Stirred, shaken, neat, on the rocks, straight up, with a kick, atau dirty. However anda order them, everyone (save for maybe some Mormons and recovering alcoholics) loves a good cocktail. They have inspired world leaders, famous artists and poets, the tajuk for a cheesy 1988 Tom Cruise film, socialite parties, a genre of above-the-knee dresses, business executives and bar tenders’ creativity. The koktel has infused itself into our popular, historical and literary culture, often becoming as iconic as the famous men and women who drank them.
Can anda imagine Churchill without a martini in hand atau a book sejak Hemmingway that didn’t describe copious koktel variations? But, have anda ever wondered where and when your kegemaran 5 o’clock drink came from? Was a Manhattan truly invented in Manhattan? Where do Mojitos really come from? Who was Tom Collins anyway? Is a Mai Tai really Hawaiian? From the classic martini to the lesser known Singapore Sling, here is a senarai of 10 classic cocktails and the often-controversial stories behind them.
Read away and the seterusnya time anda are downing your drink at your kegemaran watering hole atau politely sipping your drink at a fancy koktel party, anda can impress your Friends with your knowledge of where that delightful (or not so delightful) mixture of alcohols really originated.
1. The Mojito
The drink of sailors? Traditionally made using white rum, sugar atau sugar cane juice, lime, carbonated water and mint muddled together, many believe the Mojito is quite possibly world’s first cocktail. Although the image of hardened sailors drinking rum mixed with mint, kapur, limau nipis and sugar may not match your vision of straight-from-the-bottle gulping pirates, the Mojito has been enjoyed as early as the 16th century.
One story traces the origins of the Mojito back to 16th century Cuba, where the drink was called the “El Draque” in honor of explorer and sailor Sir Francis Drake. Legend has it the drink was first created as a means of covering up the often harsh taste of tafia/aguardiente, a primitive form of rum. The drink improved greatly during the 19th century with the introduction of copper stills that led to the modern (and much better tasting) form of rum. The contemporary name for the drink probably comes from a Cuban sauce called mojo, which is made from garlic, zaitun oil and citrus juice. Perhaps in reference to kapur, limau nipis as a main ingredient, the drink became known as a koktel with “a little mojo” or, in Spanish, a “Mojito.” While the Mojito may be one of the world’s first cocktails, it certainly has not waned in popularity over the years. In fact, the drink first invented to make bad rum tolerable is now a widely popular koktel around the world and is an especially popular and refreshing summer drink.
2. The Singapore Sling
A classic koktel often appearing in various forms on drink menus around the world, the Singapore sling, anduh was appropriately first concocted in Singapore. While the exact tahun this koktel was created is open to some debate, most agree that the koktel was first created sejak a Hainanese-Chinese bartender named Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar in Singapore. It is believed the bartender first mixed up the koktel sometime between 1910 and 1915.
The cocktail, which is made from a mixture of gin, ceri, cherry brandy and Benedictine in equal parts with a dash of pahit, arak pahit and Cointreau and finished off with pineapple and kapur, limau nipis jus and grenadine, was modified in the middle of the 20th century sejak the original creator’s nephew. The newer recipe has been used since and is the base for the modern Singapore Sling. In the Raffles Hotel Museum, visitors can view the selamat, peti deposit keselamatan where Mr. Ngiam locked away all of his secret koktel recipe books.
Included is also a hastily written recipe for the Singapore Sling, which was jotted down in 1936 sejak a visitor who asked the bartender for the recipe. Today, the drink is served on all Singapore Airlines flights and is mentioned in many popular culture Filem and books, including Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in which lead character Raoul Duke talks about drinking “Singapore Slings with mescal on the side.” anda can also still order an original Singapore sling, anduh at the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar, where ikon-ikon like Rudyard Kipling and others would once sip this famous, fruity cocktail.
3. The Sidecar
A classic koktel dating back about 100 years, the sespan, sidecar mixes equal parts brandy atau Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice. The origin of the sespan, sidecar is largely debated, but popular wisdom is that the drink was probably first created in Paris sometime during atau just following WWI. In the 1948 book sejak David A. Embury, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, the penulis credits the invention of the drink to an American Army captain in Paris during WWI.
