96 Fun Facts About Cocktail

Bartender Dale DeGroff's theory traces the word 'cocktail' to a French word for which item?

Eggcup in French is coquetier, and DeGroff's hypothesis is that mixed drinks were once served in one, giving the cocktail its name.

What is a pre-dinner drink meant to sharpen the appetite called?

An aperitif is usually dry or bitter rather than sweet: its job is to wake the appetite, not satisfy it.

What do you call an alcoholic drink served after a meal, rather than before it?

A digestif is served after a meal for the stated purpose of improving digestion, and is often richer, sweeter or herbal; the aperitif is its pre-meal opposite number.

Merchant Antonio Benedetto Carpano introduced the first sweet vermouth in 1786 in which Italian city?

Turin remains the home of vermouth; the sweet style Carpano launched there in 1786 is sugared before fortification and usually carries 10–15% sugar, which is why it anchors a Manhattan.

Which spirit forms the base of a Margarita?

Tequila, triple sec and lime, sometimes with a little simple syrup, make a Margarita; the salted rim is the finishing touch.

Which of these is a common garnish for a classic Martini?

Green olives are a quintessential garnish for a classic Martini, often used to complement its savory notes, especially in a "dirty" Martini.

Vermouth is officially what kind of drink?

Vermouth is a fortified wine, strengthened with distilled spirit and flavoured with botanicals: roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs and spices.

The 'Tom' in a Tom Collins points to an 'Old Tom' style of which spirit?

Gin: Old Tom is a lightly sweetened 19th-century style of gin, and the Tom Collins took its name from it; the John Collins was the version made with Holland gin, now called genever.

Which carbonated mixer tops a Tom Collins?

Club soda, plain carbonated water, tops a Collins; the Tom Collins is the gin version of the spirit, lemon and sugar formula.

In which year did a Hudson, New York paper first print a definition of the alcoholic 'cocktail'?

1806: The Balance and Columbian Repository printed it on May 13, three years after the word's first known appearance in print.

The Negroni was born around 1919-20 when Count Camillo Negroni asked for what change to his Americano?

Gin instead of soda water: at Florence's Caffè Casoni, bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have stiffened the Count's Americano by swapping its soda for gin, keeping the Campari and sweet vermouth.

The mojito, a Cuban punch of rum, sugar, lime, soda and mint, requires the mint leaves to be treated how?

Bruising releases the essential oils; the drink is then topped with crushed ice and soda.

The IBA recipe for a Manhattan calls for a dash of which bitters?

Angostura: the IBA recipe is 5 cl rye whiskey, 2 cl sweet red vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters, stirred and strained into a chilled glass with a maraschino cherry.

Historians credit the daiquiri to Jennings Cox, an American of what profession working in Cuba around 1898?

Mining engineer: Cox ran American iron-mining operations at the village of Daiquirí near Santiago de Cuba, whose Taíno-derived name the rum, lime and sugar drink took.

A Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka goes by what name?

Red Snapper: the gin-based version; the name was reportedly adopted at a New York hotel bar in the 1930s because 'Bloody Mary' sounded too coarse for its clientele.

The name piña colada literally means what in Spanish?

Strained pineapple: piña is pineapple and colada means strained; the rum, coconut cream and pineapple drink reached number one on the US singles chart in song form with Rupert Holmes's 1979 'Escape'.

The cosmopolitan is made with vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice and which orange liqueur?

Cointreau: the IBA recipe is citron vodka, Cointreau, lime and cranberry; Toby Cecchini's 1988 version at New York's Odeon fixed the Cointreau-and-fresh-lime formula that Dale DeGroff later popularised.

A Moscow mule of vodka, ginger beer and lime is properly served in a mug made of what?

Copper: the mug was part of the 1940s Los Angeles marketing push pairing Smirnoff vodka with Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer; modern mugs are often lined to stop copper leaching.

'Trader Vic' Bergeron claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1944 at his bar in which city?

