The story goes that this was invented in 1925 by Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The oldest printed recipe from a book that I could find for the mimosa is Frank Meier’s own 1936 book “The Artistry of Mixing Drinks.” There he refers to it as a Mimosa or a Champagne Orange. The 1936 recipe is equal parts orange juice and Champagne and no different than how they are made today.
The Mimosa is a variation of another cocktail called the Buck’s Fizz. A Buck’s Fizz is two parts champagne with 1 part orange juice, which are the proportions most prefer. The Buck’s Fizz was invented at the Buck Club in 1921 in London by Barman Malachy McGarry. The earliest printed recipe for Buck’s Fizz I can find is from the 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book. In fact, it’s hard to find the mimosa recipe in any cocktail book printed before the 1970s. Outside of Frank Meiers own book, I only found it in one other book. I also found it in the 1948 book “The Fine Art of Mixing” by David Embury. He states the mimosa is also called a Bismark, but I could not find anyone else calling it that. But on the other hand, I found a few books referencing a Buck’s Fizz until the 1970s.
So how did the Buck’s Fizz fade from memory and the Mimosa become universally known? Hollywood, of course. Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite cocktail was the Mimosa. In a 1966 interview for the London Express, the author noted he met Alfred Hitchcock “In fine form, drinking mimosas and smoking an eight-inch cigar.” Other celebrities followed suit, and in no time, the Mimosa became the Cosmopolitan of the late 1960s.
The common history of the Bloody Mary is it originated in 1920s Paris, France, by Fernand Petiot while working at The New York Bar. Fernand came up with the Bloody Mary as a hair of the dog drink to cure hangovers, and the popular myth states it was none other than the famous drunk Ernest Hemingway who Fernand first made the cocktail for. While that is likely, not true, it’s still fun to imagine.
The most likely origin of the Bloody Mary is it began as a 1920s temperance-era tomato juice cocktail. A tomato juice cocktail from that time would be made with tomato juice, bay leaf, grated onion, lemon juice, and celery. Similar to the tomato juice cocktail was the oyster cocktail. The oyster cocktail was made of oysters, ketchup, lemon juice, hot sauce, salt, celery, and Worcestershire sauce. If you replace the oyster with olives or pickled peppers (or whatever other crazy thing people put on a Bloody Mary) and combine these two, it makes a virgin Bloody Mary. I’ve seen oysters in Bloody Marys before.
After prohibition ended, Fernand Petiot immigrated to New York and worked at The King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. According to a July 1964 New Yorker interview with Petiot, there was already a tomato juice and vodka cocktail at the bar created by George Jessel. But it was just tomato juice and vodka, which Petiot found boring and not very good.
George Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over. I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper, and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice, put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour. We serve a hundred to a hundred and fifty Bloody Marys a day here in the King Cole Room and in the other restaurants and the banquet rooms.
The New Yorker July 18, 1964
Petiot added spices and flavor to the drink, creating the Bloody Mary we know today. George Jessel’s argument was that since he first combined the main ingredients, it was his drink. Still, Petiot argued that since the recipe everyone makes is his version of the drink, he invented the Bloody Mary.
The Bloody Mary also went by the name Red Snapper during its earlier days, as the St. Regis Hotel found the name too vulgar for its high-class clientele. But the cocktail had expanded beyond the hotel’s walls, and the public knew it as the Bloody Mary. As time went on, the Bloody Mary name was the one that stuck.
What Does a Bloody Mary Taste Like?
People’s opinion of a Bloody Mary is typically binary. They either love them or hate them. It’s not your typical cocktail because, unlike other cocktails that are sweet, sour, refreshing, earthy, or herbal, the Bloody Mary is creamy and savory. The Bloody Mary has a creamy full body mouthfeel; it’s salty and sweet with bright red tomato and umami flavors. Understandably, some people find this an off-putting taste for a cocktail since it’s so different. Personally, I am put off when the tomato flavor is too strong, but I love this cocktail when there is much more Worcestershire and horseradish in the drink. Like buying a jar of spaghetti sauce, just because you don’t like one brand does not mean you dislike spaghetti entirely. Maybe the issue isn’t the flavors of the drink but the proportions and balance of those flavors. If made right, this can be a delicious drink. Unless you find a Bloody Mary mixer you like, it’s best to make it from scratch exactly the way you want.
Using Bloody Mary Mix Vs Making It From Scratch.
