March 24 is National Cocktail Day

Can you imagine Sex in the City without the four ladies enjoying their Cosmopolitans or Bond, James Bond,without his vodka martini “Shaken not stirred”?

National Cocktail Day was created by holidaymaker Jace Shoemaker-Galloway as a fun day to celebrate a fun drink.

Cocktails were traditionally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters, and some mixed drinks today still conform to this, such as the Old Fashioned Whiskey cocktail, the Sazerac cocktail, and the Manhattan cocktail.

Many people believe that cocktails originated in the U.S. While this is partly true, cocktails were actually inspired by British punches from the 18th century. British punches were big bowls of spirits mixed with fruit juice, spice, and other flavors.

No one is exactly sure who first created cocktails, but the world is more than grateful to them. What is known is that by the 1860s, it started gaining popularity. Cocktails became especially popular after alcohol was prohibited in the United States from 1920 to 1933 ironically.

Speakeasies began to sell inferior liquor because it was easier to produce illicitly. Then they started adding honey, fruit juice, and other flavorings to mask the foul taste of this liquor, enabling customers to drink faster, which was very important in case of a raid.

The Industrial Age made a major contribution to the evolution of cocktails with the production of ice. Before the Industrial Age, there was no effective way to make ice blocks and keep them from melting.
In the 90s, a group of bartenders at New York’s famous Rainbow Room brought back classic cocktail culture and followed strict quality standards. Today, there is a substantive cocktail culture in the art of mixology, which draws on traditional cocktails, but uses novel ingredients and complex flavors.

If you like your cocktails with a literary twist then you might like the classic Tequila Mockingbird. The book includes “sixty-five delicious drink recipes paired with wry commentary on history’s most beloved novels, Tequila Mockingbird also includes bar bites, drinking games, and whimsical illustrations throughout.” For example Tequila Mockingbird is a punderful take on To Kill a Mocking Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

On the rocks or with a twist
Cocktail hour can't be missed
Have a drink or maybe two
Please know the limit that works for you.

From the not so good recent old days: