Classic Cocktails

Of the many cocktails that exist few have achieved classic status. Continuous evolution
and progress in fashion results in once popular drinks being forgotten; few survive. Their
appeal is in the subtle combination of a limited number of ingredients, allowing flavors to
influence each other. These recipes serve as a basis, which is elaborated by many
bartenders for their new inventions. Represented here are the cocktails we consider to
have passed the test of time. And we love a good story. Cin-Cin!

Martini Gin or Vodka & Vermouth, olive or lemon twist.

A descendant of the Martinez. Sometime before 1862 Jerry Thomas, the "Principal
Barman" at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco had a client who took a ferry to
Martinez, California, every morning. Thomas named it after his client's destination.

Gibson Gin & Vermouth, onion.

Walter D K Gibson, was the real genius behind the onion-garnished cocktail and made
the first Gibson sometime around 1898 at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. He
believed that eating onions would prevent colds. Hence the onion.

Manhattan Whiskey & Vermouth, cherry.

Originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was
invented for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston's
mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden.

Rob Roy Scotch & Vermouth, cherry.

The origin of the name of this Scotch Manhattan is a Broadway show called Rob Roy
who was a famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century, who is
sometimes known as the Scottish Robin Hood.

Old Fashioned Whiskey, bitters, simple syrup, orange & cherry muddled.
Invented by a bartender at at the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen’s club in Louisville,
Kentucky in the 1880s, and popularized by a club member and bourbon distiller, Colonel
James E. Pepper, who brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City.

Rusty Nail Scotch & Drambuie.

One's too many an' a hundred's not enough’ said Nat the bartender in ‘The Lost
Weekend’ (1945) starring Ray Milland and Jane Wynman, Legacy has it that this drink is
actually named after the rusty nails used to stir the drink by bartenders, and not the color.

Whiskey Sour Whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup, cherry.

The Sour family was first described by "The Professor" Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book,
'The Bon-Vivant's Companion'. Since that time the Sour's basic recipe has been built on
to develop many of today's most popular cocktails.

Daiquiri Rum, lime juice, simple syrup, lime.

This Cuban classic is named after the town in Oriente province. An American mining
engineer named Jennings Cox and a Cuban engineer named Pagliuchi created the
recipe, in the late nineteenth century.
Gimlet Gin or Vodka, Roses Lime Juice, lime.
In the official Royal Navy story, it was T.O. Gimlette, a naval surgeon who came aboard in
1879, who created the concoction to encourage shipmates to take the lime rations to
stave off scurvy

Sidecar Brandy, lemon juice, triple sec.

Created by bartender Harry at Harry's New York Bar in Paris during the First World War
and named after a motorcycle sidecar in which an army captain was chauffeur-driven to
and from the bar.

Tom Collins Gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, soda, cherry.

From the Plater's Hotel in St Louis in the 1850's

Stinger Brandy, Crème de Menthe.

The classic New York nightcap. This cocktail was considered "a wholesome and well
concocted" recipe by American bartender Patrick Duffy, a legend during the 1920s and
1930s.

Harvey Wallbanger Vodka, Galliano, orange juice.

In the early 1970's, the makers of Galliano liqueur decided to promote their product by
creating a new drink. As part of its advertising campaign, the company created a fictional
surfer by the same name who drank so much he'd bump into the walls.

Negroni Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth.

Created in Florence, Italy in the 1920s at the Casoni Bar, when a customer asked the
barman to add gin to his Americano.

Mojito Rum, lime, mint, simple syrup, soda.

The Mojito was born in Cuba descendant of a drink called the Draque. La Bodeguita del
Medio, a restaurant located in 'Havana Vieja' is said to be home of the mojito,
Hemingway pledged his allegiance to the drink by writing on the wall: "My mojito in La
Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita"

Cosmopolitan Vodka, Roses Lime juice, Contreau, cranberry juice, lemon twist.
It’s a descendant of the Cold War's Cape Codder and the respectable sibling of the
Kamikaze. The gay community in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is credited with its
invention. The popularity of the Cosmopolitan quickly traveled from New England to New
York and then across the country.

Cuba Libre Rum & Coke, lime.

The Rough Riders brought Coca-Cola along with them to Cuba. They mixed it with rum
and lime and named it after their battle cry, 'Cuba Libre', 'Free Cuba', which they and their
Cuban counterparts cried as they swept the Spanish out of Cuba.

Mai Tai Rums, Orange Curacao, lime juice, Orgeat Syrup, bitters, mint, cherry.
“Anyone who says I didn’t create the Mai-Tai is a dirty stinker”
~Victor (Trader Vic) Bergeron.
How did all of these drinks come
to be called cocktails? ….There are several
plausible theories.

The earliest known printed use of the word "cocktail," was from "The Farmer's Cabinet",
April 28, 1803, "Drank a glass of cocktail — excellent for the head ... Call'd at the Doct's.
found Burnham — he looked very wise — drank another glass of cocktail."

In, 'The Bon-Vivant's Companion,' the first ever bartender's drink book published in the
United States in 1862, the famous Jerry Thomas had 10 recipes for drinks referred to as
"Cocktails". A key ingredient which differentiated "cocktails" from other drinks in this
compendium was the use of bitters as an ingredient, although it is not to be seen in very
many modern cocktail recipes.

Virtually every account of the cocktail's origins drags in Betsy Flanagan, an innkeeper
during the Revolutionary War who stirred a drink with a rooster tail and dubbed it a cocktail.
Some versions place the inn at Four Corners, in Westchester County, N.Y.; others locate
the sacred ground a few miles away in Elmsford. For the real location, turn to Chapter 16 of
James Fenimore Cooper's "Spy," published in 1821 but set in the 1780's. There, Flanagan
and feather first appear, as real as fiction.

''American Heritage Cookbook'' says the name may go back as far as 1793, to a certain
''Monsieur'' A. A. Peychaud, a New Orleans apothecary who dispensed secret-formula
tonics called ''bitters'' to ailing customers. If the malady was serious enough, he mixed
Cognac and bitters and presented the concoction in a coquetier, or egg cup; the word
''coquetier'' gradually became cocktail.

In Colonial taverns, a cock is a tap; the dregs from the tap were called its tail, so some say
the name signified the last dregs of a tavern cask sold at a reduced price, the patrons
requesting the "cock tailings" or the tailings from the stop cock of the cask. This was H.L.
Mencken's belief.

Cocktails were originally a morning beverage, and the cocktail was the name given as
metaphor for the rooster (cocktail) heralding morning light of day.

A cock's tail has many varied feathers in exciting colours as a cocktail has varied exciting
alcoholic drinks mixed together

Some say that it was customary to put a feather, presumably from a cock's tail, in the drink
to serve both as decoration and to signal to teetotalers that the drink contained alcohol.

The beverage was named for a mixed breed horse, known as a "cock-tail" as the beverage,
like the horse, was neither strictly spirit nor wine — it was a mixed breed.

The word could also be a distortion of Latin [aqua] decocta, meaning "distilled water".
Peter’s Classic

Cocktails