Types of Alcoholic Drinks
Depending on the cocktail authority you choose to follow, there are a couple of different ways to approach categorizing cocktails.
When the Drink is Served
Aperitif: Aperitifs are drinks traditionally served as appetizers before meals. Any drink that contains gin, vermouth or Campari are good choices. Popular before dinner cocktails are the Martini, Gibson, Rob Roy, Gimlet, Manhatten, & Whiskey Sour.
Digestifs: For centuries, Europeans have sipped a small glass of herbal liqueur after a meal. These traditional spirits supposedly help settle the stomach and aid in digestion. For this reason they are called digestifs. Common digestifs include amari (like Fernet, Averna, and Cynar), armagnacs, bitters (like Becherovka and Underberg), brandies, cognacs, grappa, herbal liqueur, limoncello, sweet liqueurs such as Grand Marnier, ouzo, scotch, tequila, and whiskies. There are some heavy and sweet wines that are served as digestifs. Madeira, port, and sherry including cream sherry are examples of wines that are sometimes served as digestifs. In addition to being heavier wines, they are also generally fortified.
Pick-Me-Up: Any concoction designed to allay the effects of overindulgence in alcoholic beverages.
Nightcap: Any drink that is taken immediately before retiring. Milk punches, toddies, and short drinks such as liqueurs or fortified wines are favored.
Way in Which Liquor is Served
Neat: served directly from the bottle; no ice. A straight shot of any spirit taken in a single gulp without any accompaniment.
Shooter: A straight shot of whiskey or other kind of spirit taken neat (no ice). Also the name for drinks made using various liquors served in a shooter glass without ice.
Straight Up: served chilled; no ice (often shaken with ice, then strained into glass)
On the Rocks: Any wine or spirit poured over ice cubes, usually in Old Fashioned glass. (See Lowball)
Lowball or Old fashioned:
A short drink made of spirits served with ice alone ("on the rocks"), or a "splash" of water or soda in a short, round, 8–12 ounce tumbler-like glass, called a lowball, rocks or an Old-Fashioned glass, being named after a popular drink served in this glass (See Glassware). Lowballs are also call short drinks in that the liquor is the main ingredient. Examples are:
Highball:
A highball is a mixed alcoholic drink composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer, often a carbonated beverage. Examples include the Seven and Seven, Scotch and soda, gin and tonic, and rum and Coke. A highball is typically served over ice in a large straight-sided highball glass or Collins glass. Initially, the most common highball was made with Scotch whisky and carbonated water, known simply as a 'Scotch and soda'.
Frozen: mixed in a blender with ice to a slushy consistency
Virgin: A non-alcoholic variation of a drink, such as a Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri.
Categories of Cocktails
Gary Regan in his ''Joy of Mixology'' takes a highly unusual taxonomic approach to cocktail-making. Like Linnaeus, he surveys the teeming, seemingly chaotic population of mixed drinks and imposes order by dividing them into families, each with its own distinctive features that make it different from the rest.
Thinking in terms of categories and families is a strong framework for understanding mixed drinks. When you think of the Sidecar as a cousin to the Margarita and Whiskey Sour, you begin to understand the similarities of those drinks. But then, there are the differences to think of, too. A Sidecar's citrus component is lemon juice, but the Daiquiri and Margarita use lime. Why? What is it about rum and tequila that pairs better with lime juice?
The following categories come from Paul Clarke, writing for Writing for Serious Eats, and Gary Regan's 2003 book, The Joy of Mixology:
Ancestrals - 19th century-style cocktails such as the Old Fashioned
Spirit-Forward Cocktails - Manhattan, Martini, Negroni
Duos and Trios - Scotch and Drambuie; White Russian
Sours (Collins, Fizz, Sling) - made of liquor, citrus, and a sweetener (either sugar or liqueur), such as Margaritas and Daiquiris
Highballs and Other Long Drinks
Champagne Cocktails - such as French 75
Juleps and Smashes - muddled drinks
Tropical-Style Drinks - such as Tiki drinks
"Snappers" (Bloodies) - such as Bloody Mary
Hot Drinks - Irish Coffee, Toddies
Beer- and Cider-Based Drinks
Flips and Nogs - Drinks using whole eggs
Punches
Cobblers
Pousse Family - layered drinks made of sweet liqueurs
Old (and Odd) Birds - Wine-based Cocktails, Mulls, Negus
Ancestrals:
These are among the original, ur-cocktails, early 19th century-style cocktails, listed in vintage bar guides as simply "Whiskey Cocktail" or "Improved Gin Cocktail" and the like. These drinks are composed of a base spirit lightly adorned with sugar (in some cases, the sweetener appears in the form of a dash or two of liqueur such as maraschino or curacao), bitters, and water (usually in its frozen form), and served either straight up or on the rocks. Think here of the Old Fashioned, the Improved Gin Cocktail, or the Sazerac. In some craft-cocktail bars and cocktail-astute households you can get a nice Improved Gin (or Whiskey, or Brandy, etc.) Cocktail, sweetened and flavored with a teaspoon or so of curacao, maraschino and/or absinthe. These are simple and strong, and when properly executed they're exceptionally tasty.