If you are wondering whether to buy a mix or make it from scratch, it tastes best and is almost the same amount of work. You probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry and fridge. Also, if you can drive to the store to buy a mixer, you can buy tomato juice and spices. Some mixers taste good, but they cost 2 to 3 times as much as just getting the ingredients and a cheap mixer tastes cheap. In addition, making it yourself provides you with much more control over the taste and final product.
Now, if you’re wondering whether to use V8 or Tomato juice, then that is up to you and a matter of preference. V8 is fine and gives the drink a more herbal tomato soup-like taste, while using regular tomato juice gives it a cleaner, brighter tomato taste. They’re cheap ingredients, so try both and see which you prefer.
Is The Bloody Mary A Hangover Cure?
The Bloody Mary was originally a “hair of the dog” cocktail. The hair of the dog was a 19th-century English expression for saying that one can heal a wound by applying a part of the thing that did the damage to the injury. It came from the idea that if you were bit by a dog, then putting some of the dog’s hair in the bite would help keep the wound from getting infected. In the case of a hangover, a hair of the dog cocktail is one you drink the following day to help ease the pain. As you start to sober up, your brain starts to register what you just did to yourself. This keeps you from fully sobering up. It’s supposed to give you just enough of a buzz to numb you till the brunt of the hangover passes. That being said, the Bloody Mary is a pretty good hangover drink. The Bloody Mary provides electrolytes, vitamins, enough booze to buzz, enough fluid to help hydrate lightly, and spices for pain relief. Salt provides the electrolytes. Tomato juice is high in vitamin C, E, and potassium. Lemon juice is high in vitamin C. Worcestershire sauce has B vitamins, niacin, and vitamin C. Horseradish is also very high in antioxidants. The hot sauce has capsaicin, which is often used as pain relief since capsaicin turns off the neurotransmitters that are currently telling the brain it’s in pain—like Tylenol.
A quick google search will pull up about three different origin stories for the grasshopper. The most popular origin story goes that Philibert Guichet invented the grasshopper in 1918 while working at Tujague’s in New Orleans, across the street from Cafe Du Monde, to enter a cocktail competition. Although while looking for another cocktail, I found the grasshopper in the 1908 cocktail book by Hon. WM. T. Boothby (That’s a long name) “The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them.” He credits Harry O’Brien (A regular length name) of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco for inventing the drink. The recipe in the 1908 book is a little different than the Philibert Guichet one, but all liqueurs are the same. His recipe is equal parts Creme de Cacao, and Creme de Menthe layered on top of each other. Again it’s different, it’s missing cream and is not shaken, but the flavor would be similar, and the intent is the same, and it predates the Guichet recipe by a full ten years.
To add to the original grasshopper being a Pousse Café styled drink, I found other recipes around the same time and later that are more like the Boothby recipe than the Guichet recipe. In the 1935 book The Bar Keeper’s Golden Book by, he has the Grasshopper as a 50×50 creme de cacao and creme de menthe layered drink. Regardless of who invented it or whether it’s a layered drink or not, it’s a fun little dessert cocktail that tastes like an Andes Chocolate Mint, and you can’t beat that. Also, the Guichet recipe is by far the most well-known and popular version today. It’s also the drink Kermit orders when he thinks Miss Piggy left him in The original Muppet Movie, and Rowlf sings “I Hope That Somethin’ Better Comes Along.”
The Original tequila sunrise is commonly believed to be invented by Gene Sulit in the 1930s at the Baltimore Hotel in Pheonix, Arizona. The Original Baltimore Hotel recipe is 2/3 oz lime juice, 2/3 oz creme de Cassis, 1.5 oz silver tequila in a glass with ice and topped off with soda water.
The more common present-day recipe was invented in the early 1970s by Bob Lozoff while working at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California. In an ad for Jose Cuervo, bob stated the tequila sunrise was too complicated for them to make, so they made their own variation of tequila, orange juice, and grenadine. They chose to call this new drink the tequila sunrise instead. The Rolling Stones hosted a private party at the Trident and apparently fell in love with the drink. Interest in this version of the tequila sunrise grew out of the Rolling Stones’ popularity, and they’re requesting for a tequila sunrise made this specific way.
What Does The Tequila Sunrise Taste Like?
The Bob Lozoff version of the tequila sunrise taste like a slightly sweeter, fruitier screwdriver. It’s an improvement on the standard screwdriver, a pretty one-dimensional drink. The tequila sunrise makes for a good brunch cocktail. I won’t say it’s a great drink, but it’s not bad. Aesthetically it is better than it tastes.
