History
The History of Cocktails: From Bitters and Sugar to Craft Bars
The cocktail is younger than wine or beer, but it has packed a lot of history into a couple of centuries. Knowing where the classics came from makes ordering, and making, them more enjoyable.
A word is born
The word "cocktail" appeared in print in 1806 in a New York newspaper, which described it as a stimulating mix of spirit, sugar, water and bitters. That simple formula is the ancestor of the old fashioned and, by extension, of almost every drink that followed.
In 1862 Jerry Thomas published a bartender's guide that collected recipes and techniques, and he is often remembered as the first celebrity bartender.
Ice and the golden age
As ice became easier to harvest and ship in the nineteenth century, drinks could be served properly cold. Hotel bars and city saloons competed on skill, and recipes such as the whiskey sour and the Tom Collins were appearing in print by the 1860s.
Shaking, stirring, muddling and garnishing became crafts in their own right.
Prohibition scatters the bartenders
From 1920 to 1933, alcohol was banned in the United States. Illegal bars used sweet, strongly flavoured mixes to hide rough liquor, and many skilled bartenders moved abroad. In London, Harry Craddock worked at the Savoy and published a famous cocktail book in 1930, helping to spread American recipes across Europe.
Cuba, only a short trip from Florida, became a playground for visitors, and drinks like the daiquiri and the mojito reached a wider world.
Tiki, tropical and the sweet years
In the 1930s Don the Beachcomber opened a Polynesian-themed bar in California, and tiki culture turned rum, fruit and spice into theatre. Mid-century resorts added their own creations, and the piña colada, commonly credited to a Puerto Rican hotel bar in 1954, became an icon of holiday drinking.
In later decades convenience took over, and many bars relied on bottled mixes and artificial flavours.
The craft revival
From the 1980s and 1990s, bartenders began to return to fresh juice, quality spirits and classic technique. Pioneers such as Dale DeGroff showed that a well-made cocktail needs no shortcuts, and the idea spread worldwide.
Today a good cocktail bar measures carefully, uses fresh citrus, chills glassware and thinks about dilution as much as flavour.
Why technique still matters
Every classic depends on three things: balance, temperature and dilution. A shaken drink needs hard ice and a firm shake, a stirred drink needs patience and a built drink needs its ingredients in the right order. These habits are older than any single recipe, and they are why a drink tastes the same at the hundredth pour as at the first.
The classics on our menu
Several drinks on our menu have long histories. The mojito and the daiquiri come from Cuba, the margarita from Mexico and the United States, with its exact origin debated, and the whiskey sour and Tom Collins from nineteenth-century American bars. The bay breeze is a later, fruit-forward creation, and the tequila sunrise grew out of mid-century resort bars.
We make each one with fresh ingredients and serve it in clean glassware, at your venue, from our mobile bar. Read our guide to the top ten cocktails for an event to choose your favourites.