History of Cocktails

Punches, the first mixed drink using spirits

The beginning of the mixed drink can essentially be be credited to Punch, being a combination of wines and/or spirits with fruits and sugars that dates back to the 17th century. The drink was brought to England from India by sailors and employees of the British East India Company. From the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th, the shared bowl of punch was the undisputed monarch of the kingdom of mixed drinks. It was the first popular mixed drink to incorporate distilled spirits and could be served hot or cold.

Before its invention, people drank their drams straight or poured them into a mug of ale or a tankard of wine. Punches were originally made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices, and was served in large punch bowls, that would also be passed around the table.

Punch recipes evolved in later centuries. Brandy, sweet wine, whole egg, cream and a crack of nutmeg (if you could afford it) altered your classic five ingredients into a punch referred to as a Fillip (or Flip). There was also the Jorum, Phlegm-Cutter, Fog-Driver, Dogs Nose, Ebulum, Brick Wall, Bastard, Canary and the two Victorian classics, Negus and Bishop. All of which while substituting different ingredients, used a base of sweet wine referred to as sack. Believed to derive from the Spanish word seco meaning ‘dry’, sack was predominantly a mix of sweet Madeira wine and dry young port from which a punch was then built on top. Eventually, the cocktail evolved from these beginnings.

David Wondrich in his book, Imbibe!, defines these three great ages of the mixology, ranging from the birth of the republic to the onset of Prohibition: the Archaic, 1783-1830, the Baroque, 1830-1885, and the Classic, 1885-1920.

Archaic, 1783-1830

By the mid 18th century, further simplifications of punch came about, removing fruit from the equation, and likely due to this decision happening during the winter, hot water often replaced the cold. Now we simply have spirit, sugar, and water, with varying garnishes. Nutmeg was popular. These drinks were, like all mixed drinks at one time, considered medicinal - a cure for ailments of any kind, particularly those of the stomach. These new drinks were named the Toddy, Sling (single serve punch), Julep, Smash, Sangaree, and Skin (Jerry Thomas called this variation of his Hot Toddy a Whiskey Skin: Hot Toddy plus a lemon peel (the “skin” part of the drink)).

These drinks were fortified with robust wines and spirits, sweetened with sugar cut from loaves and fleshed out with baskets of eggs and buckets of cream; tools were few, the recipes simple, and the ingredients robust. Many drinks were served in commual bowls. Bartenders would offer cut lemons, grated nutmeg, ice was rare.

Punch bowls and ladles, lemon strainers, a knife, a lemon reamer, nutmeg grater, toddy-stick (similar to today's muddler) to crush lumps of sugar, a "loggerhead" or "flip-dog" for hot drinks which would be heated and plunged into drinks, perhaps an Egg Nog stirrer to whip up eggs for drinks. Boiling water was used to dissolve the sugar. Glassware was basic: tumblers, stemmed wine glasses, mugs for hot drinks.

Madeiras and sherries were popular, as was champagne. Champagne was sweeter then, "brut," dry champagne, was not popular until the 1890s. While many drinkers might assume Champagne cocktails are a more recent innovation, in fact their history dates back to the very beginnings of modern cocktail culture. Or, as drinks historian David Wondrich puts it, Champagne cocktails are from “the Iron Age of American mixology—that final prehistoric period between the invention of the cocktail and 1862, when the first cocktail book was published.” Some of the earliest written records of cocktails featuring Champagne date to 1855, though they were likely enjoyed even earlier—contemporary sippers might be surprised to learn that, in those days, they were frequently served in tumblers over crushed ice.

One of the earliest sparkling serves (in fact one of the earliest cocktails, full stop) was the creatively named Champagne Cocktail, which was made with a sugar cube soaked with bitters, mixed with Cognac, and finally topped up with Champagne. The Black Velvet, supposedly created in 1861 as a tribute to Prince Albert’s death, mingled Champagne and Guinness. As early as 1867, Charles Dickens was said to serve his guests a mixture of gin, Champagne, and lemon, which he called “Tom gin and Champagne cups.”

Rum from Jamaica and St. Croix loomed large in the earlier part of the period. Rum from Boston and Providene was less good, except Daniel Lawrence & Sons Old Medford rum. French Brandy or Dutch gin - "Hollands" as it was known - was preferred by epicures, or aged domestic peach brandy made from peaches and their pits. Whiskey, generally unaged, was used in the countryside, along with applejack or other rough fruit distillate.

Sugar came in hard, conical loaves and barkeepers had to cut off pieces with snips. Other sweeteners were molasses, honey, maple syrup - whatever was on hand. In the cities lemons and limes were common. In the country they had fresh milk, eggs, and clean water.

Popular Drinks

Flips - American, 1695. In 1632, most punches were of the Wassail type made with a wine or brandy base. Brandy, sweet wine, whole egg, cream and a crack of nutmeg (if you could afford it) altered your classic five ingredients into a punch referred to as a Fillip (or Flip). 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. Over time, eggs were added and the proportion of sugar increased, the beer was eliminated, and the drink ceased to be served hot. 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. The flip was traditionally made by the old method of flipping the combination between two containers to obtain a smooth consistency.

Toddies - 1700s. One of the earliest drinks along with the sling. An old drink, believed to have been invented in Scotland in the 1700s. The cocktail doesn't have a standard recipe. It needs to contain some type of liquor; a sweetener, such as honey or sugar; a warm base like coffee, tea, hot water or apple cider; and usually, lemon. The most common Hot Toddy recipe consists of bourbon, honey, hot water and lemon.

Slings - One of the earliest drinks along with the toddy. It is basically punch in single-serve size, minus the sour. The Sling was a popular mixed drink that contained only spirit, sugar, water, and perhaps a grate of nutmeg. At some point bitters was added to the mix, birthing the "Bittered Sling," which came be known as the "Cock-tail."

Switchel - Vinegar flavored drinks have a long history and can be found in cultures spanning the globe, from China to Britain. But it was in America, where summers can be sweltering, that the switchel or haymaker's drink truly came into its own. Throughout the eighteenth century and on through the nineteenth century, switchels or shrubs, their fruit- or vegetable-based cousins, could be found in places ranging from the rolling countryside of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to the blistering sun-swept prairies of Laura Ingalls Wilder's De Smet homestead.

In America, switchels were drunk not only in the fields but also in taverns, private homes, and simply out in the streets. In early nineteenth-century Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard students had "switchel all around...[as] their starting war-cry." The drink was wildly popular with the students probably because they followed in the tradition of college students everywhere by mixing alcohol into their drink.

It was the vinegar that made switchel so popular in America, one of those countries which was characterized, at least for several months a year, as a hot country. Credited with being able to bring down fevers, vinegar was traditionally viewed as having cooling attributes especially when added to any "common diluting drink." British sailors frequently drank switchel because it was believed to prevent scurvy.

In his narrative on a journey to the South Pacific, a book he dedicated to the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Benjamin Morrill recommended that "ships on long voyages...be carefully furnished with a due quantity of vinegar...switchel, or molasses and water, with a little vinegar in it, should be served out to [sailors]...once or twice a day, while at sea." The vinegar and molasses would dilute the water used at sea "which is always more or less impure."

Morrill also recommended that a "quantity of shrub" be provided "for the use of the seamen after hard fatigue." The shrub, basically a vinegar drink with mashed and fermented fruits or vegetables, was seen as having multiple benefits.

Shrubs - made from fruit vinegars. Prior to the invention of refrigeration, a shrub syrup was a means of preserving fruit long past its picking. Shrubs were popular in Colonial America, mixed with cool water to provide a pick-me-up on hot summer days. A proper shrub has a flavor that's both tart and sweet, so it stimulates the appetite while quenching thirst.

Swizzle - Mixtures with rum, first identified as swizzles and later as Rum Swizzles, have been mentioned in literature in a variety of locations since the mid 18th century: Fort Ticonderoga, New York (1760), the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts (1838), Bridgetown, Barbados (1841), Great Britain (1862), Bridgeport, Barbados (1908), and the island of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (1911). In these earliest versions, the drink typically consisted of one part of rum diluted with five or six parts water (sometimes with additional aromatic ingredients), which was mixed by rotating a special forked stick made from a root between the palms; another account describes it as spruce beer with added rum and sugar.

Smash - Brandy Smash: Steep your mint leaves in whiskey over night; don't crush them with a spoon. If you do you are making a mint smash, not a julep. That is the one difference between a julep and a smash.

Sangarees -

Negus - Negus punch was one of the most popular punches of the Georgian Era (think Jane Austen) and a standard at Regency balls. Similar to a mulled wine or grog, a traditional Negus consists of wine (often port or sherry), citrus, sugar and nutmeg, all thinned with a little hot water, though some variations are a bit fancier. It was also popular in Victorian times, and is mentioned in more than one of Charles Dickens’ novels. In Dombey and Son, Mr. Feeder, “after imbibing several custard cups of negus, began to enjoy himself.”

