World Cocktail Day is celebrated today, May 13, which commemorates the memory of the first-ever published definition of cocktail on May 13, 1806, by Harry Croswell (Cock-tail, then, 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, in as much as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head…). Since then, the mixing of alcoholic spirits with other ingredients to please the taste buds has only been on the rise.
Certain drinks, like the Pina Colada and the Negroni, have become synonymous with cocktails. Yet, just like people you’ve known for decades are still capable of surprising you with facts you never knew about them, these drinks share the same characteristic. So, on World Cocktail Day, we bring you some fun and mind-boggling facts about some of the world's favourite cocktails. Read on…
Old Fashioned
At one point of time, the classic Old Fashioned cocktail, a stirred whiskey-based drink, was as new to customers as the word ‘cocktail’ itself. While describing what the cocktail is for the very first time, the editor of The Balance & Columbian Repository wrote that it was a potent mix of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. This coincided with the exact recipe of an Old Fashioned served at American bars in the early 1800s.
Margarita
The history of the Margarita is shrouded in mystery and folklore due to its numerous origin stories, but now, the rate at which this old Prohibition-era tequila-based drink is consumed on an hourly basis in the US is said to be 1,85,000, informed Amardeep Sinha, head bartender at The Salt House, Kolkata. One theory goes that it is named after Marguerite Daisy, a flower. This cocktail later went on to inspire the Sidecar, which is basically a Margarita with Cognac and lemon and the Kamikaze, which is a Margarita with vodka substituted for tequila, he said.
Negroni
This famous cocktail, which took birth in Florence, Italy, is traditionally stirred and tastes far better when done so with the finger, said Sinha. If there ever was an Italian James Bond, a Negroni would be his drink. This cocktail stirred up such a demand for it that in the early 1900s, its invention led to the formation of a distillery named after it – Negroni Distilleria in Treviso, Italy.
Piña Colada
The Piña colada is a cocktail made with rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. We all know this! But did you know that this cocktail made it to the history books in 2010 when Georgi Radev, bar manager at The Langham Hotel, London, used a cement mixer and 140 bottles of rum as base to make 310 litres of the cocktail, creating the world’s largest Piña Colada.
Absinthe
Sinha said, ”Absinthe has long been portrayed as a dangerous, hallucinogenic and addictive drink. However, this wormwood spirit is no more harmful than any other alcohol, just that the presence of thujone was once misunderstood.” Fun fact: there was a time when absinthe was used as a malaria drug.
