirrers into ornate souvenirs.

Which Havana bar, its walls covered in customers' signatures, lays claim to being the birthplace of the mojito?

La Bodeguita del Medio began in 1942 as a small shop selling Cuban products, where regulars gathered to drink. Chile's Salvador Allende and the poet Pablo Neruda were later among its patrons.

Which French name is given to a drink of liqueurs poured in separate coloured layers according to their densities?

Pousse-café relies on each liqueur being slightly heavier than the one above, so the bands stay apart if poured gently. One barman was known to have stacked 34 of them in a single small glass.

Which bar technique flavours a spirit by stirring in melted bacon grease, freezing it and lifting off the solid layer?

Fat washing leaves the savoury flavour in the spirit once the solidified layer is removed. It is the method behind the bacon martini, which has been served with a piece of bacon at the bottom of the glass.

Joe Scialom mixed the Suffering Bastard as a hangover cure for Allied troops at Shepheard's Hotel in which city?

Cairo's soldiers reportedly liked it so much that a telegram asked for gallons of it to be sent to the front. With bourbon added, Scialom called the drink a Dying Bastard.

The gin-based Pegu Club cocktail was the signature drink of a British colonial club just outside which Asian city?

Rangoon's Pegu Club was named after a Burmese river and drew senior British officials, officers and businessmen. A New York bar that borrowed the name in 2005 helped drive that city's cocktail revival.

Belgian barman Gustave Tops created the Black Russian in 1949 at the Hotel Metropole in which city?

Brussels's Hotel Metropole was hosting Perle Mesta, the United States ambassador to Luxembourg, and Tops mixed the dark drink in her honour.

Which bartender, nicknamed King Cocktail, championed classic recipes at New York's Rainbow Room from 1987 to 1999?

Dale DeGroff insisted on classic recipes and high-quality ingredients when that was unusual. Bars across the city copied him, and his approach helped launch the craft cocktail movement.

In which 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel does narrator Jake Barnes sip a Jack Rose cocktail in a Paris hotel bar?

The Sun Also Rises has Barnes order the drink at the Hôtel de Crillon while he waits for Lady Brett Ashley. Its name is probably a blend of applejack and its rosy colour.

The Rickey, reputedly devised in the 1880s with a colonel of that name, is the official native cocktail of which city?

Washington gave the drink that title in 2011. Bartender George Williamson first made it with bourbon at Shoomaker's bar, and little or no sugar goes in.

What name do absinthe drinkers give the milky clouding that appears when water is dripped into the glass?

The louche forms because aniseed oils dissolve in strong alcohol but not in water, so dilution forces them out as tiny droplets. Scientists call it the ouzo effect.

Tommy's margarita, sweetened with agave nectar instead of triple sec, was created at a Mexican restaurant in which city?

San Francisco bartender Julio Bermejo wanted the sweetener to bring out the agave in the tequila, even though agave nectar was costly then. His drink went on to join the IBA's official cocktail list.

A shrub, the sweetened fruit cordial mixed into drinks since America's colonial era, gets its sharp tang from what?

Vinegar earns the cordial its other name, drinking vinegar. By the mid-1800s a raspberry version blended with brandy or rum was already known as raspberry shrub.