Hot buttered rum -

Mulled cider & Hot Apple Jack -

Crusta - Invented by Joseph Santina (it's alleged) in the mid-19th century, it is cognac, triple sec, maraschino, lemon juice, sugar syrup and bitters with water. To look at, it could be any cocktail– until the half lemon is conspicuously wedged into the top of the glass, acting as a bitter filter for its sugary contents. The Crusta, it turns out, is named after the sugar-crusted rim.

Fix - A drink mixed in the serving glass, a type of highball, served over crushed ice.

Scaffas, possets, syllabubs, nogs, bishops, cups

Popular drinks 1800 - 1810:

New Drinks in 1810s and 1820s - beginnings of the Baroque period

In the 1810s and 1820s new drinks arose - the individual punch, iced Mint Juleps, and the Cocktail made by such pioneers as Willard of the City Hotel and Cato Alexander. Rum began to decline as Pennsylvania's old Monongahela rye and old Bourbon from Kentucky came into their own.

The mint julep, along with the sherry cobbler, was soon taking America and the rest of the world by storm. As with the sherry cobbler, it was the arrival of ice that made it possible. Sure, a little sugar, water and mint made that harsh rum, gin (hollands) or brandy go down easier. Put it in a glass with crushed ice though, and it is transformed completely. The cobbler and the julep introduced "American Iced Drinks" to the world.

Mint Juleps - The magazine, American Museum, of 1787 contains the first known mention of a julep. The drink is reported as being a "draught with which to start the day." Museum details the routine of Virginians, waking, and prior to starting their day, swallowing a julep made of rum, water, and sugar, "but very strong." The drink was a sling, one of the original cocktails. Basically equal parts spirit and water with a little sugar. Calling it a julep or sling was more of a geographical distinction than anything else.

There was no mint in the julep at this point, there was not even ice. The first known mention of Juleps made with mint, in print, is from Travels Of Four Years And A Half In The United States Of America, by John Davis, 1803 and is described as a "dram of spirituous liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians in the morning."

By the 1887 revised edition of Jerry Thomas's Bar-Tender's Guide, the mint julep's popularity had began to fade for the first of many times: "The Mint Julep still lives, but it is by no means fashionable. Somehow the idea has gotten abroad that mint ought to be crushed and shaken up with water and whiskey in equal proportions. No man can fall in love with this mixture. Poor juleps have ruined the reputation of the South's most famous drink"

This cocktail later became popular in the southern United States as a way to combat the oppressive summer heat. In 1938 the Mint Julep became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby.

Cocktails - The earliest known "definition" of what a "cock tail" is was published in "The Balance and Columbian Repository" on May 13th, 1806. The editor, in responding to a query from a reader, provided the following definition (emphasis added):

"As I make it a point, never to publish anything (under my editorial head) but which I can explain, I shall not hesitate to gratify the curiosity of my inquisitive correspondent: Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else."

The first recorded use of the word cocktail is found in London’s The Morning Post and Gazetteer, 1798, listing ‘cock-tail’ on a bar-tab in Axe & Gate Tavern, on the corner of Downing Street and Whitehall, patronised by politicians of the day, like William Pitt the Younger. The first recorded mention of the term in the United States is in The Farmer’s Cabinet, 1803, referring to a ‘lounger’ with an 11am hangover drinking a glass of cocktail as it was “excellent for the head”. Cocktails were officially defined in 1806 in The Balance and Columbian Repository as “a stimulating liquor composed of any kind of sugar, water and bitters, vulgarly called a bittered sling.” The first cocktail recipe recorded seems to be attributed to Capt J.E. Alexander in 1831, calling for either brandy, gin or rum in a 1:2 mix of spirit:water, along with bitters, sugar and nutmeg.

Sherry Cobbler -

Baroque, 1830-1885

Smaller Punch-style drinks

The desire for a faster and therefore smaller version of these drinks came about, which brought us to the Collins, Daisy, Fizz, Cooler, and Cobbler.

Typified by iced drinks such as cobblers and cocktails – heavy on the brandy and Holland gin – prepared in shakers and bar glasses and served with the aid of strainers. For much of the century, it was still customary in many areas to put the bottle and a glass in front of a man ordering straight drinks, and allow him to help himself. In the best places, though, barkeepers began using ice. Ice had always been available for the few, but in the 1830s, fresh clean New England ice was available all year, and the public began to expect it in their drinks. There was also an ever-increasing preference for individual drinks made to order as opposed to those drunk out of commuanl bowls. Barkeeping was tranformed. Ice had to be cut from large blocks and new tools were used - ice tongs, ice-axes, ice scoops, ice bags, ice mallets. Straws also began popular for drinking. The cocktail shaker and strainer was devised at this time for mixing individual drinks.

