This Saturday, May 13, is the day to celebrate all things cocktail.
World Cocktail Day is a global celebration that marks the publication date of the first definition of a cocktail on May 13, 1806.
On that day, New York tabloid newsletter The Balance and Columbian Repository defined a cocktail as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters”.
It was written by editor Harry Croswell in response to a reader’s inquiry asking what a cocktail was.
Croswell also referred to the style of drink as being “an excellent electioneering potion”, as anyone who swallows it “is ready to swallow anything else”.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word used to mean “a horse with a docked tail which sticks up” in 1750.
However, the term ‘cocktail’ is now defined in the dictionary as: ‘any alcoholic drink made by mixing a spirit or spirits with other ingredients such as a liqueur, fruit juice, etc’.
Themixer.com lists the 10 Most Popular Cocktails in the World (2023) as:
- Negroni
- Cosmopolitan
- Old Fashioned
- Mojito
- Moscow Mule
- Vodka Martini
- Margarita
- Long Island Iced Tea
- Tom Collins
- Espresso Martini
What will you be serving this World Cocktail Day?
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