Cocktail: The basic "Cock-Tail," the cornerstone of American mixology. Originally, around 1800, this was a simple drink: a shot of liquor (any liquor) stirred up with a lump of sugar, a squirt or two of bitters, and a generous splash of water. (That's right -- an Old-Fashioned, more or less, but without any of that orange-cherry-pineapple nonsense that some folks inflict on it.)
The earliest known "definition" of what a "cock tail" is was published in "The Balance and Columbian Repository" on May 13th, 1806. "Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling"
Spirit-Forward Cocktails:
These drinks take the Ancestrals and add vermouth and sometimes other liqueurs. One of the great innovations in mixology took place around the 1880s, when vermouth and other fortified wines were mixed into the Ancestrals to subdue the alcohol's bite and to add complexity of flavor. Spirit-Forward Cocktails are usually composed of a base spirit with a modifier of vermouth, or another fortified wine such as sherry, quinquina, or port, often accompanied by other ingredients such as bitters or small doses of liqueurs or syrups. These drinks are properly prepared by stirring the mixture with ice (rather than shaking it in a cocktail shaker), and are served straight up or, less frequently, on the rocks. If fruit appears at all, it's either as a small amount of syrup, or in the form of a twist of lemon or orange peel, or as a cherry on a pick as garnish.
It is vermouth that eased the way from the proto-cocktails of the early 19th century, which were little more than gin or whiskey with sugar and bitters, to modern masterpieces like the Manhattan, Martini, Negroni (and similar drinks, such as the Boulevardier). Regan points out an important note: "French" vermouths, also known as dry or white, generally mix better with gin and vodka, whereas "Italian", sweet or red, are better partners with dark spirits such as whiskies and rums.
Milanese Drinks:
Here are classed any drink that calls for Campari: the Negroni, the Americano. The name "Milanese" refers to Campari's place of origin, but it fails to clarify anything about what kind of drink it is. In addition to quibbling about the name, I'd broaden the category to include any cocktail in which an amaro plays a prominent role. But Gary's onto something important by grouping amari-based cocktails separately; their bitter, herbal notes really do separate them from the Martinis, Mojitos, and Margaritas of other families.
Duos and Trios:
Similar to a Spirit-Forward. For a Duo, you start with a spirit and add a liqueur such as amaretto, creme de cocoa, Kalua, Chartreuse, cherry brandy, etc.. An example is the Alaska—gin and yellow Chartreuse—or the Rusty Nail—Scotch and Drambuie. To make a Trio, you add cream or cream-based liqueur. Examples include the White Russian and the Brandy Alexander. What's interesting about this category is how the cream or cream liqueur completely changes the type of drink. An Alaska might be a perfect before-dinner cocktail, whereas a Brandy Alexander is more of a dessert beverage.
Black Russian - vodka, Kahlua
White Russian - vodka, Kahlua, half and half
Brandy Alexander - brandy, dark cream de cacao, half and half
Sours (short drinks made of lemon or lime juice, sugar, and spirits):
The perfect combination of citrusy freshness and mellowing sweetness, backed by the rich warmth of alcohol, Sours are one of the earliest cocktail types on record (Brandy Sours were big in the 1850s), and their modern cousins (Cosmos, for instance) are still holding their own. Margaritas, Sidecars, Daiquiris. The category consists of drinks made of liquor, citrus, and a sweetener (either sugar or liqueur). Also see Sours page.