Oakland: Bergeron said he mixed the first Mai Tai with 17-year-old Wray & Nephew rum for Tahitian friends at his Oakland restaurant in 1944; rival Donn Beach claimed a 1933 original.

The Sazerac, sometimes called the oldest American cocktail, is named after a brand of what?

Sazerac de Forge et Fils cognac was the original base; rye later replaced it, with Peychaud's Bitters and an absinthe rinse.

'Professor' Jerry Thomas published the first American bartender's guide in which year?

1862: Thomas's 'How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion' was the first American cocktail book; at San Francisco's Occidental Hotel he reportedly earned $100 a week, more than the Vice President.

What was Jerry Thomas's flaming signature drink, developed at the El Dorado saloon in San Francisco?

The Blue Blazer: Thomas poured flaming whisky between two silver mugs in an arc of blue flame, a showpiece he associated with the El Dorado saloon in San Francisco.

A martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives is called what?

A Gibson: a dry gin martini finished with one or two pickled cocktail onions instead of an olive; the Vesper, by contrast, is Ian Fleming's gin, vodka and Kina Lillet drink.

The Martinez, a possible martini ancestor, was served at San Francisco's Occidental Hotel to travellers catching what?

Jerry Thomas's 1887 guide printed a Martinez recipe with Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino and Boker's Bitters.

The Singapore Sling was reputedly created around 1915 at the Long Bar of which establishment?

Raffles: bartender Ngiam Tong Boon is credited with the gin, cherry brandy and pineapple drink at the Raffles Hotel's Long Bar, reputedly made to look like fruit juice so women could drink in public.

Giuseppe Cipriani of Harry's Bar named the Bellini after a 15th-century painter because of the drink's what?

Pink colour: Cipriani said the drink's pink hue recalled the toga of a saint in a Giovanni Bellini painting; its sisters are the Rossini (strawberry) and the Puccini (mandarin).

The mint julep is famously the symbol of which sporting event?

The Kentucky Derby: Churchill Downs has promoted the bourbon, mint and sugar drink as the race's signature cocktail since 1938, selling it in souvenir glasses each Derby weekend.

The original spritz veneziano, created in Venice in 1920, used which bitter aperitif as its flavouring?

Select: the bitter-red aperitivo launched by the Pilla brothers in Venice in 1920 is the traditional base of the Venetian spritz, topped with prosecco and soda; the IBA added the spritz to its official list in 2011.

Which London bartender is credited with creating the espresso martini in the 1980s?

Dick Bradsell: he shook vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur and sugar at London's Soho Brasserie around 1983, reputedly for a customer who asked for a drink to wake her up.

Robert 'Rosebud' Butt claimed to have invented the Long Island iced tea at which bar?

Oak Beach Inn: Butt said he created the vodka, gin, rum, tequila and triple-sec drink for a 1972 cocktail contest at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York.

The old fashioned is dubiously credited to the Pendennis Club in which city?

Louisville: the Pendennis Club story, told in a 1931 Waldorf-Astoria bar book, has the drink made there for bourbon distiller James E. Pepper, though 'old-fashioned cocktails' were already mentioned in print in 1880.

Per David Wondrich, the margarita is a remake of which older cocktail family?

The brandy daisy: margarita is Spanish for 'daisy', and Wondrich reads the drink as a tequila version of that 19th-century spirit, citrus and liqueur family; a 1937 British book's 'Picador' already had tequila, triple sec and lime.

Socialite Margaret Sames claimed she invented the margarita at a 1948 party in which Mexican resort?

Acapulco: Texan socialite Margaret 'Margarita' Sames said she mixed tequila, Cointreau and lime for guests at her Acapulco holiday home in December 1948, though a 'Picador' with the same formula was printed in 1937.

A whiskey sour with a float of full-bodied red wine on top is usually given which city's name?

New York: a New York sour floats dry red wine over a whiskey sour; adding egg white instead makes a Boston sour, and the whiskey sour itself was first mentioned in a Wisconsin newspaper in 1870.

Where was the piña colada proclaimed the official drink in 1978?