Fancy garnishes of berries and artfully cut fruit, imported French syrups and Dutch and Italian liquers were used for sweetening, various kinds of bitters, aristocratic wines and long-aged spirits.

Straws - In the 1800s, the rye grass straw came into fashion because it was cheap and soft, but it had an unfortunate tendency to turn to mush in liquid. To address these shortcomings, Marvin C. Stone patented the modern drinking straw, made of paper, in 1888. He came upon the idea while drinking a mint julep on a hot day in Washington, D.C.; the taste of the rye was mixing with the drink and giving it a grassy taste, which he found unsatisfactory. He wound paper around a pencil to make a thin tube, slid out the pencil from one end, and applied glue between the strips. He later refined it by building a machine that would coat the outside of the paper with wax to hold it together, so the glue wouldn't dissolve in bourbon.

Other references to straws used in drinks, especially recipes for Mint Julip, are: "quill or a macaroni pipe," "a straw or glass tube." More commonly used than the pasta straws were the hollow shafts of rye grass or simply "straw". Metal or glass straws (glass was used in hospitals) saw limited use as well, until the invention of the paper straw in 1888 which quickly replaced all other devices.

From A Diary in America, by Captain Frederick Marryat, in which he describes the 4th of July in 1837 in New York City: "Let it not be supposed that there was any deficiency in the very necessary articles of potation on this auspicious day: no! the booths were loaded with porter, ale, cider, mead, brandy, wine, ginger-beer, pop, soda-water, whiskey, rum, punch, gin slings, cocktails, mint juleps, besides many other compounds, to name which nothing but the luxuriance of American-English could invent a word."

When Charles Dickens came over to America in 1842, he was delighted to be treated, in a Boston bar, to an array of these newfangled mixed drinks, with strange names like "the Gin-sling, Cocktail, Sangaree, Mint Julep, Sherry-cobbler, Timber Doodle, and other rare drinks." (quote from his American Notes for General Circulation).

Cobblers - Cobblers are of American origin, made at least since the 1830s, and ushered in the shaken cocktails - sherry or another fortified wine sweetened with sugar, was shaken with seasonal fresh fruit, garnished with more fruit and served over crushed ice, with a straw (which were new at that time. - modern drinking straws were first devised in 1888). The original Cobbler is the Sherry Cobbler which, according to David Wondrich in Imbibe!, was one of the most popular libations during the last half of the nineteenth century. By all accounts it seems America, and indeed the rest of the world, were wild about them.

Sherry Cobbler - 4 ounces of sherry, a few orange or lemon slices and a few spoons of sugar. Dissolve the sugar in an equal amount of water in a cocktail shaker, add the sherry and the fruit slices, fill with cracked ice, and shake vigorously to muddle the fruit. Pour unstrained into a tall glass, add a straw and berries on top.

Coolers - Hinton Helper reported finding them available in San Fransciso during the Gold Rush, 1848 - 1855. The Cooler is served in a Collins glass decorated with the skin of a whole lemon or orange cut in a continuous spiral and hung over the edge of the glass, exactly as in the Horse's Neck (ice, lemon peel and ginger ale). Sometimes both a lemon peel and an orange peel are used for decoration. Whereas the Horse's Neck is made with ginger ale, the original Remsen Cooletr was made with club soda. Today some Coolers are made with charged water and some with ginger ale. There are also Coolers made with other carbonated beverages, at least one or two made with cider, and some modern recipes even stoop to prescribing plain water. The Cooler should be very dry, but sugar can be used if desired and perhaps the best advice here is "sweeten according to taste." If you want the drink to be thirst-quenching, refreshing, and satisfying, however, you must keep it definitely on the dry side. The base of the Cooler may be a spirituous liquor, a wine, a liqueur, or even a fruit syrup. With sweet wines or liqueurs it is usually advisable to use a few dashes of lime or lemon juice, but this is optional. It is also optional whether or not to use bitters and how much.

Every town had one. Chicago had its Mamie Taylor, with Scotch and lime and ginger ale (Taylor was a comic actress of the 1890s), Atlantic City had its Horse's Neck (temperance drink), which was simply ginger ale with a long, long lemon twist, New York had its Remsen Cooler, Old Tom gin, long, long twist, plain soda, Boston Cooler with rum, lemon and soda, a Narragansett Cooler with bourbon, orange juice and ginger ale. You could fill a book with them. The Joe Rickey - whiskey, juice of half a lime, ice and soda water - no sugar.

Daisy - mid to late 1800s American original - the essential DNA of the Daisy involves adding a little soda water to a Sour (spirit, citrus, sweetener). Liqueurs or cordials also figure prominently, ranging from Curaçao to maraschino or yellow Chartreuse (a suggestion from the writer Nathaniel Gubbins in his 1899 book The Flowing Bowl), distinguishing the daisy from other sour cocktails. Beyond that, though, you can take some liberties. Back then, brandy was the spirit of choice for daisies. Jerry Thomas called for shaved ice; Savoy, for cracked. Any number of base spirits have been used as a foundation, and depending on which source you read, the finished drink should be poured into a cocktail glass, pewter mug, Julep cup, large goblet or glass highball. Originally, the daisy was a largish, sweet drink that contained a fair amount of fizzy water. Over time, however, bartenders started decreasing the water to make the drink less voluminous. They also cut down on the sugar. Earlier recipes include orange cordial, but by the early 20th century, grenadine had become the traditional sweetening agent. All versions, however, agree that a Daisy should be cold, refreshing and garnished with seasonal fruit. Margarita is the Spanish word for daisy.

Fizzes - drink that contains a spirit (often gin), citrus juices, sugar and club soda. A mixed drink variation on the older Sours family of cocktail. Its defining features are an acidic juice (such as lemon or lime) and carbonated water. The first printed reference to "fiz" is in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas' Bartender's Guide, which contains six such recipes. The Fizz became widely popular in America between 1900 and the 1940s. Gin was the earliest spirit used in a fizz and the Gin Fizz is the best-known cocktail in the Fizz family. A Gin Fizz contains gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water, served in a tumbler with two ice cubes. The drink is similar to a Tom Collins, with a possible distinction being a Tom Collins historically used "Old Tom Gin" (a slightly sweeter precursor to London Dry Gin), whereas the kind of gin historically used in a Gin Fizz is unknown. The Ramos Gin Fizz, formulated by the Ramos brothers in New Orleans in the late 1880s, remains popular today The noun is recorded from 1812; the meaning "effervescent drink" is from 1864.

Fizzy drinks were invented in 1772 by Joseph Priestley, who discovered how to trap carbon dioxide in water and made carbonated water. The soda syphon, also known as the seltzer bottle, is a seltzer dispenser that keeps its remaining contents under pressure even after use. It was first created in France in 1829 with the invention of a corkscrew that could be inserted into the bottle which permitted some of the seltzer to be poured while maintaining the pressure on the inside and preventing the remaining content from going flat.

Difference between Collins and Fizz

Collins - The 1876 edition of Jerry Thomas' The Bar-Tender’s Guide included the first written recipe for the Tom Collins, which appeared just after The Great Tom Collins hoax of 1874.

Jerry Thomas' Tom Collins Gin (1876)

(Use large bar-glass.)
Take 5 or 6 dashes of gum syrup.*
Juice of a small lemon.
1 large wine-glass of gin.
2 or 3 lumps of ice;

Shake up well and strain into a large bar-glass. Fill up the glass with plain soda water and drink while it is lively.

*Like bar syrups, gum syrup, or gomme syrup is a 2:1 sugar and water mixture, but has an added ingredient of gum arabic. Gomme syrup is made with the highest percentage of sugar to water possible, while the gum arabic prevents the sugar from crystallizing and adds a smooth texture.

1862, Jerry Thomas and the rise of the Cocktail

The first publication of a bartenders' guide which included cocktail recipes was in 1862, 56 years after the first mention of the cocktail, — The Bar-Tender’s Guide (alternately titled How to Mix Drinks or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion), the first drink book ever published in the United States, by "Professor" Jerry Thomas.

Jeremiah (Jerry) P. Thomas (1830 – 1885) was an American bartender; because of his pioneering work in popularizing cocktails across the United States, he is considered "the father of American mixology." In addition to writing the seminal work on cocktails, his creativity and showmanship established the image of the bartender as a creative professional. As such, he was often nicknamed "Professor" Jerry Thomas. His real claim to fame, is the Blue Blazer – a flaming cocktail that he would make using two metal cups – allowing the flame to create a fire rainbow between them.