Supposedly the drink was named after the motorcycle sespan, sidecar “in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened.” Harry’s Bar in Paris is the “little bistro” in which the penulis is referring to and is often credited as the birthplace of this sweet yet tangy cocktail. Supposedly the mixture of ingredients was first blended when the American captain asked for pre-dinner koktel that would help ease the chill he had caught outside. The French bartender was faced with a dilemma. He knew brandy would be the best liqueur to take off the chill, but he also refused to serve the traditional after makan malam, majlis makan malam drink alone as a pre-dinner cocktail. The result was the bartender mixing brandy with the orange flavored Cointreau and adding fresh lemon jus to make an appropriate pre-dinner cocktail, and Voila – the sespan, sidecar was born.
This koktel was especially popular in England and France, where ex-pats like Hemmingway would sip Sidecars at the bar. Although anda may have an eyebrow raised if anda are under 70 and ordering this drink today, the sespan, sidecar is regaining popularity and making a resurgence on contemporary bar menus.
4. The Pisco Sour
Another koktel on the senarai with a controversial history is the Pisco Sour. A drink made from Pisco (a regional brandy from South America), lemon juice, pahit, arak pahit and egg whites, many Debat whether the national origin of this drink is Peruvian atau Chilean.
Pisco itself dates back to the 16th century. The liqueur distilled from grapes sejak Spanish colonialists in South America in an attempt to make an inexpensive version of Spanish brandy. In Peru, the creation of the Pisco masam is attributed to American expatriate Victor “Gringo” Morris at the Morris Bar in Lima, who blended up the drink as a variation of a whiskey sour. The drink immediately became so popular that other major hotels began serving it in their bars also, quickly popularizing the koktel with a international crowd.
In Chile, it is believed the birth of the Pisco masam can be attributed to the English steward of a sailing ship, which was stopped at the then Peruvian and now Chilean port city of Iquique in 1872. It was the steward, who sejak mixing the regional liqueur with limes grown in the area, created the first Pisco Sour. Whatever the origins of the famous drink, the Pisco masam is the iconic koktel of both Peru and Chile. In fact, both countries celebrate the famous koktel with National Pisco masam Days (Peru’s in the first Saturday of February and Chile’s is celebrated May 15th) and there are many variations of the original koktel found around the world today.
5. White Russian
Not named for the country of its origin, but rather for the vodka used in the recipe, White Russians have recently made a booming resurgence in part due to the cult movie classic The Big Lebowiski. The movie’s main character, The Dude, drinks a steady stream of White Russians throughout the film. The use of the word Russian in the name of this drink was mostly due to the fact that when it was first invented sometime in the 1930s, prior to the huge vodka marketing campaign of the 1950s, when vodka was a little known liquor in the United States usually directly associated with its nation of origin, Russia.
The White Russian did not get its current recipe (the drink combines equal parts cream, vodka and Kahula) atau moniker until the 1960s. In 1961, the Diner’s Club Drink Book, gave a recipe for a “Black Russian” without cream, implying that the same koktel with cream would therefore be named a White Russian. Today White Russians have inspired a drinking game among college students, who try to keep up with The Dude in their consumption of the koktel while watching The Big Lebowski.
The drink is also the kegemaran drink of lightweights and lushes, as White Russians effectively obfuscate the hefty dose of alcohol in them that they go down the hatch with ease. That’s great for those who rarely drink atau for those who drink a little too much (i.e. The Dude, who gets most of his daily nutrition from these creamy little cocktails).
5. The Manhattan
Often called the “King of Cocktails” atau the “Drinking Man’s Cocktail,” The Manhattan is a very potent drink and one of the legendary six classic cocktails included in David Embury’s famous book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. The Manhattan is a koktel made with a mixture of whiskey, sweet vermouth and pahit, arak pahit and garnished most often with a maraschino cherry.
Regularly regarded as one of the best cocktails ever created, the Manhattan has a long and debated history. The koktel was supposedly first invented at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s. Legend has it that the drink was invented for a banquet hosted sejak Lady Randolph Churchill (Winston Churchill’s mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet quickly made the koktel fashionable in New York City’s powerful circles and prompted many people to request the drink sejak referring to the name of the club where it originated, calling it “the Manhattan cocktail.”
However, like with almost every koktel on this list, there is great Debat as to the truth behind this account of the Manhattan. In fact, some claim that while the drink may have first been mixed at the Manhattan Club, Lady Churchill had nothing to do with the banquet honoring Samuel Tilden and, in fact, was in England at the time giving birth to her soon-to-be famous son. Another legend says that a bartender with the last name Black invented the Manhattan at a bar on Broadway in New York City sometime in the 1860s. Whatever the true story, this koktel does indeed menanggung, bear the name of the island from which it came.