Puerto Rico: the island made the piña colada its official drink in 1978; San Juan's Caribe Hilton claims bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero created it there in 1954.

Where did Americans drink their illegal cocktails during US Prohibition?

Speakeasies: illicit bars that flourished from 1920 to 1933; cocktails boomed because spirits were easier to smuggle than wine or beer, and mixers hid the rough taste of bootleg liquor.

When cocktails resurged in the 1980s after a 1970s slump, which spirit often replaced gin in drinks like the martini?

Vodka took gin's place in the martini and others in the 1980s revival; cocktails had slumped through the late 1960s and 1970s, and a mixology renaissance followed in the mid-2000s.

The Manhattan, daiquiri and old fashioned all appear among the six basics of which 1948 cocktail classic?

The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks: David A. Embury's 1948 book picked six basics: the Manhattan, Martini, Old Fashioned, Daiquiri, Sidecar and Jack Rose; the Savoy Cocktail Book dates from 1930.

The Mai Tai is made with rum, lime, Curaçao and which almond-flavoured syrup?

Orgeat: the almond syrup that gives the Mai Tai its nutty sweetness; Trader Vic's 1944 recipe was aged Jamaican rum, lime, orange curaçao, orgeat and rock-candy syrup.

Which entertainer was credited in 1939 with a tomato juice-and-spirits 'pick-me-up' called a Bloody Mary?

Petiot conceded Jessel's claim to the basic mix but insisted he was the one who turned it into the seasoned drink served today.

In 1934 Fernand Petiot refined the modern Bloody Mary in the King Cole Room of which New York hotel?

The St. Regis: Petiot joined its King Cole Bar in 1934 and added the salt, pepper, lemon, Worcestershire and Tabasco; the bar takes its name from Maxfield Parrish's Old King Cole mural.

A Bull Shot swaps the tomato juice in a Bloody Mary for what?

Beef bouillon: the Bull Shot is vodka with chilled beef bouillon or consommé, seasoned like a Bloody Mary; it is credited to Detroit's Caucus Club in the early 1950s.

What is the name of the sake-based variation of the classic tomato-juice brunch cocktail?

Bloody Geisha: the sake version; the family also includes the Danish Mary (aquavit), Bloody Bishop (sherry) and Bloody Maria (tequila).

In a Virgin Mary, the spirits are replaced with what?

Extra tomato juice: a Virgin Mary is the seasoned tomato-juice mix with no spirit, so the vodka's volume is made up with more juice; it keeps the Worcestershire, Tabasco and celery salt.

Some drink historians think the classic tomato-juice cocktail was named after which silent-film star?

Mary Pickford: one theory ties the name to the silent-film star, who also had a rum cocktail named after her in 1920s Havana; rivals credit Queen Mary I or a Chicago waitress at the Bucket of Blood.

The Bloody Mary appears on the IBA official cocktail list in which category?

Contemporary Classics: the IBA sorts its list into the Unforgettables, Contemporary Classics and New Era Drinks, and the Bloody Mary sits in the middle group beside the Cosmopolitan and Moscow Mule.

The Caesar, Canada's Clamato-based cousin of the Bloody Mary, was invented in 1969 in which city?

Calgary: Walter Chell, a manager at the Calgary Inn, created it in 1969 for the opening of the hotel's Italian restaurant Marco's, and within five years it was the city's most popular mixed drink.

Walter Chell said the Caesar was inspired by which Italian pasta dish?

Spaghetti alle vongole: Chell reasoned that if tomato and clams worked together on a plate they would work in a glass, which is why the Caesar is built on Clamato, a clam-and-tomato juice.

By 1994, roughly what share of Mott's Clamato sales in Canada were being used to mix Caesars?

70%: Mott's estimated that by 1994 seven in ten Clamato sales in Canada went into Caesars; Calgary's mayor went on to declare 13 May 2009 Caesar Day for the drink's 40th anniversary.

A Caesar is traditionally served in a highball glass rimmed with what?