Sour: A short drink made with lemon or lime juice, sugar, and spirits. The whiskey Sour is the classic Sour, but may be made with vodka, gin, rum, brandy, or various liqueurs, especially fruit-flavored cordials such as apricot or peach. The golden formula for an easy sour cocktail breaks down like this: 2 ounces spirit, 1 ounce sweet, 1 ounce sour. The sweet element is often simple syrup, an equal mix of water and sugar. However, options for sweet ingredients can also include an endless array of other syrups and liqueurs, such as grenadine, triple sec, falernum, honey syrup (equal parts honey and water), agave syrup, maraschino liqueur, limoncello, amaretto or anything else with a predominantly sugary taste. The sour element is almost always lemon or lime juice, preferably fresh.
Sidecar: brandy, lemon juice, triple sec.
Whiskey Sours: Bourbon, lemon juice, triple sec.
Margarita: tequila, lime juice, triple sec.
Daiquiri: rum, lime juice, simple syrup.
Cosmopolitan: citrus vodka, lime juice, triple sec, cranberry juiceCrusta: A short drink of the sour type served in a glass that is completely lined with an orange or lemon peel cut in a continuous strip. Crustas always contain a spirit, lemon juice and sugar - sometimes in the form of a liqueur or liqueurs. They are so named due to their sugar rim, which should be applied hours before the drink is made so that it is dried hard, or indeed crusty, when the drink is served. Crustas are also distinguished by being garnished with a band of orange or lemon zest, and are drunk from the rim of the fruit, rather than the rim of the glass.
The invention of the Crusta is credited to a Joseph Santina at the Jewel of the South or a Joseph Santini at the City Exchange in New Orleans sometime during the 1840s or 1850s. Santini came up with the Brandy Crusta, the absolute pinnacle of the nineteenth-century bartender's art. It first appeared in print as 'The Brandy Crusta' in Jerry Thomas' 1862 Bartender's Guide.
As David A. Embury writes in his 1948 The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, "The distinguishing feature of the Crusta is that the entire inside of the glass is lined with lemon or orange peel. The drink may be served in either a wineglass or an Old-Fashioned glass, although it is much harder to make the peel fit in the Old-Fashioned glass." Embury goes on to say, "While the 'Brandy Crusta' is the most common form of this drink, it is, after all, merely a Sour-type drink served in fancy style. Substitution of a different liquor as a base will give a Gin Crusta, a Rum Crusta, an Applejack Crusta, a Whisky Crusta, and so on."
Highballs and Other Long Drinks:
Highball (spirit + mixer over ice in tall glasses):
Highball is the name for a family of mixed drinks that are composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer served over ice in a medium to tall highball glass. The ratio can range from 1:2 liquor to mixer, for the classic form, up to 1:4 if you're looking for a weaker drink. Originally, the most common highball was made with Scotch whisky and carbonated water. Other carbonated beverages may be used, but if other ingredients are added, it is no longer a Highball in the traditional sense. The name Highball is now extended to any drink that uses a high proportion of juice to spirit, as in the Cape Codder (vodka and cranberry juice) or the Screwdriver (vodka and orange juice).
The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that the name originated around 1898 and probably derives from ball meaning a "drink of whiskey" and high because it is served in a tall glass. Another possible explanation comes from the time of drinking. A highball, as opposed to a cocktail which is drunk in the evening before dinner, is drunk in the afternoon when the sun is high (ball referring to the sun) and should be light and refreshing. A highball is typically served in large straight-sided glass, for example, a highball glass or a Collins glass, with ice. The proportions of some highballs, such as the Alabama Slammer, may be altered—made with little or no mixer—and served as a shooter.
Well-known examples of highballs include:
Jack and Coke - Jack Daniel's and Coke
Cuba Libre - Rum and CokeCuba Libre translated means "Free Cuba" and was popularized around the end of the Spanish American War. This mixed drink is similar to a Rum & Coke, but the addition of fresh lime juice lightens up the drink and defines the Cuba Libre.
Scotch and Soda
Seven and Seven - Seagram's Seven and Seven-up
Moscow Mule - 2 parts vodka, 3 parts ginger beer, and 1 part lime juicePopular during the vodka craze in the United States during the 1950s. The cocktail was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., an East Coast spirits and food distributor, and "Jack" Morgan, President of Cock 'n' Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of the Cock 'n' Bull restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles popular with celebrities.
Gin and Tonic
Gin Rickey - similar to Gin and Tonic, but uses soda water instead of tonic
Cape Codder - vodka and cranberry juice
Sex on the Beach ("tropical highball") - no carbonated soda, fruit juice instead
Dark 'n' Stormy - rum, ginger beer and lime
MojitoCooler: There are many recipes for coolers, which all have these things in common: true coolers are made with ginger ale, club soda, or another carbonated beverage, and the rind of a lemon or orange, cut in a continuous spiral, with one end hooked over the rim of the glass. All coolers are served in tall glasses such as a Collins glass.
Daisy: A Daisy is a Sour that's sweetened with a little orange liqueur, strained and then fizzed. (It's the orange liqueur that makes a Daisy a Daisy and not a Fizz and distinguishes the daisy from other sour cocktails.) That makes a traditional Daisy a traditional long drink made with a base spirit, lemon juice, sugar and orange liqueur or grenadine and topped off with fizzy water. The most common daisy cocktail is the Brandy Daisy, followed by the Whiskey Daisy. If you make your Daisy with tequila and lime (instead of lemon) you have a margarita.
The Brandy Daisy is a cocktail which first gained popularity in the late 19th century. One of the earliest known recipes was published in 1876 in the second edition of Jerry Thomas's The Bartenders Guide or How To Mix Drinks: The Bon-Vivants Companion.
The daisy was the forerunner to other popular cocktails, notably the Sidecar, from around the end of World War I, and the Margarita, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Even as the margarita has become especially popular during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, its base spirit has also surfaced in both tequila daisies and tequila sidecars.
Fix: A sour drink similar to the Daisy that usually includes pineapple juice and crushed ice. Served in a large goblet.
Collins: Basically a sour in a tall glass with club soda or seltzer water. The famous Tom Collins made with gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water has been extended to include everything from applejack (a Jack Collins) to Irish whiskey (Mike Collins).
Rickey: A drink that is a cross between a Collins and a sour. It consists of lime or lemon juice, club soda, and alcohol. Unlike the Collins and sour, it contains no added sugar. Usually served with ice in a small highball or Rickey glass. Named for Colonel Joe Rickey, and old-time Washington loggyist.
Fizz: Historically, this is pretty much the same thing as a Collins, except the spirit and modifiers (not including the soda) are shaken with ice and strained into a small glass, then topped with an ounce or so of soda and served without ice. Made from liquor, citrus juices and sugar. Shaken with ice and strained into a highball glass. Soda "fizz" water is then added. There are many fine old recipes for Fizzes, which are as the name suggests, products of the old siphon bottle that "fizzed" the drink with a stream of bubbles as it was being made. The Gin Fizz is typical and similar to the Tom Collins. Any carbonated beverage even champagne may be used. As you might expect, this kind of drink can quickly grow warm and flat; and as you probably figured out, they're intended to be knocked back in short order, before any such misfortune can occur. Examples include the Silver Fizz and the Ramos Fizz.
Sling: One of the earliest drinks along with the toddy. A tall drink made with either brandy, whiskey or gin, with lemon juice, sugar and soda water. It is served both hot and cold. Made like sangarees with the addition of lemon juice and a twist of lemon peel. Served in an old fashioned glass.
Buck and Mule: slightly antiquated names for a family of historic mixed drinks that involve ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and any of a number of base liquors. The origin of the cocktail is obscure. Claims abound that the Buck takes its name from The Buck's Club a London social club founded in 1919, which did indeed feature a drink called The Buck's Fizz, created by a bartender who worked there by the name of McGarry. Unfortunately, the Buck's Fizz contains neither spirit, nor sour citrus, nor ginger beer. Instead it consists of Brut Champagne and fresh orange juice, and if made to the standards of McGarry, a touch of good grenadine. In other words, a Buck's Fizz is what we know as a Mimosa, something decidedly not a Buck in the liquor, ginger and citrus vein. Another theory is that it evolved from the Horses Neck, a drink that originally was just ginger beer and a lemon peel. Adding a spirit gave the drink a "kick," hence the horse became a buck. The first change in spirit appears to have been the Horses Collar that subbed brandy for whiskey. From 1930s - 1960s. Moscow Mule was invented in the 1940s.
From 1890 or so, there was The Horse's Neck, a drink that started life as ginger ale with a very long strip of lemon peel inside, and evolved into the Horse's Neck With a Kick, the above fitted out with a slug of whiskey, or more commonly brandy. American in origin, the Horse's Neck (kick version) became a staple of British Navy wardrooms by the 1960s, and was notorious enough that Ian Fleming, in Octopussy, called The Horse's Neck "the drunkard's drink."
Champagne Cocktails:
French 75, Champagne Cocktail, Seelbach. This one's easy, mostly: a drink made with champagne or sparkling wine, either as the base ingredient (as in a Champagne Cocktail or a Buck's Fizz), or splashed atop another drink, typically a sour such as in an Old Cuban, an Air Mail or a French 75, but also applicable to some Spirit-Forward Cocktails as with a Seelbach or an Ancestral-style such as a Morning Glory Royale. For fun, try tapping a half-ounce or so of brut Champagne into a Manhattan sometime—really, it's delicious, dangerously so.
Juleps and Smashes (Muddled Drinks):
A necessarily limited category defined by a heavy emphasis on fresh mint, sugar and the base spirit in the presence of a lot of ice, and a relative scarcity of other modifying ingredients. Obvious examples are the Mint Julep, the Champagne Julep and the Whiskey Smash, and depending on how hard you want to argue about it, the Mojito (which could also fit into the loosely defined highball category).
Julep: A traditionally Southern spirited drink made with fresh mint muddled with sugar, Kentucky bourbon, and plenty of crushed ice served in an ice frosted glass with shaved ice and a mint garnish. It’s served in an iced silver or pewter mug. An American classic.
Smash: Small juleps made of spirits, sugar, and mint, usually served in an Old Fashioned glass. Made from muddled sugar, ice cubes, whiskey, gin, rum or brandy and soda water. A mid-1900's muddled drink that starts with lemon, mint, and a base spirit.
Tropical-Style Drinks:
Also known as "tiki" or "exotic" drinks, these mixtures are designed to evoke some kind of South Pacific / Caribbean fantasyland.
Tropical-style drinks are mostly single-serving punch-style drinks featuring a base spirit, fruit juice and syrups or liqueurs, often deployed in various combinations. Unlike sours, these drinks are typically served with an abundance of ice—sometimes as cubes, sometimes crushed and with everything swizzled together, and sometimes everything is tossed in a blender and the bartender just lets 'er rip. Blurring the boundaries with Punch, some tropical-style drinks are prepared in a larger format, for sharing in a communal bowl.
The simplest tropical-style drinks are relatives of the Daiquiri with one foot in the Sour category—think Planter's Punch—while the more exotic can be amazingly complex, such as with the legendary Zombie. And while rum accounts for the base ingredient in a vast number of tropical-style drinks, there are some excellent drinks of this style made with tequila, bourbon or gin, such as the Singapore Sling.
Swizzle: Originally a tall rum cooler filled with cracked ice that was swizzled with a long twig, stirring rod or spoon rotated rapidly between the palms of the hands to produce frost on the glass. The Swizzle, a Caribbean invention, is made with any kind of spirit today and is traditionally served in a tall highball or Collins glass.
Grog: Originally a mixture of rum and water, commonly served in a large mug, that was issued to sailors in the Royal Navy and later improved with the addition of lime juice and sugar. Now a Grog is any kind of drink, usually made with a rum base, fruit, and various sweeteners, and served either hot or cold in a large mug or glass. Reputedly named after Admiral Edward Vernon, who was called "Old Grog" because of the grogram cape he wore.
Grog was invented by sailors in the British Navy a few centuries ago. Freshwater aboard sailing ships tended to become slimy with algae and other microbes growing in it. This made the water quite unpalatable. To try to get around this, sailors were issued rations of beer or wine to mix with the water to improve the taste. However, this proved to be impractical on long voyages as it took a significant amount of beer and wine, which had to be stored aboard the ship. Around the 17th and 18th centuries, rum began becoming very popular and it was soon common to substitute rum for the beer or wine ration. Rum is much stronger than beer or wine, particularly then, and so a smaller amount could be given (often around a half a pint per sailor per day). This change (allowing for a substitute of a half pint of rum instead of the normal one gallon of beer per day) was officially made in 1731 when it was added to the Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea.
Other commanders used different ratios, but the general idea of mixing the rum with the water before distributing it to the sailors caught on throughout the Royal Navy and became the official standard practice in 1756. Admiral Vernon also added lime to the mixture to sweeten it, something which wasn't initially adopted on all navy ships. However, soon after James Lind proved that scurvy could be prevented simply by giving sailors citrus fruit in 1747, the practice of adding lime or lemon juice to the mixture became popular throughout the Royal Navy.