6. The Mai Tai
The fruity, tropical Mai Tai is another koktel with conflicting stories of origin. The drink, which is made of a mixture of white and emas rum, pineapple juice, orange and/or kapur, limau nipis juice, is of American origin despite its Polynesian name. The favored history, however, is that the drink was first created sejak Victor Buergon, better known as “Trader Vic” who invented the koktel at the Polynesian-style restaurant in Oakland, California that bore his name.
Supposedly, Buergon created the first Mai Tai in honor of some Friends who were visiting from Tahiti in 1944. After mixing rum with just the right combination of Buah juices and orange flavored liqueur, he served the new koktel to his Friends who cried out, “Maitai roa!” (which literally means “very good”), and the koktel was born. However, like most popular cocktails, the Mai Tai’s history is not without controversy.
Trader Vic’s amicable rival, founding father of tiki restaurants, bars and Kelab Donn pantai (of Don the Beachcomber restaurants), also claims to have created in the first Mai Tai in 1933 at his newly opened restaurant in Hollywood. Donn pantai (the founder legally changed his name after the success of his tiki restaurant chain) is known as the originator of Polynesian style restaurants that became a popular culture craze following WWII. While both men claim to be the original creator of this drink, the Mai Tai’s huge popularity can be mostly owed to both men, who sold the drinks in their wildly popular restaurant chains and forever associated the fruity drink with Hawaii – despite its California origins.
7. Tom Collins
There are a few different legends surrounding the name of the famous and classic Tom Collins cocktail. While many assume the drink was named after a real person, there is much Debat whether there ever really was a Tom Collins and whether he lent to his name to this koktel of gin, lemon and kapur, limau nipis jus and soda water. One popular account says the koktel was named after not a Tom, but a John Collins who was a headwaiter at a London Hotel in the early 19th century. The cocktail’s name was changed to a Tom Collins when Old Tom brand gin (a sweetened gin rarely used today) was substituted for the drier gin in the original recipe.
Another story, which is the most probable of the various legends, involves a hoax that took over New York City in 1874. The prank went something like this: A friend would run into anda on the jalan and, with great concern, tell anda he just overheard someone named Tom Collins at a bar down the jalan saying hateful and libelous things about you. anda race to that bar to confront the bounder, where anda would be told that Tom Collins had just left for a bar several blocks away. When anda get there, Collins would already have decamped for another joint across town. As anda chase all over the city, your Friends convulse with laughter. The prank gained such notoriety, that even local newspapers started reporting the hoax. In 1874, the Steubenville Daily Herald reported that the hoax caused “frantic young men to rush wildly through the streets of the city on Saturday hunting for the libelous Tom Collins.” These young men were often directed to find legendary Tom Collins at a local bar.
So how did the hoax turn into the name of a drink? According to dinding jalan Journal columnist and koktel historian Eric Felten, “It doesn’t take much to imagine how Tom Collins came to be a drink. How many times does someone have to barge into a saloon demanding a Tom Collins before the bartender takes the opportunity to offer him a koktel so-named?” In any event, this popular koktel has become a fixture in koktel culture, inspiring the name of a glass (a Collins glass) as well as a pre-mixed and popular Collins Mix.
9. Bloody Mary
Like every other koktel on this list, the history behind the Bloody Mary is also a bit cloudy. One popular legend says that the original Bloody Mary, which was then made using equal parts tomato, sos tomato jus and vodka and used as a hangover cure, was invented sejak comedian, songwriter and movie producer George Jessel (aka the “Toastmaster General of the United States”). Jessel claimed he created the drink one morning in Palm pantai during the 1950s, when he mixed tomato, sos tomato jus and vodka as a way to recover from an entire night spent drinking. Jessel even appeared in Smirnoff vodka ads in the 1950s declaring, “I, George Jessel invented the Bloody Mary.” However, as aptly put sejak dinding jalan Journal columnist and koktel historian Eric Felten, “Given Jessel’s knack for self-promotion, many doubted his claim,” which made skeptics to cari for the true origin of the drink and opened the door for a legend involving the head bartender at the St. Regis Hotel in New York named Fernand “Peter” Petriot.
