98 Fun Facts About Cocktails

What spirit is typically the base for a Mojito?

Rum is the Mojito's base: white Cuban rum over muddled mint, lime, sugar and soda. Havana's La Bodeguita del Medio claims the drink, though biographers doubt the Hemingway inscription on its wall.

Legend places the Manhattan's birth at an 1870s banquet hosted by the mother of which future British PM?

Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome, supposedly threw the party for presidential candidate Samuel Tilden, though records suggest she was in England, pregnant, at the time.

What specific type of bitters is a key ingredient in an Old Fashioned?

Angostura aromatic bitters are the Old Fashioned standard, dashed over a sugar cube before the whiskey. The name dates to the 1880s, when drinkers asked for cocktails made 'the old-fashioned way'.

The Sazerac, rinsed in absinthe or Herbsaint, is the official cocktail of which city?

New Orleans got the Sazerac as its official cocktail from the Louisiana Legislature in June 2008, only after a bill to make it the state cocktail was voted down.

Which three-piece cocktail shaker, the type most home bars own, has a built-in strainer and a small cap on top?

The cobbler shaker is the three-piece home favourite: its middle cap holds a built-in strainer, and the small top cap doubles as a rough measure for the next pour.

Which orange-flavored liqueur is a common ingredient in a Margarita?

Cointreau's own 'original' Margarita recipe runs 2 parts tequila to 1 each of Cointreau and lime; brothers Adolphe and Édouard-Jean Cointreau founded the Angers distillery behind the liqueur in 1849.

Orgeat syrup, made from almonds, is a classic ingredient in which tiki cocktail?

The Mai Tai takes its name from Tahitian maita'i, meaning 'good', and its almond orgeat, scented with rose or orange-blossom water, is what sets it apart from the rum-and-juice crowd.

A classic Martini is often garnished with an olive or what citrus peel?

A lemon twist is the Martini's other classic garnish; the peel is squeezed over the gin and vermouth so its oils spray across the surface.

Tonic water was originally mixed with gin to make which bitter antimalarial drug more palatable?

Quinine, the bitter cinchona-bark antimalarial, was what British colonials in India cut with gin, sugar and water. Modern tonic holds far less quinine and is sweetened, so it offers no malaria protection.

The Kentucky Derby's mint julep is traditionally served in a cup of silver or which other metal?

Silver or pewter cups are held only by the top and bottom edges so frost can form on the outside; the Derby's premium versions have come in gold-plated cups with silver straws.

Which cocktail typically includes both gin and green Chartreuse?

The Last Word — equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime — first appeared on the Detroit Athletic Club menu around 1916, then vanished until Seattle bartender Murray Stenson revived it in 2004.

Adding an egg white to a Whiskey Sour gives a variant named after which US city?

A Boston sour is the egg-white version; the New York sour is floated with red wine instead, and the Ward 8 adds orange juice and grenadine.

Which New Orleans fizz is famous for its long shake and orange flower water?

The Ramos Gin Fizz was created by Henry C. Ramos at his Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans in 1888; its egg white, cream and orange flower water need a long shake to build the famous foam.

The Clover Club cocktail takes its name from a club in which US city?

Philadelphia is right: the Clover Club was a men's club that met at the city's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, and its namesake drink shakes gin, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg white.

What is the main spirit in a White Russian cocktail?

The White Russian is a creamy cocktail made with vodka, coffee liqueur (like Kahlúa), and heavy cream, often served over ice.

The Aviation cocktail gets its subtle purple hue from which floral liqueur?

Crème de Violette vanished from the Aviation in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and was hard to find in the US until 2007; Hugo Ensslin's 1916 recipe had it with gin, maraschino and lemon.

Which cocktail is made with white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine, and Maraschino liqueur?

The Mary Pickford — white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine and maraschino — was reputedly created in 1920s Havana for the silent-film star during a Cuban trip with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin.

Which mixologist created the Old Cuban, a 2001 blend of aged rum, mint, lime, bitters and sparkling wine?