Blue Blazer: One wine glass of Scotch whiskey; one wine glass of boiling water. Put the whiskey and boiling water in one mug, ignite the liquid, and while blazing mix both ingredients by pouring them four or five times from one mug to the other. If well done, this will have the appearance of a continued stream of fire. Sweeten with one teaspoon of powdered white sugar, and serve in a small tumbler, with a piece of lemon.

The result is a whiskey toddy, with a great show to boot.

In addition to listings of recipes for Punches, Sours, Slings, Cobblers, Shrubs, Toddies, Flips, and a variety of other types of mixed drinks were 10 recipes for drinks referred to as "Cocktails". A key ingredient which differentiated "cocktails" from other drinks in this compendium was the use of bitters as an ingredient.

The book collected and codified what was then an oral tradition of recipes from the early days of cocktails, including some of his own creations; the guide laid down the principles for formulating mixed drinks of all categories. He would update it several times in his lifetime to include new drinks that he found or created. The first edition of the guide included the first written recipes of such cocktails as the Brandy Daisy, Fizz, Flip, Sour and variations of the earliest form of mixed drink, Punch.

American Drinks at the Vienna Exhibition (1873)

The following article appeared in the New York Times on September 2, 1873

AMERICAN DRINKS AT THE VIENNA EXHIBITION
The special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph at Vienna, writing on Aug. 11, after a week of very hot weather, says: "The American bars, three in number, drove a roaring trade. The Austrians have taken to cobblers and juleps with a heartiness bordering on enthusiasm, although, these nectarian compounds being somewhat expensive, the native consumer seldom goes in for a whole drink all to himself ; and there are few quainter sights in the big building, crowded as it is with extraordinary objects, than three heavily-bearded and spectacled Viennese sitting round a small marble-topped table, on which stands one amber-colored sherry-cobbler, their three straws plunged into its cool depths, their three heads in close proximity, their powers of suction strained to top pressure, lest any one of the three should get the better of his co-investors in the beverage to the extent of half a teaspoonful. Under the influence of this virtuous emulation, the cobbler vanishes like the card of a conjuror's trick, after which each competitor imbibes a huge draught of cold water. for which there is no charge, and pockets his straw. The straws are immensely popular here. I have seen persons of both sexes sucking up beer, coffee and 'plain soda' through them with an evident sense of exquisite and refined enjoyment. The bar-keepers tell me that the American and German ladies generally carry them away in their hair, through the frizzy masses of which they stick them in the manner of pins. The bar in the Rotunda started with a stock of 300,000, but has been obliged to renew its supplies twice since commencing business. About a hundred different descriptions of artful drink are made at this bar ; but the only one that seems to have laid hold of the Austrian public is the cobbler. Ten cobblers are drunk for every julep, cocktail, sling, smash, fix, or champarello. The drinking kiosques outside the building-English and German-have found it to their interest to provide cobblers for their insatiable customers."

"American Drinks at the Vienna Exposition" 

This account was written by Charles Carroll Fulton and published in his 1878 title, "Europe viewed through American Spectacles".

AMERICAN DRINKS.

The warm weather had its effect on one branch of Americanism on exhibition here. A month ago the impression was very general that the American bars would do a very poor business, on account of the high cost of their drinks, as well as from the fact that a half-gallon of beer could be had for the cost of one of their fancy glasses. They were then occasionally drunk as a matter of curiosity, and several Germans could be now and then seen at one of the tables with a solitary "cobbler" or "cocktail," each taking an occasional suck through the straw, and discussing its merits. It was a mere testing process, each, according to German custom, paying his share of the expense. Yesterday, however, the American bars were thronged with visitors, and the colored waiters, who are decided objects of curiosity, were kept busy filling their orders. These waiters are a sharp set of fellows, most of them from New York, and are of all shades, from the coal-black to the yellow pine. The former tell many amusing stories of their experience, and they seem to enjoy the inspection that they are constantly subject to. They have picked up a little German, but are each provided with a price-list, which they hand to the customer, who points out the article he desires. The following is a list of the plain American drinks that our German friends are beginning to learn to like, which are served up, smothered in crushed ice, at thirty, fifty, sixty, and eighty kreutzers each, or at fifteen, twenty-five, thirty, and forty cents in American currency, under the title of "American Mixed Drinks:"