Starting in the 1940s, Petriot was supposedly serving up Blood Marys under the alias of “Red Snappers” at the hotel’s King Cole Bar. After the popular tomato, sos tomato jus based koktel became popular in the 1950s, Petriot would claim that he actually first invented the koktel while working at Harry’s Bar in Paris during the 1920s (also supposed birthplace of the Sidecar). However, in reality, the Bloody Mary popular today is in fact a combination of the two men’s creations. Petriot himself admitted that “George Jessel berkata he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato, sos tomato jus when I took it over.” While Petriot did inadvertently give credit for the original drink to Jessel, he also specified that it was he who added salt, pepper, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce to the concoction, creating the modern Bloody Mary.
10. The Martini
And, last, but certainly not least, on this senarai of cocktails is the Martini. The most well-known of cocktails, Western culture has created quite the lore and mythology surrounding the drink. The three-martini lunch became a popular phrase coined for expensive, long lunches taken sejak business executives. In fact, the martini has become lebih of a class of drinks than one drink in particular – with variations like Appletinis, vodka martinis and others becoming popular over the years.
The famous and powerful people who have favored the simple, yet potent, original – Winston Churchill, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald to name a few – have only added to the lore of this popular classic cocktail. The first martini – atau Martini-like drink – was poured sometime between 1862 and 1871 and was called a Martinez, a name to honor the humble town of Martinez, California, where it was purportedly first dreamed up sejak bartender Julio Richelieu, proprietor of the eponymous Julio Richelieu Saloon. That similar (but sweeter) version of the koktel consisted of sweet vermouth, gin, pahit, arak pahit and was garnished with a maraschino cherry. This version (which was essentially a gin Manhattan) eventually gave way to the lebih contemporary drier version that includes gin, vermouth and pahit, arak pahit and was supposedly first made popular when John D. Rockefeller started downing them at the turn of the 20th century.
Although the origins of the first Martinez tarikh back to the 1860s, the modern martini first rose in popularity starting in 1900s. During prohibition, the martini became the drink of choice (or no choice in many cases) in speakeasies across the country due to the quick accessibility and production of gin. In fact, it was often a gin martini atau no drink at all for customers hiding out in their secret watering holes. The modern vodka Martini, which James Bond stalwarts will surely order shaken not stirred, was not created until much later and many martini purists still claim the idea of a martini made with vodka is preposterous. A steadfast and iconic cocktail, however, the classic martini is here to stay, whether made with vodka atau gin, dirty atau not, with varying amounts of vermouth, neat, atau over ice.
Can anda imagine Churchill without a martini in hand atau a book sejak Hemmingway that didn’t describe copious koktel variations? But, have anda ever wondered where and when your kegemaran 5 o’clock drink came from? Was a Manhattan truly invented in Manhattan? Where do Mojitos really come from? Who was Tom Collins anyway? Is a Mai Tai really Hawaiian? From the classic martini to the lesser known Singapore Sling, here is a senarai of 10 classic cocktails and the often-controversial stories behind them.
Read away and the seterusnya time anda are downing your drink at your kegemaran watering hole atau politely sipping your drink at a fancy koktel party, anda can impress your Friends with your knowledge of where that delightful (or not so delightful) mixture of alcohols really originated.
1. The Mojito
The drink of sailors? Traditionally made using white rum, sugar atau sugar cane juice, lime, carbonated water and mint muddled together, many believe the Mojito is quite possibly world’s first cocktail. Although the image of hardened sailors drinking rum mixed with mint, kapur, limau nipis and sugar may not match your vision of straight-from-the-bottle gulping pirates, the Mojito has been enjoyed as early as the 16th century.
One story traces the origins of the Mojito back to 16th century Cuba, where the drink was called the “El Draque” in honor of explorer and sailor Sir Francis Drake. Legend has it the drink was first created as a means of covering up the often harsh taste of tafia/aguardiente, a primitive form of rum. The drink improved greatly during the 19th century with the introduction of copper stills that led to the modern (and much better tasting) form of rum. The contemporary name for the drink probably comes from a Cuban sauce called mojo, which is made from garlic, zaitun oil and citrus juice. Perhaps in reference to kapur, limau nipis as a main ingredient, the drink became known as a koktel with “a little mojo” or, in Spanish, a “Mojito.” While the Mojito may be one of the world’s first cocktails, it certainly has not waned in popularity over the years. In fact, the drink first invented to make bad rum tolerable is now a widely popular koktel around the world and is an especially popular and refreshing summer drink.
