15 Feb the cocktails part II
Obtaining the name cocktail and the origin of its creation has always caused a lively debate.
A first theory says that an American bartender had a large container in the shape of a rooster (absinthe fountain style) in which he poured leftover drinks. Less fortunate customers could buy this mixture for cheap and thus used the tap with a tail, hence the word “cocktail”.
Image of an Absinthe fountain but it can be assumed that the bartender was using this type of container .
Image of a carboy with a tail cock without a cock
A 2nd theory comes from the time of the American Revolution: a Frenchman after seeing bottles decorated with rooster “tails” in Betsy’s tavern near Yorktown, gave a toast by exclaiming “Vive le cocktail”!
Whatever the origin of the world, the creation of the cocktail
can be traced back to the 19th century
One of the first cocktails was the martini, whose origins come from an 1862 recipe from the town of Martinez (in the state of California, USA). Indeed, This drink was created at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco for a gold digger returning home to Martinez.
By 1900, the martini was known throughout the United States and had spread to Europe. But it’s the dry martini, invented in 1910 at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York, that has become most famous .
And from that time, an increasing number of basic cocktails emerged and ceased to gain popularity. In 1920, prohibition laws were passed in the United States which gave a boost to the cocktail. Indeed, these laws made the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages illegal and this led to the black market with smugglers such as Al Capone (emblematic figure for his national distribution of bootleg alcohol). The quality of some of these spirits was rather questionable and the cocktails became very popular in illegal bars or clubs.
Cocktails were a good way to disguise the “raw” taste of these doctored spirits.
Today, cocktails are just as popular, flamboyant in their decoration and with exotic tastes. With the availability of cocktail accessories, a wide range of spirits, liqueurs and exotic fruit juices from around the world, one can create them at home and at any time of the day and night.
Cocktail Your!