Audrey Saunders created the Old Cuban in New York in 2001, before opening Pegu Club; the IBA lists it with a 60 ml brut Champagne top, essentially a mojito crossed with a French 75.

One theory links the word "cocktail" to a French word for what common item?

One popular theory suggests the word "cocktail" might be a mispronunciation of "coquetier," a French word for an eggcup, in which mixed drinks were allegedly served.

What do you call a dry drink served before a meal to whet the appetite?

An aperitif 'opens' the meal, from the Latin aperire, to open, and is usually dry or bitter rather than sweet, unlike the digestif poured after dinner.

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

Turin, in Piedmont, is where Antonio Benedetto Carpano sold the first sweet vermouth in 1786; the sweet style carries roughly 10-15% sugar, which is why it anchors a Manhattan.

What type of alcoholic beverage is vermouth classified as?

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine, meaning it's a wine that has been strengthened with distilled alcohol and flavored with various botanicals.

The "Tom" in the Tom Collins cocktail is thought to refer to a specific style of which spirit?

The "Tom" in Tom Collins likely refers to "Old Tom" gin, a slightly sweeter style of gin that was popular when the cocktail gained prominence.

A Collins, such as the gin-based Tom Collins, is a spirit, lemon juice and sugar lengthened with what carbonated mixer?

Club soda tops the Collins, which makes the Tom Collins essentially a fizzy gin sour served tall over ice.

In what year did the first known printed definition of a 'cocktail' appear in the US?

The first known definition of an alcoholic "cocktail" appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York, on May 13, 1806.

The sidecar combines cognac and lemon juice with which third ingredient?

Orange liqueur — Cointreau or triple sec — completes the sidecar with cognac and lemon; the drink caught on in Paris and London in the early 1920s and is often served with a sugared rim.

The Penicillin, an IBA official cocktail, is built on which spirit?

Scotch whisky is the Penicillin's base: Sam Ross created it at New York's Milk & Honey in 2005 with blended Scotch, honey-ginger syrup and lemon under a float of smoky Islay malt.

Gosling Brothers claims the dark 'n' stormy was invented just after World War I on which island?

Bermuda is the Dark 'n' Stormy's home: Gosling's of Hamilton says the drink was first mixed from its Black Seal rum and local ginger beer just after World War I, and it holds a trademark on the name.

The Negroni was created around 1919–20 in which Italian city?

Florence is the Negroni's birthplace: at Caffè Casoni around 1919, Count Camillo Negroni reportedly asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to swap the soda in his usual Campari-and-vermouth for gin.

In a Negroni sbagliato, or "mistaken Negroni", what replaces the gin?

Sparkling wine, usually prosecco, replaces the gin; sbagliato means 'mistaken' in Italian, the story being that Mirko Stocchetto at Milan's Bar Basso grabbed the wrong bottle in the early 1970s.

Along with Ernest Hemingway, which US president was famously fond of the daiquiri?

John F. Kennedy was famously fond of daiquiris, reportedly drinking one on election night in 1960; the drink boomed in the 1940s when rationing made whiskey scarce while rum flowed under the Good Neighbor policy.

What does the Spanish name "piña colada" literally mean?

Piña colada means 'strained pineapple', colada being the past participle of colar, to strain; a 1924 National Geographic report from Puerto Rico mentioned a different drink, piña fría, or cold pineapple.

Coco López, the 1954 Puerto Rican invention key to the piña colada, is what product?

Professor Ramón López Irizarry patented a new way to extract coconut cream, and the Caribe Hilton claims its bartender built the drink on it.

Paris bartender Fernand Petiot's 1921 vodka-and-tomato drink was originally called what?

'Bucket of Blood' is the name Petiot's legend gives his 1921 original at Harry's New York Bar; he later claimed to have refined it in 1934 at the St. Regis Hotel's King Cole Bar as the Red Snapper.

The Moscow mule's copper-mug tradition is traced to a marketing push for which vodka brand?