2. The Singapore Sling
A classic koktel often appearing in various forms on drink menus around the world, the Singapore sling, anduh was appropriately first concocted in Singapore. While the exact tahun this koktel was created is open to some debate, most agree that the koktel was first created sejak a Hainanese-Chinese bartender named Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar in Singapore. It is believed the bartender first mixed up the koktel sometime between 1910 and 1915.
The cocktail, which is made from a mixture of gin, ceri, cherry brandy and Benedictine in equal parts with a dash of pahit, arak pahit and Cointreau and finished off with pineapple and kapur, limau nipis jus and grenadine, was modified in the middle of the 20th century sejak the original creator’s nephew. The newer recipe has been used since and is the base for the modern Singapore Sling. In the Raffles Hotel Museum, visitors can view the selamat, peti deposit keselamatan where Mr. Ngiam locked away all of his secret koktel recipe books.
Included is also a hastily written recipe for the Singapore Sling, which was jotted down in 1936 sejak a visitor who asked the bartender for the recipe. Today, the drink is served on all Singapore Airlines flights and is mentioned in many popular culture Filem and books, including Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in which lead character Raoul Duke talks about drinking “Singapore Slings with mescal on the side.” anda can also still order an original Singapore sling, anduh at the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar, where ikon-ikon like Rudyard Kipling and others would once sip this famous, fruity cocktail.
3. The Sidecar
A classic koktel dating back about 100 years, the sespan, sidecar mixes equal parts brandy atau Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice. The origin of the sespan, sidecar is largely debated, but popular wisdom is that the drink was probably first created in Paris sometime during atau just following WWI. In the 1948 book sejak David A. Embury, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, the penulis credits the invention of the drink to an American Army captain in Paris during WWI.
Supposedly the drink was named after the motorcycle sespan, sidecar “in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened.” Harry’s Bar in Paris is the “little bistro” in which the penulis is referring to and is often credited as the birthplace of this sweet yet tangy cocktail. Supposedly the mixture of ingredients was first blended when the American captain asked for pre-dinner koktel that would help ease the chill he had caught outside. The French bartender was faced with a dilemma. He knew brandy would be the best liqueur to take off the chill, but he also refused to serve the traditional after makan malam, majlis makan malam drink alone as a pre-dinner cocktail. The result was the bartender mixing brandy with the orange flavored Cointreau and adding fresh lemon jus to make an appropriate pre-dinner cocktail, and Voila – the sespan, sidecar was born.
This koktel was especially popular in England and France, where ex-pats like Hemmingway would sip Sidecars at the bar. Although anda may have an eyebrow raised if anda are under 70 and ordering this drink today, the sespan, sidecar is regaining popularity and making a resurgence on contemporary bar menus.
4. The Pisco Sour
Another koktel on the senarai with a controversial history is the Pisco Sour. A drink made from Pisco (a regional brandy from South America), lemon juice, pahit, arak pahit and egg whites, many Debat whether the national origin of this drink is Peruvian atau Chilean.
Pisco itself dates back to the 16th century. The liqueur distilled from grapes sejak Spanish colonialists in South America in an attempt to make an inexpensive version of Spanish brandy. In Peru, the creation of the Pisco masam is attributed to American expatriate Victor “Gringo” Morris at the Morris Bar in Lima, who blended up the drink as a variation of a whiskey sour. The drink immediately became so popular that other major hotels began serving it in their bars also, quickly popularizing the koktel with a international crowd.
In Chile, it is believed the birth of the Pisco masam can be attributed to the English steward of a sailing ship, which was stopped at the then Peruvian and now Chilean port city of Iquique in 1872. It was the steward, who sejak mixing the regional liqueur with limes grown in the area, created the first Pisco Sour. Whatever the origins of the famous drink, the Pisco masam is the iconic koktel of both Peru and Chile. In fact, both countries celebrate the famous koktel with National Pisco masam Days (Peru’s in the first Saturday of February and Chile’s is celebrated May 15th) and there are many variations of the original koktel found around the world today.
5. White Russian
Not named for the country of its origin, but rather for the vodka used in the recipe, White Russians have recently made a booming resurgence in part due to the cult movie classic The Big Lebowiski. The movie’s main character, The Dude, drinks a steady stream of White Russians throughout the film. The use of the word Russian in the name of this drink was mostly due to the fact that when it was first invented sometime in the 1930s, prior to the huge vodka marketing campaign of the 1950s, when vodka was a little known liquor in the United States usually directly associated with its nation of origin, Russia.