Apple jack and cocktail-Jersey, brandy and soda (English), brandy champarelle, brandy crusta, brandy fix, brandy julep, brandy punch, brandy sangaree, brandy sling, brandy smash, brandy sour, brandy toddy, Baltimore egg-nogg, Boehm & Wiebl's favorite, claret cup, claret cobbler, claret punch, claret sangaree, Catawba cobbler, Catawba punch, champagne punch, champagne cobbler, champagne cocktail, egg flip, eye-opener, French cocktail, gin cocktail, gin julep, gin crusta, gin punch, gin sling, gin smash, gin sour, gin toddy, hock cobbler, John Collins (English), Indian wigwam punch, Jamaica rum punch, Jamaica rum sour, Knickerbocker, lemonade (plain), lemonade (with a stick), lemonade (fancy), milk punch, Metropolitan punch (U.S.A.), pousse cafe (New York style), pousse cafe (New Orleans), pectoral (Cuban), port wine sangaree, pine-apple punch, port wine flip, porteree, phlegmcutter, sherry and bitters (plain), sherry and egg, sherry cobbler, Shanghai Saratoga, soda cocktail, St. Croix fix, St. Croix sour, St. Croix punch, whisky cocktail, whisky punch, whisky julep, and old. Kentucky, whisky sling, whisky smash, whisky sour.

The champagne punches and cobblers are a florin and a half each, or seventyfive cents in our money. The plain drinks, which are equally numerous, range from twenty to forty cents each, or forty kreutzers and upwards. Fifteen per cent, of all the receipts, however, go to the Exposition fund.

Hotel Austria, Vienna, June 2, 1873.
___________________________________

In 1873, twenty to forty cents would be about $5-$10. Seventyfive cents would be around $18-$20. So inflation considered, these drinks were reasonably priced by today's standards.

Classic, 1885-1920

In 1786, in the city of Turin, Italy a man named Antonio Benedetto Carpano debuted a new style of medicinal cordial called vermouth after the wormwood it was built around. Wormwood was so-named because it was believed to drive worms from the body, but it has a very bitter flavor. To mask the bitterness, Carpano used wine, caramelized sugar, and a bouquet of aromatics including saffron, vanilla, and a host of other herbs that are kept top secret. Carpano’s invention was so delicious, it launched a new culture, the aperitivo.

With the rise of Carpano’s vermouth, every self-respecting restaurant in Turin began employing a maître licoriste, or master of liqueurs. These men concocted proprietary potions that were special to the house, and in the 1840s, one Gaspare Campari joined their ranks at the legendary restaurant Del Cambio. A second marriage took Gaspare to Milan, where he purchased a bar and debuted the creation that would lead to his fortune. He originally called it “Bitter all’Uso d’Holanda,” but today we call it Campari.

The Americano cocktail dates back to the 1860s when Gaspare Campari, an Italian bartender who created the Campari apéritif, mixed some sweet vermouth with his signature liqueur. He called the drink the “Milano-Torino” to pay tribute to the origins of its ingredients: the Campari aperitivo came from Milan and the vermouth came from Turin. Over time, bartenders at Gaspare Campari’s bar experimented by adding club soda to the drink, leading to the bubbly version of the cocktail that we drink today. The Milano-Torino was popular with American ex-pats around the time of prohibition, hence it came to be known as the “Americano.”

Beginning around 1885, coinciding with a profusion of glassware and bar tools, and marked by the growing use of vermouth and fruit juices in cocktails, which were increasingly mixed with spirits such as whiskey and dry gin. A new lighter and simpler Cocktail emerged. Bartenders in the Gay Nineties stirred many drinks rather than shake them - the mixed drink. Metal jiggers replaced the sherry glasses that had been used previously to measure out drinks. Drinks with fruit juices, dairy products or eggs were shaken; those of just spirits or wine were stirred.

Garnishes were no longer the fussy fresh fruits used during the Baroque period, but replaced with pickled or macerated items that could linger longer behind the bar before going bad. Pickled French hazelnuts, pickled walnuts, olives, maraschino cherries

Late 19th Century

Vermouth was consumed as a medicinal libation until the later 19th century when people found that vermouth was the ideal mixer and it became an important ingredient in many of the first classic cocktails, most notably, sweet vermouth in a Manhattan (beginning around 1874) and dry vermouth in a Martini (beginning in the 1860s). In addition, the popular Vermouth Cocktail, first appearing in 1869, consisted of chilled vermouth and a twist of lemon peel with the occasional addition of small amounts of bitters or maraschino. Those drinks that use an equal amount of sweet and dry vermouth are referred to as perfect.

