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The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines it as:
“1 a : an iced drink of
distilled liquor mixed with flavoring ingredients.”
Many mixologists, however, differentiate between a cocktail
and a “mixed drink.” They believe a cocktail
should be a drink served in a short glass and comprised
of alcohol, a mixer (such as juice,) ice and, often,
a garnish. For the purpose of this site we will enlarge
the definition so as to include shots, blender drinks,
coffee drinks and even non-alcoholic drinks.
Where did such an odd term originate?
No one seems to really know the exact origin of the
word, but one thing we do know for certain is that
the word cocktail first appeared in print on
May 6th, 1806.
At that time it was common practice for a person running
for public office to ply voters with alcohol - a tradition,
it is said, George Washington himself started and which
did not fully die out until Prohibition.
An election had been held in Claverack, N.Y. and a
Federalist newspaper called the Balance and Columbian
Repository, presented this tongue-in-cheek accounting
of the loser's gains and loss for the race:
Rum, rum, rum!
It is conjectured, that the price of
this precious liquor will soon rise at
Claverack since a certain candidate has
placed in his account of Loss and Gain,
the following items: ---
LOSS |
GAIN |
720 rum-grogs
17 do. brandy
32 gin slings
411 glasses bitters
25 do. cock-tail
My Election
|
Nothing |
Confused by this new word “cocktail”, a
reader sent a letter to the paper asking for an explanation
of the term. This was the paper’s reply, dated
May 13th, 1806:
"Cocktail 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 anything else."
As you can see, American politics weren't much different
back then than they are now. But one thing to note is
that this early version of a cocktail contained alcohol
and bitters, a key ingredient that separated it
from the other drinks of the time: posset, pope, ratafia,
sling, shrub, turnip, flip, sack, grog and ale. Over
time, of course, this definition has changed and today
not many cocktails contain bitters.
How did the term actually come about?
There are many stories of how the term cocktail
came about, but many feel this one is the most likely:
Antoine Amedie Peychaud, a French immigrant living
in New Orleans, established a pharmacy in the French
Quarter’s Royal Street around 1793. There he produced
Peychaud’s Bitters, the first commercially produced
bitters. Over time he developed quite a large following
of friends who would gather at the Pharmacie Peychaud
to sample his concoction of cognac with a dash of his
secret bitters in a two-sided eggcup called a coquetier.
This potion was called the Sazerac and is reported to
be the first cocktail. It is believed that the word
cocquetier (pronounced cock-teeyay) became Americanized
into the word we know today: cocktail.
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