Smirnoff was the brand: John G. Martin of Heublein, which bought the Smirnoff name in 1939, toured US bars taking Polaroids of bartenders holding a copper mug and a Smirnoff bottle to show the next bar.

The modern cosmopolitan is usually credited to Toby Cecchini at which Manhattan restaurant?

The Odeon in Tribeca is where Toby Cecchini and colleague Melissa Huffsmith-Roth built the cosmo in 1988 from Absolut Citron, Cointreau and lime, reworking a vaguely described South Beach drink.

Which juice gives a cosmopolitan its pink colour?

Cranberry juice is the splash of colour; served in a martini glass, the cosmo is often mistaken for a martini, though it really belongs with the gimlet and the kamikaze.

The Singapore sling was reputedly created around 1915 at the Long Bar of which hotel?

Raffles Hotel credits its Hainanese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon with the Singapore sling, a gin, cherry brandy, Bénédictine and pineapple drink; the hotel's Long Bar is famous for letting guests drop peanut shells on the floor.

A Bellini made with strawberry purée instead of peach is called what?

The Rossini swaps strawberry purée for the Bellini's white peach; the Puccini uses mandarin juice and the Tintoretto pomegranate, keeping the Italian-artist naming theme begun by Harry's Bar's Bellini.

The IBA lists the mimosa as "also known as" which British cocktail dating from 1921?

Some purists insist a Buck's Fizz uses twice as much champagne as orange juice, while a mimosa goes half and half.

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

Bradsell said the coffee machine at the Soho Brasserie sat right next to his station, so coffee was always on his mind.

The caipirinha is built on which Brazilian sugar-cane spirit?

Cachaça is distilled from fresh sugar-cane juice rather than the molasses behind most rum; a 2003 Brazilian decree defined the caipirinha as cachaça, lime and sugar, and the IBA lists it as an official cocktail.

Tequila topped with grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos makes which Mexican cocktail?

Paloma is Spanish for 'dove'; the drink is tequila, lime and grapefruit soda over ice with a salted rim, and some trace its name to the 19th-century folk song 'La Paloma'.

Which Raymond Chandler novel declares "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice"?

The Long Goodbye (1953) has Terry Lennox tell Philip Marlowe that a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice; modern tastes run drier, often four parts gin to one of cordial.

The French 75 cocktail takes its name from what?

A field gun: the French 75 mm of World War I lent the drink its name for its kick; Harry MacElhone's 1922 '75' was quite different, Calvados, gin, grenadine and absinthe.

The French 75 is ordered in which classic 1942 film?

Casablanca has a German officer order French 75s for himself and Yvonne at Rick's Café Américain; New York's Stork Club helped popularise the drink in America.

Swapping the gin in a Negroni for bourbon gives you which cocktail?

The Boulevardier first appeared in Harry MacElhone's 1927 Paris book Barflies and Cocktails, credited to expatriate Erskine Gwynne; it swaps the Negroni's gin for bourbon and joined the IBA's official list in 2020.

In Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, the first drink James Bond orders is which Italian cocktail?

The Americano — Campari, sweet vermouth and soda — is Bond's first order in Casino Royale; in 'From a View to a Kill' he insists on Perrier, reasoning expensive soda is the cheapest way to improve a poor drink.

"Don's Mix" in the original Zombie recipe combined grapefruit juice with which syrup?

Cinnamon syrup: Don's Mix was two parts grapefruit juice to one part cinnamon syrup. Donn Beach coded his ingredients so even his bartenders could not copy the recipes; Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry later decoded them.

The Hurricane is most associated with which New Orleans bar?

Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter created the rum-and-passion-fruit Hurricane in the 1940s; the bar allegedly began as a speakeasy called Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary, with the password 'storm's brewin''.

Mick Jagger took up the tequila sunrise at a 1972 tour kickoff party in which California town?

Sausalito's Trident restaurant hosted the Stones' 1972 tour kickoff party where Jagger took up the drink; the band called it their 'cocaine and tequila sunrise tour', and Jose Cuervo put the recipe on its bottles in 1973.

The 1930s Arizona Biltmore tequila sunrise used which liqueur instead of orange juice?

Crème de cassis, the blackcurrant liqueur, coloured Gene Sulit's 1930s Arizona Biltmore version, lengthened with lime juice and soda water, nothing like the layered orange-and-grenadine drink of the 1970s.

A sex on the beach made without orange juice is known as what?

A woo woo is vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice, the sex on the beach minus its orange juice; swap the juices for blue curaçao and Sprite and you get a 'sex in the driveway'.

Travel writer Stanton Delaplane helped which California bar start serving Irish coffee in 1952?

The Buena Vista Cafe, by San Francisco's Hyde Street cable-car turnaround, began serving Irish coffee on 10 November 1952 after Delaplane described the Shannon Airport drink; Foynes chef Joe Sheridan later emigrated to work there.

Besides the green mint liqueur, a classic grasshopper has cream and which other liqueur?

White crème de cacao gives the grasshopper its chocolate note alongside the green mint liqueur and cream; a 'Girl Scout Cookie' version swaps the mint liqueur for peppermint schnapps.

Which musician introduced John Lennon to the Brandy Alexander during his 1974 "lost weekend"?

Harry Nilsson ordered the Brandy Alexanders at Los Angeles' Troubadour in March 1974; Lennon said they 'tasted like milkshakes', and the pair were thrown out for heckling the Smothers Brothers.

Ian Fleming credited the first Vesper to which friend, in a copy of Casino Royale?

Ivar Bryce, Fleming's lifelong friend, received a Casino Royale inscribed 'For Ivar, who mixed the first Vesper and said the good word'; Fleming took the name from a butler announcing 'Vespers are served' at evening drinks.

Scotch mixed with Drambuie makes which cocktail?

The rusty nail began life in 1937 as the 'B.I.F.', named for the British Industries Fair, and became a Rat Pack favourite under its current name in the 1960s.

A Scotch-and-amaretto duo shares its name with which Mafia film?

The Godfather is Scotch and amaretto; Disaronno claims it was Marlon Brando's favourite, and swapping the Scotch for vodka makes a godmother.

Harry Craddock advised that the Corpse Reviver No. 1 be taken before what time of day?

11 AM: Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book says the No. 1 is 'to be taken before 11 a.m., or whenever steam and energy are needed'; the phrase 'corpse reviver' for a morning-after drink appears in Punch in 1861.

Ada Coleman's hanky panky adds dashes of which Italian digestivo to gin and sweet vermouth?

Fernet-Branca, two dashes of it, gives the hanky panky its bite; Savoy head bartender Ada Coleman devised it for actor Charles Hawtrey, who reportedly exclaimed 'that is the real hanky-panky!'

The Vieux Carré was created at the Carousel Bar of which New Orleans hotel?

Hotel Monteleone's Walter Bergeron built the Vieux Carré in 1938 from rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine and Peychaud's bitters; the Carousel Bar's rotating bar top arrived in 1949.

The Jungle Bird tiki cocktail debuted in 1973 at a Hilton hotel in which city?

The Kuala Lumpur Hilton served the Jungle Bird as its welcome drink from 1973, in a bird-shaped ceramic vessel named for the birds in the aviary visible from its bar; bartender Jeffrey Ong is credited.

Which rum brand holds a US trademark on the Painkiller cocktail's name and recipe?

Pusser's Rum trademarked the Painkiller, first mixed at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke; when a New York tiki bar called Painkiller drew a Pusser's cease-and-desist in 2011, it renamed itself PKNY.

The hot eggnog variant called a Tom and Jerry was reputedly a favourite of which US president?

Warren G. Harding reportedly favoured the Tom and Jerry, a hot eggnog of rum, brandy and spiced batter; the name comes from Pierce Egan's 1821 book Life in London, whose heroes were Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn.

The Harvey Wallbanger was devised in 1969 to promote which Italian liqueur?

Galliano, the yellow vanilla-anise liqueur, floats on top of the Harvey Wallbanger; its US importer's 1969 ads starred a cartoon surfer with the line 'Harvey Wallbanger is the name. And I can be made!'

The name "screwdriver" for vodka and orange juice first appeared in the 1940s in which country?

Turkey: a 1949 Time magazine report from Istanbul's Park Hotel described agents and engineers drinking 'the latest Yankee concoction of vodka and orange juice, called a screwdriver'; one story has Americans stirring it with a screwdriver.

"Margarita" is Spanish for which flower, linking the drink to an older cocktail family?

Historian David Wondrich sees it as a brandy daisy remade with tequila; a sidecar is another daisy.

Mariano Martinez introduced the dedicated frozen margarita machine in 1971 in which city?

Dallas: Martinez adapted a soft-serve ice-cream machine at his Mariano's restaurant in 1971 and donated it to the Smithsonian in 2005; frozen margaritas had been blended in La Jolla as early as 1947 by Albert Hernandez Sr.

A very dry 15:1 martini is nicknamed after which British field marshal?

The joke is that Montgomery supposedly attacked only with overwhelming numerical superiority.

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

The Gibson swaps the olive or twist for pickled cocktail onions; its origin is disputed, often tied to San Francisco's Bohemian Club around 1900, while a dirty martini instead adds a splash of olive brine.

In 1806 a "cocktail" of spirits, bitters, water and sugar was also known as what?

A bittered sling: The Balance and Columbian Repository's 1806 definition called the cock-tail 'a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters', adding that it was 'vulgarly called bittered sling'.

Grenadine syrup was traditionally made from which fruit?

Pomegranate juice and sugar made traditional grenadine, named from the French grenade for the fruit; the best-selling US brand's syrup lists corn syrup and Red #40 rather than any fruit.

Absinthe, the Sazerac rinse, was absent from the US market from 1912 until which year?

2007 is when absinthe returned: the US had banned it in 1912, and Lucid became the first genuine absinthe approved for sale in March 2007; the Sazerac is built in two chilled glasses, one rinsed with absinthe.

The Sazerac was named after a brand of which spirit that originally served as its base?

Cognac: importer Sewell T. Taylor brought in Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils cognac, and Aaron Bird renamed his bar the Sazerac Coffee House; rye replaced the cognac after phylloxera devastated French vineyards in the 1870s.

One claim says the B-52 shot was invented by Peter Fich at a hotel in which Canadian resort town?

Banff Springs Hotel is where head bartender Peter Fich is said to have created the B-52 in 1977; he named drinks after favourite bands, so the shot honours The B-52's rather than the bomber.

Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book collected roughly how many recipes?

750 recipes, roughly, fill the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, illustrated by Gilbert Rumbold; Craddock had left Prohibition America for London in 1920 and ran the Savoy's American Bar.

Tiki pioneer Donn Beach, of Don the Beachcomber fame, was born with what surname?

Ernest Raymond Gantt opened the first prototypical tiki bar in 1930s Hollywood and later built Honolulu's International Market Place.

Which two-piece mixing setup, a metal tin plus a pint glass, needs a separate strainer?

The Boston shaker pairs a metal tin with a pint mixing glass sealed by a tap; most bartenders strain with a Hawthorne strainer, though some pour through the narrow gap between the two pieces.

Angostura bitters were developed as a tonic by a surgeon general in whose army?

Simón Bolívar's army: German doctor Johann Siegert was its surgeon general in the Venezuelan town of Angostura when he began selling the bitters in 1824; his sons moved production to Trinidad in 1875.

Angostura bitters bottles are instantly recognisable for what quirk?

An oversized label: legend says two Siegert brothers split the job, one designing the bottle and the other the label, and neither checked the other's measurements; the mismatch stuck once customers came to recognise it.

Until 2006, Campari's red colour came from carmine, a dye made from what?