The Bellini was invented during World War 2 in Venice, Italy, by Guiseppe Cipriani. The Bellini is named after Giovanni Bellini, a famous Venetian Renaissance painter with well-known work in Venice, where the cocktail was invented.
What Is The Difference Between The Mimosa And The Bellini?
The Mimosa was invented in 1925 at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France, by Frank Meier. Even though the Bellini was created 15 years after the mimosa, it is unclear if the Mimosa inspired this Italian cocktail. They are very similar cocktails, but the peach juice and orange juice give each cocktail very different flavors. A Mimosa is more acidic and fresh tasting with a drier, thinner body, while the Bellini is sweeter with a slightly thicker nectar taste and fuller body mouth feel. This is not a fair comparison, but I would liken it to comparing a white to red wine. White is like the Mimosa, and red is like the Bellini.
The Bellini is a beautiful sparkling wine cocktail and perfect for brunch. Unlike the mimosa, though, I feel the Bellini also works well for an evening cocktail. It’s thicker, more nectar-like taste and mouthfeel lends itself well to a nice before or after-dinner drink. If you have only had a Bellini for brunch, try making one in the evening and see how versatile this cocktail can be.
The Kir and Kir Royale are named after the Catholic priest Félix Kir, a Nazi resistance fighter in the Dijon region during WWII. Félix Kir is credited with helping around 5,000 POWs escape during the war. After the war ended, he was elected mayor of Dijon, where he stayed for 23 years till his death in 1968.
Unable to get red wine from neighboring regions of France, Felix combined the two regional beverages of Creme de Cassis and a dry, acidic white wine made from the Aligoté grape to create the Kir. I think the proportions I have provided are spot on, but the goal of adding the Creme de Cassis is to take the dry acid edge off the white wine and give it an air of red wine. You’re looking to make white wine with a mild currant flavor and not a sweet cocktail. I recommend using as dry of wine as possible because the creme de cassis is already really sweet, and if you start with sweet wine, then it’s just a bit too much, and you lose the other flavors. The dryer the wine, the better.
The fancy version of the Kir, the Kir Royale is a beautiful and fruity champagne cocktail. I recommend using as dry of champagne as possible because the creme de cassis is already really sweet, and if you start with sweet champagne, then it’s just a bit too much, and you lose the other flavors. The dryer the wine, the better.
What Is The Difference Between The Kir And The Kir Royale?
The Kir is made with still white wine, while the Kir Royale is made with sparkling white wine. It is a French cocktail, so there is an assumption Champagne will be used, but any white sparkling wine will do. The Kir Royale has more of a celebration feel to it white the regular Kir is more of an everyday drink.
The screwdriver has two familiar origin stories, and both are probably wrong. One story I have read is that laborers or oil rig workers used to use screwdrivers to stir their morning drink long ago, and another claims US marines invented it in WWII. There is no evidence to back those ideas up, and counter to those ideas is that vodka was rarely used in cocktails before the invention of the Moscow mule in 1941. It’s doubtful that US soldiers were mixing vodka cocktails in the early 40s and even less likely that oil rig workers were mixing with it.
In David Embury’s 1948 book “The Fine Art Of Mixing” he claims the screwdriver is just the orange blossom cocktail with vodka instead of gin. This makes sense because, after the popularity of the Moscow mule, many bartenders tried finding other drinks that could be made with vodka other than the Moscow mule or Bloody Mary. An easy solution was to replace gin with vodka. The iconic vodka martini was invented around this time, and David Embury printed in his vodka section a list of gin cocktails that sometimes substitute vodka. He concluded the vodka section by saying he has no idea why anyone would want to replace gin for vodka as it is a flavorless dull spirit that adds nothing to a drink. I can easily see someone simply replacing the gin for vodka in orange blossom and giving it a funky name like the screwdriver.
If the screwdriver truly is just an orange blossom with vodka, then his recipe is not the common one used today. Unfortunately, he does not provide a direct recipe but says to make an orange blossom with vodka instead of gin. The classic orange blossom recipe is 1:1 orange juice and gin shaken in a shaker and strained into a cocktail glass. Typically it’s measured out to 2 oz gin to 2 oz orange juice. The most common recipe used today is a 1:3 Vodka to orange juice highball cocktail. I have never liked the screwdriver and find it a pointless cocktail. It just tastes like rotten orange juice to me. I find David Embury’s 1940s recipe tastes better than the present-day recipe but is still dull. He even says that the orange blossom, and subsequently the screwdriver, is a stupid drink in his book.
The Correct Ratio For A Screwdriver.
