HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE COCKTAIL!!!! (200 Years Old)

[matcom]

:bounce:



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Theories abound about the origin of the word ‘‘cocktail,’’ but this year is the bicentennial of its debut in print. In 1806, an editor of the Balance and Columbian Repository wrote in response to a reader’s inquiry about the word, ‘‘Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.’’ He then described it as an ‘‘excellent electioneering potion,’’ something politicians might use to sway voters.

Indeed, the cocktail has played a role in American politics, not to mention literature, film, music, and national rituals. Even before 1806, the idea of mixing spirits was in full force. Colonial New Englanders made rum and lots of it. A strip in Medford, in fact, became known as ‘‘Distill House Lane,’’ and the stuff was certainly added to juices and hot liquids.

With changes in regulations, technology, and agriculture, the cocktail has evolved tremendously. None of that, though, would be possible without the sheer cleverness of pioneering barmen. Certain drinks distinctly evoke different times and capture the mood of an era. Here we give you a few highlights of classic drinks still served around Boston.


1890s: Ward 8

Locke-Ober,

3 Winter Place, Boston.

617-542-1340.

(In the late 19th century, Mark Twain lived in New England, where polite society viewed the eccentric writer as common. Ever the cultural commentator, he would have been amused had he stopped into Locke-Ober, then Ober Café, one night in 1898 when the Ward 8 was devised, but we’ll let him tell it, as we suspect he might):

I knew right off those men were politicians. They rubbed their bellies, smoked their cigars, barely noticed the intricately carved mahogany around the mirrors. So crisp was their dress and oily was their talk. It’s like I say, ‘‘Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.’’ Sure enough, they were government honchos, gathered to honor the victory of Martin ‘‘The Mahatma’’ Lomasney, running to represent Ward 8 over by Roxbury. Members of that Irish smooth talker’s political ring were toasting Mahatma. But those were some presumptuous pols — the election wasn’t until the next day! They were all drinking a brilliant ruby drink that the bartender improvised that night. It appeared too fancy for my wild Western sensibilities, but I gave it a whirl. The concoction, which everyone’s referring to as the Ward 8 ($8) tasted familiar — like a whiskey sour, but sweeter. It’s the grenadine! It almost completely conceals the alcohol’s burn. Those politicians are a devious lot, to be sure.


1920s: Manhattan

Scollay Square,

21 Beacon St., Boston.

617-742-4900.

Even the most staunch ‘‘Drys,’’ as Prohibitionists were called, knew that consumption of alcohol didn’t wane once Prohibition went into effect in 1920. Through the era, the neighborhood known as Scollay Square, which includes where City Hall now stands, buzzed with vaudeville theaters, restaurants, and — of course — speakeasies, where the medicinal sting of bathtub gin was masked with all sorts of mixers.

Scollay Square, the district, no longer exists, but we have Scollay Square the restaurant, a temple to the neighborhood’s risqué carnival-esque legacy, where Mae West would be right at home amid the ornate décor and images of playful vixens.

Staring at the rows of backlit bottles gorgeously displayed on the shelves behind the bar, it’s hard to imagine a time when spirits were contraband. We’ll gladly take modern-day Beacon Hill’s tame pace to have the freedom to order a Manhattan with rye, the way a Manhattan Club bartender created it for an electoral victory party in 1874, the way it was requested throughout the 1920s but not so easily obtained.

You have a wide range of bourbons to choose from here, which has become the Manhattan’s key ingredient since rye production lagged during and after Prohibition and blander Canadian rye was smuggled across the border. But a rye renaissance is underway today, so request it with some Old Overholt rye in honor of all those who couldn’t do so quite as openly a century ago.

more....

http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2006/11/02/the_cocktail_at_200?mode=PF

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Mmmmmmmm.... my favorite libations of all are cocktails.

Yummy!!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Happy birthday, dear friend!

:9

[Hugin]

3. 'The invention of the 'cocktail hour' followed an hour later...'

They always leave this part out. ;)

Edit: Damnedable spell checker.

[ohiosmith]

4. Drinks on the house.