Crushed insects: carmine is extracted from dried cochineal, a scale insect farmed on cactus in Peru and the Canary Islands; Gaspare Campari invented the bitter in Novara in 1860, and the company dropped carmine in 2006.

Which Lancashire town's miners' club is reputedly the largest single customer for Bénédictine?

Burnley Miners' Club has long claimed to be the world's biggest single buyer of Bénédictine; soldiers of the East Lancashire Regiment picked up the taste near Fécamp in WWI, and locals drink it with hot water as 'Bene 'n' 'ot'.

Baileys Irish Cream was named after what?

A London restaurant, Baileys Bistro in Soho near the creators' office, lent its name; David Gluckman and Hugh Seymour-Davies mixed the 1971 prototype in about 45 minutes from Irish whiskey, cream and Nesquik powder.

The name amaretto is a diminutive of "amaro", Italian for what?

Bitter is amaro, so amaretto means 'a little bitter'; its almond-like flavour often comes not from almonds but from apricot kernels or peach stones.

Canada's Caesar cocktail differs from a Bloody Mary mainly by including what?

Clam broth is the difference: Walter Chell's 1969 Calgary original mashed clams into tomato juice, and the Caesar is usually built on Clamato and served in a celery-salt-rimmed glass.

The rum-and-Coke's name "Cuba libre" was originally the slogan of what?

The independence movement's cry of '¡Cuba libre!' gave the drink its name around 1900, the year Coca-Cola was first imported into Cuba, so the rum-and-Coke cannot predate that despite wartime legends.

The sidecar cocktail was named directly after what?

A motorcycle attachment: legend credits an American army captain in Paris who arrived by motorcycle sidecar; the Ritz claims the drink, and the first recipes appeared in 1922 in books by Robert Vermeire and Harry MacElhone.

The Paper Plane cocktail's name was inspired by a song by which artist?

M.I.A.'s 2008 hit 'Paper Planes' was playing as Sam Ross worked on the drink for Chicago's Violet Hour; he first made it with Campari before settling on Aperol with bourbon, Amaro Nonino and lemon.

Which Dutch juniper spirit is the ancestor of gin?

Genever, the Dutch juniper spirit, is gin's ancestor; English soldiers fighting in the Low Countries in the 1600s took home the taste, and 'Dutch courage' entered the language.

A stinger is brandy combined with which liqueur?

Crème de menthe, white rather than green, is shaken with brandy for the stinger; during Prohibition the mint helped mask the taste of poor-quality brandy.

Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail tops absinthe with what?

Champagne is poured over a jigger of absinthe 'until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness'; Hemingway's 1935 recipe ended 'Drink three to five of these slowly.'

The gin-and-mint South Side is said to have been the preferred drink of which gangster?

The story goes that Capone's rough gin needed sweetening, while his North Side rivals drank smoother gin with ginger ale.

Pink gin, Plymouth gin plus a dash of bitters, is thought to have been created by members of what?

The Royal Navy is credited: its officers took Angostura bitters against seasickness and added Plymouth gin, the Devon naval port's spirit, to make the medicine go down.

The Monkey Gland cocktail is named after a 1920s pseudo-scientific idea promoted by which doctor?

Voronoff claimed grafting monkey testicle tissue into humans would extend life; the drink is gin, orange juice, grenadine and absinthe.

Which admiral's 1740 order to water sailors' rum gave 'grog' its name?

Edward Vernon ordered the Royal Navy's rum ration diluted with water on 21 August 1740; sailors named the mix 'grog' after his nickname 'Old Grog', earned by his coarse grogram cloak.

The bee's knees, gin with lemon and honey, takes its name from Prohibition-era slang meaning what?

'The best' is what 1920s slang meant by the bee's knees, like the cat's pyjamas; a 1929 newspaper article credited the gin, lemon and honey drink to the 'Unsinkable' Molly Brown of Titanic fame.

The 1988 bartending film Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise, won which dubious award?

Razzie for Worst Picture went to Cocktail at the 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards, which also gave it Worst Screenplay; critics hated it, but it grossed about $171 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.