History tagged posts

The World of Spirits & Cocktails: The Ultimate Bar Book

Alcoholic beverages have been a passion of mine. And so are books. I have already reviewed a book before by David A. Embury entitled “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks”. Embury describes in great detail the various spirits and many of the cocktails that were popular that era. And although that is a great book it is not up to date. And that's not really a problem regarding the material that is already included in the book; that is still the same. It is a problem because the number the spirits you can now access has grown a lot. I am not only talking about the varieties of whiskey for example, but the variety of the distilled spirits you can find. Back then spirits from Argentina and Brazil were not even heard. Now they are sold next to the rum.

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The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks

... and a fine art it is indeed! Cocktails appeared suddenly at some point in history. Their story is lost in a plethora of myths and legends. We will never know where or when they originated. But we know that their appearance to the former literature started in 1806. The first definition of cocktail appeared in the May 13, 1806, edition of The Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York, in which an answer was provided to the question, "What is a cocktail?". It replied: "Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called 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."... and a fine art it is indeed! Cocktails appeared suddenly at some point in history. Their story is lost in a plethora of myths and legends. We will never know where or when they originated. But we know that their appearance to the former literature started in 1806. The first definition of cocktail appeared in the May 13, 1806, edition of The Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York, in which an answer was provided to the question, "What is a cocktail?". It replied: "Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called 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."

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