"Snappers" (Bloodies):
Can the Bloody Mary be considered a highball? I'm going to shrug on that one and just give the damn thing its own subcategory, because once you start adding celery salt and Worcestershire sauce to a drink, you're about as far from a whiskey-and-soda as you can get. These are easy, and flexible: tomato juice spiked with liquor, flavored and garnished with pretty much whatever floats your boat. In addition to the familiar Mary, there are her relatives—the Bloody Caesar (mostly found in Canada), the Bloody Maria with tequila, and so on and so forth. One rule about the Bloodies, which is way-too-often ignored: these are morning drinks (even if your concept of morning extends into the afternoon); once the sun is down, reach for something else.
Savory cocktails. Bloody Marys, Bloody Caesars, Bloody Marias, etc. The Snapper originated as the Red Snapper, in a Parisian bar called The New Yorker in the 1920s. It's actually almost certainly the predecessor of Bloody Mary; it has all the same ingredients, except with gin instead of vodka. That makes a bigger difference than you might think.
A Caesar or Bloody Caesar is a cocktail created and primarily consumed in Canada. It typically contains vodka, Clamato (a proprietary blend of tomato juice and clam broth), hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce, and is served with ice in a large, celery salt-rimmed glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and wedge of lime. What distinguishes it from a Bloody Mary is the inclusion of clam broth."
Hot Drinks:
These are drinks that are, duh, served hot. In the days before central heating, there were a hell of a lot of different kinds of hot drinks in circulation; nowadays, we usually turn to only a few during the darkest months of winter. This catch-all category includes everything from coffee-based drinks such as an Irish Coffee, to a Hot Buttered Rum, a Hot Toddy and a Tom & Jerry (which could also arguably fit into the Flips and Nogs category).
Toddy: A sweetened drink of liquor and hot water, often with spices and served in a tall glass. This works really great if you've got a cold or flu.
Originally a hot drink made with spirits, sugar, spices such as cinnamon, cloves, etc and a lemon peel mixed with hot water and served in a tall glass. Now a Toddy may be served cold with ice, and any combination of spices and spirits.
Beer- and Cider-Based Drinks:
Adding a bump to your beer is a tradition that goes back centuries, and the Stone Fence—hard cider with a shot of rum, brandy, whiskey or what-have-you dumped in it—predates the Republic. These drinks can be excellent, but recent fads notwithstanding, they're still not all that prominent. Great examples to try include the Black Velvet and the Green Devil.
Flips and Nogs:
Drinks using whole eggs. Egg whites pop up occasionally in sours and fizzes, but flips and nogs are defined by the inclusion of the whole egg. With time, the distinction between egg nog (a spirit, egg, cream, sugar, and spice) and a flip (a spirit, egg, sugar, spice, but no cream) was gradually codified in America's bar guides. Tom & Jerry is basically a hot eggnog.
Eggnog: A traditional Christmas holiday bowl containing a delectable combination of eggs, sugar, cream or milk, and brandy, rum, or bourbon served cold in individual cups in all it's rich, creamy goodness.
Flip: An egg nog and fizz combination. Made with liquor, egg, sugar, and shaved ice, shaken well, and Sprinkled with nutmeg. A chilled, creamy drink made of eggs, sugar, and a wine or spirit. The Brandy Flip and the Sherry Flip are perhaps best known. The Flip began in Colonial times as a hot drink made of spirits, beer, eggs, cream, and spices, mulled with a red-hot flip iron, or flip dog that was plunged into the drink.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in 1695 to describe a mixture of beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron ("Thus we live at sea; eat biscuit, and drink flip"). The iron caused the drink to froth, and this frothing (or "flipping") engendered the name. Over time, eggs were added and the proportion of sugar increased, the beer was eliminated, and the drink ceased to be served hot.
The first bar guide to feature a flip (and to add eggs to the list of ingredients) was Jerry Thomas's 1862 How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon-Vivant's Companion. In this work, Thomas declares that, "The essential in flips of all sorts is to produce the smoothness by repeated pouring back and forward between two vessels and beating up the eggs well in the first instance the sweetening and spices according to taste."