Celery salt: the Caesar's rim is dipped in celery salt, sometimes cut with pepper, and the garnish is usually a celery stalk and lime wedge, mirroring the Bloody Mary it grew out of.

The modern pisco sour was invented in the early 1920s at Morris' Bar in which city?

Lima: Victor Vaughen Morris, an American, opened Morris' Bar in Lima in 1916; his Peruvian bartender Mario Bruiget later added the egg white and Angostura bitters that define the modern pisco sour.

The caipirinha, declared Brazilian Cultural Heritage in 2003, originated in which state?

São Paulo: the cachaça, lime and sugar drink is traditionally traced to Piracicaba in São Paulo state around 1918, when a lime, garlic and honey remedy for Spanish flu lost its garlic and gained cachaça.

Barman Harry MacElhone said the French 75 was named after what?

The 75 mm French light artillery piece lent its name to the gin, champagne, lemon and sugar drink popular in a brandy form during World War I.

The tequila cocktail paloma is named after which bird?

Dove: paloma is Spanish for dove; the drink is tequila with grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos and lime, served over ice with a salted rim.

Which tiki pioneer invented the zombie at his Hollywood restaurant in late 1934?

Donn Beach: Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, trading as Don the Beachcomber, mixed the multi-rum Zombie at his Hollywood restaurant in 1934; it went national after the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In which 1953 novel does James Bond invent the Vesper cocktail of gin, vodka and Kina Lillet?

Casino Royale: Bond orders three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken until ice-cold with a lemon peel, then names the drink after Vesper Lynd.

The Painkiller, a rum and pineapple drink topped with grated nutmeg, originated where?

British Virgin Islands: the Painkiller was created in the 1970s at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, and Pusser's Rum later trademarked the name; it mixes pineapple, cream of coconut, orange juice and dark rum.

The Harvey Wallbanger adds which Italian liqueur to a vodka-and-orange-juice screwdriver?

Galliano: the yellow vanilla-and-anise liqueur floated on a screwdriver makes a Harvey Wallbanger, a drink pushed in the early 1970s by Galliano's US importer with a cartoon surfer mascot.

In which Italian city was Aperol, the spritz's best-known bitter, born in 1919?

Aperol came out of Padua in 1919 and Select out of Venice a year later; the modern Prosecco-based spritz recipe only settled in the 1970s.

Which liqueur gives the aviation cocktail its pale sky tint?

Crème de violette: Hugo Ensslin's 1916 recipe used the violet liqueur with gin, lemon and maraschino; Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book dropped it and many bartenders followed suit.

The bee's knees cocktail takes its name from Prohibition-era slang meaning what?

The best: 'the bee's knees' was 1920s slang for the height of excellence; the gin, honey and lemon drink is credited variously to Frank Meier of the Paris Ritz or, in a 1929 article, to Titanic survivor Molly Brown.

The boulevardier swaps the gin in a Negroni for which spirit?

Bourbon: the boulevardier is bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth; it first appeared in Harry MacElhone's 1927 Paris book Barflies and Cocktails, credited to Erskine Gwynne, who ran a magazine called Boulevardier.

John Lennon said the Brandy Alexanders Harry Nilsson gave him in 1974 tasted like what?

Milkshakes: Lennon said the creamy drinks 'tasted like milkshakes'; the night ended with him and Nilsson heckling the Smothers Brothers and being thrown out of the Troubadour in March 1974.

Along with cognac and cream, which liqueur completes a Brandy Alexander?

Crème de cacao: the Brandy Alexander is equal parts cognac, crème de cacao and cream, dusted with nutmeg; it descends from the gin-based Alexander said to have been created for a dinner honouring ad character Phoebe Snow.

The Bramble, created in 1984 London, gets its blackberry flavour from which liqueur?

Its creator was inspired by childhood blackberrying on the Isle of Wight and wanted to make a distinctly British cocktail at Fred's Club in Soho.

The Clover Club cocktail is named after a men's club in which American city?

Philadelphia: the Clover Club, chartered in 1882, met at the city's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel; recipes for the gin, lemon, raspberry and egg-white drink appear as early as 1908.