The White Russian did not get its current recipe (the drink combines equal parts cream, vodka and Kahula) atau moniker until the 1960s. In 1961, the Diner’s Club Drink Book, gave a recipe for a “Black Russian” without cream, implying that the same koktel with cream would therefore be named a White Russian. Today White Russians have inspired a drinking game among college students, who try to keep up with The Dude in their consumption of the koktel while watching The Big Lebowski.
The drink is also the kegemaran drink of lightweights and lushes, as White Russians effectively obfuscate the hefty dose of alcohol in them that they go down the hatch with ease. That’s great for those who rarely drink atau for those who drink a little too much (i.e. The Dude, who gets most of his daily nutrition from these creamy little cocktails).
5. The Manhattan
Often called the “King of Cocktails” atau the “Drinking Man’s Cocktail,” The Manhattan is a very potent drink and one of the legendary six classic cocktails included in David Embury’s famous book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. The Manhattan is a koktel made with a mixture of whiskey, sweet vermouth and pahit, arak pahit and garnished most often with a maraschino cherry.
Regularly regarded as one of the best cocktails ever created, the Manhattan has a long and debated history. The koktel was supposedly first invented at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s. Legend has it that the drink was invented for a banquet hosted sejak Lady Randolph Churchill (Winston Churchill’s mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet quickly made the koktel fashionable in New York City’s powerful circles and prompted many people to request the drink sejak referring to the name of the club where it originated, calling it “the Manhattan cocktail.”
However, like with almost every koktel on this list, there is great Debat as to the truth behind this account of the Manhattan. In fact, some claim that while the drink may have first been mixed at the Manhattan Club, Lady Churchill had nothing to do with the banquet honoring Samuel Tilden and, in fact, was in England at the time giving birth to her soon-to-be famous son. Another legend says that a bartender with the last name Black invented the Manhattan at a bar on Broadway in New York City sometime in the 1860s. Whatever the true story, this koktel does indeed menanggung, bear the name of the island from which it came.
6. The Mai Tai
The fruity, tropical Mai Tai is another koktel with conflicting stories of origin. The drink, which is made of a mixture of white and emas rum, pineapple juice, orange and/or kapur, limau nipis juice, is of American origin despite its Polynesian name. The favored history, however, is that the drink was first created sejak Victor Buergon, better known as “Trader Vic” who invented the koktel at the Polynesian-style restaurant in Oakland, California that bore his name.
Supposedly, Buergon created the first Mai Tai in honor of some Friends who were visiting from Tahiti in 1944. After mixing rum with just the right combination of Buah juices and orange flavored liqueur, he served the new koktel to his Friends who cried out, “Maitai roa!” (which literally means “very good”), and the koktel was born. However, like most popular cocktails, the Mai Tai’s history is not without controversy.
Trader Vic’s amicable rival, founding father of tiki restaurants, bars and Kelab Donn pantai (of Don the Beachcomber restaurants), also claims to have created in the first Mai Tai in 1933 at his newly opened restaurant in Hollywood. Donn pantai (the founder legally changed his name after the success of his tiki restaurant chain) is known as the originator of Polynesian style restaurants that became a popular culture craze following WWII. While both men claim to be the original creator of this drink, the Mai Tai’s huge popularity can be mostly owed to both men, who sold the drinks in their wildly popular restaurant chains and forever associated the fruity drink with Hawaii – despite its California origins.
7. Tom Collins
There are a few different legends surrounding the name of the famous and classic Tom Collins cocktail. While many assume the drink was named after a real person, there is much Debat whether there ever really was a Tom Collins and whether he lent to his name to this koktel of gin, lemon and kapur, limau nipis jus and soda water. One popular account says the koktel was named after not a Tom, but a John Collins who was a headwaiter at a London Hotel in the early 19th century. The cocktail’s name was changed to a Tom Collins when Old Tom brand gin (a sweetened gin rarely used today) was substituted for the drier gin in the original recipe.