Punches:
This is where the party comes in. Almost all of the drinks in the other categories are usually prepared in single servings. Punch, which predates them all, is more of a group effort. Punch can be served hot or cold, strong or weak, with as much complexity and fanfare as you can possibly muster or as simple and as basic as can be.
Punch: A combination of spirits, wine, sweeteners, flavorings, fruit garnishes, and sometimes various carbonated beverages mixed in and served from a large bowl to a number of people.
Cup: Individually made punches. A punch-type drink that is made by the cup, for instance Pimm's No. 1 Cup, or glass instead of in a punch bowl.
History of Punch
Planter's Punch
Rum Punch
Whiskey Sour Punch
Picon Punch
Pimm's No. 1 Cup
Cobblers:
A class of drinks that has fallen out of currency. It's made from a base spirit (or sometimes a wine or fortified wine) and a sweetener, such as a syrup or a liqueur. You build them in a manner similar to a julep. Fill a glass with crushed ice and stir until a thin film of ice forms on the glass. Garnish generously with fruit. Dating to the earliest days of mixology, Cobblers are simply a base spirit or fortified wine such as sherry, mixed with a little sugar and served in a glass packed with crushed ice and garnished with an abundance of fresh fruit. Later versions swapped the sugar for a fruit syrup such as raspberry or pineapple, or a liqueur, and sometimes introduced muddled fruit.
Cobbler: A tall summer style drink that consists of ice, wine or liqueur, and a considerable variety of fruit slices, cherries, berries, and so forth. A tall drink traditionally served in a Highball or Collins glass filled with finely crushed ice and decorated with plenty of fresh fruit and mint sprigs. It may use any type of wine or spirit with or without a sweetener. Cobblers are of American origin and are great favorites in all warm climates. Sherry Cobbler, Bourbon Cobbler, Brandy Cobbler.
The Cobbler is an old drink, dating back at least to the 1830s, and was once one of the most popular in America – David Wondrich writes in Imbibe that, in an 1840 in New World article, one author called the Sherry Cobbler "the greatest 'liquorary' invention of the day." And not just America – Wondrich adds that French customers at the 1867 Exposition Universelle de Paris were going through 500 bottles of Sherry, most in the form of Sherry Cobblers served up at the Exposition's American Bar. This fantastic, easy-to-make drink went out of fashion; perhaps we should revive the Cobbler.
Pousse Family:
Nineteenth-century Pousse Cafes were elaborately composed concoctions made of liqueurs and syrups, layered for a distinctive appearance. It's been ages since these sweet, dainty things were in wide circulation, but their recent descendants include those syrupy layered shots that got you (or, okay, "your friend") so wasted in college: the B-52, the Buttery Nipple, the Dirty Leprechaun, and all those other things most of us wouldn't be caught dead drinking nowadays. These days, they linger on mostly in layered shots.
Pousse Café: A sweet, multilayered after-dinner drink made by floating one ingredient on top of another. Success in making it depends upon keeping each layer separate and distinct from the others-a neat trick. The secret is in knowing the relative heaviness of the various liquids that make up the Pousse-cafe.
Old (and Odd) Birds:
The above categories cover almost all the mixed drinks you're likely to encounter in a lifetime. Almost. But there are other styles of drinks that were once popular but have faded over the years, or that really don't fit into any of the major categories. These include:
Wine-based Cocktails
Other than Champagne cocktails, which remain in lively circulation, drinks based on wine are currently kinda scarce. The early years of mixology saw a greater preponderance of drinks based on fortified wines such as vermouth or sherry; today, not so much. That's too bad, because some of these drinks can be very pleasant; for examples, check out the Rose, the Adonis and the Bamboo.Sangaree: A tall drink made with whiskey, gin, rum, or brandy, with port wine floated on top, or with wine, ale porter or stout, with a sprinkle of nutmeg, sometimes sweetened.
While not made with spirits, these are historical drinks made with wine:
Mulls: Wine or wine drinks that are heated and served as hot punches. Also called mulled wine from the time when drinks were heated with a red-hot poker, loggerhead, or flip iron. A warm drink containing wine, sugar, spices, and possibly a liquor. To warm, spice, and sweeten, a technique that is applied to both wine and ale.
Negus: A hot, sweet drink, with or without spices. Port or sherry is traditional. Named after colonel Francis Negus, an eighteenth-century English luminary. Port wine, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, served warm.
