Cocktail

A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic, that combines one or more spirits with juices, syrups, sodas, bitters or other ingredients. The name and the way of serving it took shape in the United States in the nineteenth century, although the habit of mixing drinks is much older.

History

Its precedents go back to ancient Greece, where a drink called kykeon was known; it appears in the Homeric texts and was used in the Eleusinian Mysteries. At the court of Philip II of Macedon, mixtures of wine, water, honey and extracts of aromatic herbs and flowers were prepared and served during banquets, and related accessories are now displayed in the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, in Greece.

The modern term took shape in the United States. The earliest written mention of cocktail as a beverage appears in The Farmer's Cabinet in 1803, and the first definition of a cocktail as an alcoholic drink was published on May 13, 1806, in The Balance and Columbian Repository, in Hudson, New York. Traditionally the drink combined spirits, sugar, water and bitters; during the nineteenth century a liqueur was often added. In 1862, Jerry Thomas published How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion, with ten cocktail recipes set apart from punches and cobblers by their use of bitters.

During Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), liquor-based cocktails grew in popularity because wine and beer were harder to obtain. Their popularity declined in the late 1960s, and a revival came in the early and mid-2000s with mixology, which combines classic recipes with novel ingredients. Today canned cocktails are common in liquor stores, and recipes are widely shared online.

Culture

The cocktail has a distinct place in social life. There is the cocktail hour, a pause before lunch or dinner, and the cocktail party is a format tied to it. The professional who prepares them is the bartender, and bar menus often group drinks by their function.

The most common classification looks at alcohol content: strong cocktails, with intense flavour and spirits such as whisky, rum, vodka, gin or tequila; lighter ones, with less alcohol and more juice or soda; and balanced cocktails, which mix spirits and non-alcoholic elements in similar proportions. Non-alcoholic versions, called mocktails or virgin cocktails, use juices, syrups, sodas or infusions and suit people who avoid alcohol.

By moment of consumption there are aperitifs, with citrus and bitter notes, digestifs, which are sweeter, and winter cocktails that may include chocolate or coffee. By technique, drinks are shaken, stirred or strained. Some classics, such as the mojito, the Manhattan or the martini, have become references in both gastronomy and popular culture, and the bars that serve them often appear in travel guides and magazines.