The Manhattan as we know today (and as evidenced by its name) was conceived in New York City for a party held in honor of Samuel J. Tilden in the early 1870s. Though some experts claim the Manhattan predates this event, most concede that the mixture of American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth and Angostura bitters served was made famous as the Manhattan because of the illustrious guests.

The popularity of vermouth-heavy cocktails, often using twice as much vermouth as gin or whiskey, continued through the 1880s and 1890s.

1880

As reported by David Wondrich in "Imbibe!", the earliest (known) reference to "Old Fashioned" being used to refer to a cocktail, comes from the Chicago Tribune, where it was reported that the goal-oriented Democrats downed “Hot-whiskies, … sour mashes and old-fashioned cocktails" in honor of Samuel Tilden's withdrawl from the presidential race.

1882

Old Fashioneds are basically a bittered sling. Variations of the sling were born - fruits here and liqueurs there muddled up the original drink. Purists and old farts began to request their Cock-tails the "old-fashioned way." Over time this simply became an "Old-Fashioned." The Chicago Tribune asked a local bartender what sorts of drinks were currently in vogue, he replied: “The old-fashioned cocktails [are] still in vogue; cocktails made of loaf-sugar and whisky… Rye whiskey [is] called for more than Bourbon.”

1895

George Kappeler, 1895 book, Modern American Drinks - "The recipes contained in this book are for the proper mixing of all kinds of drinks, such as Absinthes, Cocktails, Cups, Crustas, Cobblers, Coolers, Egg-Noggs, Fixes, Fizzes, Flips, Juleps, Lemonades, Punches, Pousse Cafe, Frozen Beverages, etc." (from the Preface)

1905

As for the Daiquiri, this cocktail was invented circa 1905 in Cuba by a group of American mining engineers. The drink was originally served in a tall glass packed with cracked ice, a teaspoon of sugar poured over it and the juice of one or two limes squeezed over the sugar. Two to three ounces of rum poured over that completed the mixture. The glass was then frosted by stirring with a long-handled spoon. Consumption remained localized until 1909, when a visiting American medical officer tried the drink and then introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in D.C.

Though forms of mixed drinks had been consumed by the aristocracy since the 1630s, by the turn of the century, many of the smartest London hotels and restaurants—no doubt due to the number of wealthy Americans flocking the European capitals with money to burn—opened “American-style” bars where cocktails could be ordered and enjoyed during dinner and, towards the 1910s, while dancing.

1920s - "Age of Cocktails" and Prohibition (1920 to 1933)

1934

The December issue of Esquire Magazine lists the 10 most popular cocktails as:

Popular drinks 1930 - 1940:

(the above is from "Burke's Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes" by Harman Burney Burke, published in 1936, my reprint is from 1941.)

1944

Victor Bergeron creates the "Mai Tai". The original recipe was: 2 ounces 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew Jamaican rum, 1/2 ounce French Garnier Orgeat, 1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao, 1/4 ounce Rock Candy Syrup, juice from one fresh lime. Hand shake and garnish with half of the lime shell inside the drink and float a sprig of fresh mint at the edge of the glass.

Popular drinks 1940 - 1950:

(the above is a partial list from "The Bartenders Book" by Jack Townsend, published in 1951. This list was arrived at by sending a detailed survey to bartenders across the US and Canada)

A History of Brandy/Cognac Drinks

If you dig deep enough, you are able to follow a rudimentary family tree of classic cocktails which show an evolution to today's most popular cocktails from their simple and humble beginnings over a century before. Often the only variances involve a new vessel, substituted base spirit or replaced sweetener and therefore allowing each new adaptation, a name reinvented. Here is a brief evolution from this, a favourite of all Cognac cocktails, the Sidecar:

The Evolution of classic cocktails

Brandy Crusta – 1862

Brandy, orange liqueur, lemon Juice, sugar rim
Served in a goblet/wine glass

Brandy Daisy – 1876

Brandy, orange liqueur, lemon juice, sugar syrup, 2 dashes of rum
Served in a highball glass over ice

Brandy Fizz – 1880s

Brandy, sugar syrup, lemon juice, orange cordial, dash of soda
Served in a cocktail glass

Sidecar – 1922

Cognac, orange liqueur, lemon juice
Served in a cocktail glass

English Stool – 1930

Cognac, orange liqueur, lemon juice
Served in a cocktail glass

Margarita – 1936 (ish)

Tequila, orange liqueur, lemon juice
Served in a martini glass (later with a salt rim….coincidence?)