Milk
Throw an egg in the mix and you've got yourself a nog, but leave it out and these drinks are in pretty short supply. One notable exception is the Milk Punch, which despite its name is usually a single-serving mixture. Make it with brandy, or dark rum, or bourbon, or some combination thereof, add some whole milk and sweeten it and flavor it with vanilla or nutmeg as you see fit.Puff: A combination of spirits and milk mixed in equal parts and topped with club soda. Usually served in an Old Fashioned glass.
Posset: An old English invention consisting of a mixture of hot wine, milk, and spices. Eggs were often used, and ale was sometimes used in combination with wine or used in place of it.
Syllabub: An old English recipe consisting of milk, cream, sugar, and spices, blended with sherry, port, or Madeira to produce a very sweet, creamy mixture that is often served in a sherbet glass as a dessert. In a more liquid form it may be drunk like a Posset.
There are certainly other styles of drinks that have appeared in the books over the years, but I won't labor those points, as Sangarees and Daisys are about as common nowadays as spottings of ivory-billed woodpeckers. Regardless, you should be able to fit almost any mixed drink you come across within these categories. Note that "almost" again—mix me a drink, and we can chat about the exceptions to the rule.
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Bang! A term used to identify double- or triple-flavor reinforced drinks such as Cherry Bang! ie, cherry juice, cherry liqueur, and cherry brandy.
Boilermaker: Originally was "a shot-and-a-beer," meaning a shot of whiskey followed by a beer chaser.
Chaser: A mixer that is tossed down the throat after one has drunk a straight shot of whiskey or other spirit instead of being combined with a spirit in the glass. The original chaser was a boiler-maker, which were a shot and a beer. (See Shooter)
Bounce: Predecessors of modern cordials made by macerating fruit in spirits.
Cordial: Sweetened spirits. The same as liqueurs. Liqueurs and cordials are sweet alcohols served as after-dinner beverages or used to accent cocktails. A cordial is any invigorating and stimulating preparation; e.g., peppermint cordial. The term derives from obsolete medicinal usage, as various beverages were concocted which were believed to be beneficial to one's health, especially for the heart (cordialis in Latin).
Most cordials were of European origin, first produced in Italian apothecaries during the Renaissance where the art of distilling was refined during the 15th and 16th centuries. It is from this origin that cordials are frequently referred to in French as Liqueurs d'ltalie, it is also from this that we have liqueurs. From the Renaissance onwards, cordials were usually based on alcohol in which certain herbs, spices or other ingredients were allowed to steep. These were strictly used as alcoholic medicines, prescribed in small doses to invigorate and revitalise the heart, body and spirit as well as cure diseases. By the 18th century cordials were being imbided for their intoxicating effects and medicinal virtues, and were fast becoming recreational drinks, eventually evolving into liqueurs.
Dry: not sweet
Frappé: A drink made by packing a glass with crushed ice and pouring liqueur over it. A partially frozen, often fruity drink, that is usually a mixture of ingredients served over a mound of crushed ice. The Frappé (which comes from the French word "fraper", meaning "to shake") is now a broad term to include a multitude of iced, shaken and blended drinks. The Café Frappe which includes coffee (originally instant but now more likely with fresh espresso) is the most popular version, but almost any milk based blended cold drink could be loosely termed a frappe.
Greek-style frappe: According to popular legend, the Greek-style frappe was invented in September 1957 at the annual Thessaloniki International Fair in the convention center of Greece's second largest city. Working at an exhibit for Andreas Dritsas, then the Greek distributor of Nestle products, sales representative Dimitrios Vakondios made an important discovery.
Reportedly there was no hot water available. Maybe he merely desired cold refreshment. Either way, Vakondios grabbed a shaker meant for Nesquik, the Nestle cocoa drink, filled it instead with Nescafe instant coffee and a little cold water, and shook it vigorously. Not accounting for the burst of foam this action would generate, Vakondios achieved two results: The first outcome was the staining of his business suit; the second, the invention of the foamy concoction that would become something akin to the identity soft drink of Greece. The hallmark of a Greek frappe is a foam so sensationally frothy that it resembles a cream.
Alcoholic versions of the Frappé have become popular.
Mist: A glass packed with crushed ice to which spirits are added, usually straight. Often a way of serving liqueur as an after dinner drink.
Shrub: Spirits, fruit juices, and sugar, aged in a sealed container such as a cask or crock, then usually bottled.