Another story, which is the most probable of the various legends, involves a hoax that took over New York City in 1874. The prank went something like this: A friend would run into anda on the jalan and, with great concern, tell anda he just overheard someone named Tom Collins at a bar down the jalan saying hateful and libelous things about you. anda race to that bar to confront the bounder, where anda would be told that Tom Collins had just left for a bar several blocks away. When anda get there, Collins would already have decamped for another joint across town. As anda chase all over the city, your Friends convulse with laughter. The prank gained such notoriety, that even local newspapers started reporting the hoax. In 1874, the Steubenville Daily Herald reported that the hoax caused “frantic young men to rush wildly through the streets of the city on Saturday hunting for the libelous Tom Collins.” These young men were often directed to find legendary Tom Collins at a local bar.
So how did the hoax turn into the name of a drink? According to dinding jalan Journal columnist and koktel historian Eric Felten, “It doesn’t take much to imagine how Tom Collins came to be a drink. How many times does someone have to barge into a saloon demanding a Tom Collins before the bartender takes the opportunity to offer him a koktel so-named?” In any event, this popular koktel has become a fixture in koktel culture, inspiring the name of a glass (a Collins glass) as well as a pre-mixed and popular Collins Mix.
9. Bloody Mary
Like every other koktel on this list, the history behind the Bloody Mary is also a bit cloudy. One popular legend says that the original Bloody Mary, which was then made using equal parts tomato, sos tomato jus and vodka and used as a hangover cure, was invented sejak comedian, songwriter and movie producer George Jessel (aka the “Toastmaster General of the United States”). Jessel claimed he created the drink one morning in Palm pantai during the 1950s, when he mixed tomato, sos tomato jus and vodka as a way to recover from an entire night spent drinking. Jessel even appeared in Smirnoff vodka ads in the 1950s declaring, “I, George Jessel invented the Bloody Mary.” However, as aptly put sejak dinding jalan Journal columnist and koktel historian Eric Felten, “Given Jessel’s knack for self-promotion, many doubted his claim,” which made skeptics to cari for the true origin of the drink and opened the door for a legend involving the head bartender at the St. Regis Hotel in New York named Fernand “Peter” Petriot.
Starting in the 1940s, Petriot was supposedly serving up Blood Marys under the alias of “Red Snappers” at the hotel’s King Cole Bar. After the popular tomato, sos tomato jus based koktel became popular in the 1950s, Petriot would claim that he actually first invented the koktel while working at Harry’s Bar in Paris during the 1920s (also supposed birthplace of the Sidecar). However, in reality, the Bloody Mary popular today is in fact a combination of the two men’s creations. Petriot himself admitted that “George Jessel berkata he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato, sos tomato jus when I took it over.” While Petriot did inadvertently give credit for the original drink to Jessel, he also specified that it was he who added salt, pepper, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce to the concoction, creating the modern Bloody Mary.
10. The Martini
And, last, but certainly not least, on this senarai of cocktails is the Martini. The most well-known of cocktails, Western culture has created quite the lore and mythology surrounding the drink. The three-martini lunch became a popular phrase coined for expensive, long lunches taken sejak business executives. In fact, the martini has become lebih of a class of drinks than one drink in particular – with variations like Appletinis, vodka martinis and others becoming popular over the years.
The famous and powerful people who have favored the simple, yet potent, original – Winston Churchill, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald to name a few – have only added to the lore of this popular classic cocktail. The first martini – atau Martini-like drink – was poured sometime between 1862 and 1871 and was called a Martinez, a name to honor the humble town of Martinez, California, where it was purportedly first dreamed up sejak bartender Julio Richelieu, proprietor of the eponymous Julio Richelieu Saloon. That similar (but sweeter) version of the koktel consisted of sweet vermouth, gin, pahit, arak pahit and was garnished with a maraschino cherry. This version (which was essentially a gin Manhattan) eventually gave way to the lebih contemporary drier version that includes gin, vermouth and pahit, arak pahit and was supposedly first made popular when John D. Rockefeller started downing them at the turn of the 20th century.
Although the origins of the first Martinez tarikh back to the 1860s, the modern martini first rose in popularity starting in 1900s. During prohibition, the martini became the drink of choice (or no choice in many cases) in speakeasies across the country due to the quick accessibility and production of gin. In fact, it was often a gin martini atau no drink at all for customers hiding out in their secret watering holes. The modern vodka Martini, which James Bond stalwarts will surely order shaken not stirred, was not created until much later and many martini purists still claim the idea of a martini made with vodka is preposterous. A steadfast and iconic cocktail, however, the classic martini is here to stay, whether made with vodka atau gin, dirty atau not, with varying amounts of vermouth, neat, atau over ice.