Which rum company has held a US trademark on the name Dark 'n Stormy since 1991?

Gosling's: the Bermuda rum maker registered Dark 'n Stormy in the US in 1991 and has sued or threatened Pernod Ricard, Proximo Spirits and even a cocktail blog over versions not made with its Black Seal rum.

Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye says a real gimlet is half gin and half what?

Rose's lime juice: Terry Lennox tells Marlowe 'a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else'; the Savoy Cocktail Book gave the same 50/50 spec, though modern bartenders pour far less cordial.

Which floral ingredient sets a Ramos gin fizz apart from a plain gin fizz?

Orange flower water: Henry C. Ramos added it, with egg white and cream, to gin, citrus and sugar in New Orleans in 1888; its famous 12-minute shake once kept teams of bartenders busy.

The grasshopper, an after-dinner drink, gets its green colour from what?

Crème de menthe: the green mint liqueur is shaken with white crème de cacao and cream; Tujague's in New Orleans claims owner Philip Guichet invented it in 1918, and Wisconsin blends it with ice cream.

Pat O'Brien created the Hurricane in the 1940s to use up a surplus of which spirit?

Rum: wartime distributors made O'Brien buy dozens of cases of rum for every case of scarce whiskey, so he poured it with passion-fruit syrup and lemon into hurricane-lamp glasses at his French Quarter bar.

Which San Francisco spot began serving Irish coffee on 10 November 1952?

Buena Vista Cafe: travel writer Stanton Delaplane and owner Jack Koeppler recreated the Shannon Airport drink there on 10 November 1952; Joe Sheridan, who first spiked passengers' coffee at Foynes, later emigrated to work at the cafe.

The Jungle Bird debuted in 1973 at the Aviary Bar of a Hilton hotel in which city?

Kuala Lumpur: beverage manager Jeffrey Ong created it as the welcome drink for the Kuala Lumpur Hilton's guests and served it in a bird-shaped ceramic vessel at the hotel's Aviary Bar.

Which Italian bitter makes the Jungle Bird unusual among tiki drinks?

Campari: the Jungle Bird stirs the bitter red aperitivo into dark rum, pineapple, lime and sugar; Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry said it was the one tiki drink that craft bars wanting nothing to do with tiki would serve.

The Last Word, revived in the 2000s, originated at an athletic club in which city?

Detroit: the Detroit Athletic Club's archives list the gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime drink in 1916 as its priciest cocktail at 35 cents; Seattle bartender Murray Stenson revived it at the Zig Zag Café in the mid-2000s.

The IBA says the mimosa is 'also known as' which British drink dating from 1921?

Buck's Fizz: the IBA lists the mimosa as also known as Buck's Fizz, invented at London's Buck's Club in 1921; the British version uses about twice as much champagne as orange juice.

Sam Ross's Penicillin, created in 2005 at Milk & Honey, is built on which spirit?

Scotch whisky: the Penicillin is blended Scotch with honey-ginger syrup and lemon, floated with smoky Islay malt; Ross named it for Alexander Fleming's drug because the ginger, honey and lemon echo a hot toddy's cold remedies.

James Pimm first offered his gin-based cup in 1823 at what kind of London business?

An oyster bar: Pimm opened his oyster bar in the City of London in 1823 and served the gin, quinine and herb tonic as a digestive aid in a small tankard called a No. 1 Cup, which named the product.

Created at the Waldorf Astoria in 1894, the Rob Roy honoured the premiere of what?

An operetta: Reginald De Koven's comic opera Rob Roy opened on Broadway in October 1894, and the Waldorf's bartenders marked it with a Manhattan made with Scotch in place of rye.

Which honeyed liqueur joins whisky in a rusty nail?

Drambuie: the Scotch-and-honey liqueur is stirred with Scotch whisky; the pairing appeared at the 1937 British Industries Fair as the 'B.I.F.', and New York's 21 Club and the Rat Pack made it famous decades later.

The sidecar, a 1920s cognac and lemon drink, was named after what?

A motorcycle attachment: the drink is said to be named for an American army captain in Paris who arrived by motorcycle sidecar; Harry MacElhone credited Pat MacGarry of Buck's Club, and the Paris Ritz also claims it.

Whose 1972 US tour, launched at the Trident in Sausalito, spread the tequila sunrise?

The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger tried one at Bill Graham's tour-launch party at the Trident and the entourage ordered them coast to coast; Jose Cuervo put the recipe on its bottles the next year.

The Vieux Carré was created at the Carousel Bar in which New Orleans establishment?

Hotel Monteleone: Walter Bergeron mixed rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine and Peychaud's bitters at the Monteleone's Carousel Bar in 1938, naming it for the French Quarter, literally 'old square'.

The White Russian's popularity surged after which 1998 film?

The Big Lebowski's Dude repeatedly calls it a 'Caucasian'; the first print mention of a white Russian was a 1965 Oakland Tribune insert.

A White Russian made with skim milk instead of cream is named after which tennis player?

Anna Kournikova: the skim-milk version borrows the name of the Russian tennis star; other variants include the mudslide with Irish cream, the dirty Russian with chocolate syrup and the white Mexican with tequila.

Savoy bartender Ada Coleman gave her hanky panky its bite with which Italian digestivo?

Fernet-Branca: Coleman stirred two dashes of the bitter Italian digestivo into gin and sweet vermouth for overworked actor Charles Hawtrey, who drained the glass and declared 'By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!'

The Kir, crème de cassis topped with white wine, is named after the mayor of which city?

Dijon: Félix Kir, mayor of Dijon from 1945 to 1968, served the old blanc-cassis to visiting delegations after WWII, partly because the German army had confiscated the region's red Burgundy.

Since 1875, Angostura bitters have been manufactured in which country?

Trinidad and Tobago: Johann Siegert developed the bitters as a tonic in the Venezuelan town of Angostura in 1824; his sons moved production to Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1875.

The spring-rimmed Hawthorne strainer takes its name from a café in which city?

Boston: the strainer takes its name from the Hawthorne Café in Boston, whose name was punched into the metal of the version patented in the early 1890s as an improvement on the older julep strainer.

The 2008 paper plane cocktail takes its name from a song by which artist?

M.I.A.: Sam Ross had her 2007 hit 'Paper Planes' on repeat while building the bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and lemon drink; Toby Maloney misheard a voicemail and first listed it as the paper airplane.

Which martini-with-orange-juice ranked third in a 1934 list of famous cocktails?

The Bronx: only the martini and Manhattan beat the gin, vermouth and orange-juice drink in the 1934 ranking; in The Thin Man, William Powell's Nick Charles shakes a Bronx to two-step time.

A sex on the beach made without orange juice goes by what name?

Woo woo: vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice is a sex on the beach with the orange juice left out; swap both juices for blue curaçao and Sprite and you have a 'sex in the driveway'.

Which Italian aperitivo is the first drink James Bond orders in Fleming's debut novel?

Bond always stipulated Perrier, reasoning that expensive soda water was the cheapest way to improve a poor drink.

'King Cocktail' Dale DeGroff made his name from 1987 to 1999 at which New York venue?

The Rainbow Room: DeGroff ran the bar atop Rockefeller Center from 1987 to 1999, insisting on classic recipes and fresh juices, which helped spark the craft cocktail movement.

The Black Russian was created in 1949 at the Hotel Metropole in which city?

Brussels: Belgian barman Gustave Tops mixed vodka and coffee liqueur at the Hotel Metropole in honour of Perle Mesta, the US ambassador to Luxembourg; the 'Russian' refers only to the vodka.

Tommy's margarita, born in San Francisco in 1990, replaces the triple sec with what?

Agave nectar: Julio Bermejo swapped the orange liqueur for agave syrup at his family's Tommy's Mexican Restaurant to amplify the tequila's agave notes, keeping fresh lime and 100% agave tequila.