The correct ratio for a screwdriver is 1:3 vodka to orange juice if you are making the standard recipe used today. You can adjust these to taste, but for a standard screwdriver, it should be mixed 1:3. Most screwdrivers are larger than 4 oz, so pour 2 oz of vodka and add 6 oz of orange juice into a highball with ice and stir the drink. This maintains the 1:3 ratio but makes a more reasonably sized screwdriver.
Using David Embury’s classic 1940s screwdriver recipe, the ratio is 1:1. His recipe is prepared entirely different, though. This 1940s recipe is 2 oz of vodka and orange juice shaken in a shaker with ice and strained into a cocktail glass.
The earliest reference to the Mexican Coffee That I can find is from a 1972 book titled “The Good Time Manual” by Russell Riera and Christopher Smith. The book was a collection of restaurants that the two liked in the Bay Area. One of the restaurants the authors write about is Señor Pico in Ghirardelli Square. Señor Pico was a mexican/Souther Californian concept restaurant by Victor Bergeron. Victor Bergeron was famous for his chain of Trader Vic’s Tiki restaurants and wanted to experiment with a Mexican-themed restaurant. Ghirardelli Square is right next to the Buena Vista Cafe. Riera and Smith state in their book that being so close to the Buena Vista Cafe, famous for its Irish Coffees, Bergeron invented a Mexican-flavored version of the drink.
Around the 1980s the, Mexican Coffee became common in many Mexican restaurants, and by the 1990s, it started appearing in some cocktail books. Not to say Victor Bergeron was the first to mix tequila with coffee. People have been mixing coffee and alcohol for a very long time. Still, his Mexican restaurant, Señor Pico, was the first to give it a name and the regular recipe we still use today.
Vodka cocktails were almost nonexistent and not popular till the 1940s. Except for the Bloody Mary, I can’t think of a single cocktail that contained vodka before the 1940s. What happened in the 1940s to change that? The Moscow Mule was invented in 1941, and its overnight success suddenly made vodka a popular spirit. Most classic vodka cocktails can be traced back to this period. Since Vodka had no history of being used as an ingredient, bartenders found it easy to replace gin with vodka and give the drink a fun new name. The screwdriver was just an orange blossom with vodka, The vodka Martini was just a martini with vodka, and a drink called the Russian Bear was just an Alexander with vodka instead of gin.
I can’t find a direct link between the present-day white Russian and the Alexander cocktail, but I get the feeling looking at many of these 1940s vodka cocktails and believe that the white Russian is a variation of it. Lucius Beebe’s 1946 book, the “Stork Club Bar Book,” mentions a cocktail invented by actor Nelson Eddy called Alexander the Great. The cocktail contained creme de cacao, coffee liqueur, vodka, and heavy cream. In David Embury’s 1948 book “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,” he has two drinks that resemble white and Black Russians. A drink called a Russian that was vodka and creme de cacao, and one was called a Russian bear which was a Russian with heavy cream floating on top. In his liqueurs and cordial descriptions section, David describes creme de cafe as almost interchangeable with creme de cacao and that they are very much the same. I don’t believe this is the first white Russian, but I feel its origins are here.
The Earliest Records Of The White and Black Russian
The first use of the White and Black Russian names I can find from the 1972 Trader Vic’s Bartenders guide. This is the first reference I can find of those drinks using the recipes we are familiar with today. Trader Vic’s original 1947 bartender’s guide mirrors the recipes in the Beebe and Embury books. I could also not locate the white or Black Russians in any other cocktail books from the 1950s or 60s. So sometime between the 1940s and 1972, the white and Black Russians we know today were invented. On the cocktails Trader Vic invented, he placed a large “TV” by the recipe, and neither the White or Black Russians have those, so Trader Vic must not have created them, but he was the first to record them.
Of course, what made the White Russian iconic was the 1998 Coen Brothers film “The Big Lebowski.” Hilariously thought throughout the movie, the dude, Jeff Lebowski, keeps drinking White Russians even in the face of danger and puts himself in harm’s way to protect his drink at one point. The dude’s love for this drink drove the White Russian to fame and turned it into a cocktail that was suddenly cool to order. Before the Big Lebowski, though, I don’t believe the White Russian was a cool drink. Everything about the dude is a mess. He doesn’t pay his bills; he smokes weed all day, his car is a clunker, and he has trouble forming complete sentences or relating to the people around him. The writers probably viewed the White Russian as a crummy weird cocktail made by a tiki chain during the 1970s. It’s not like he tries to make the drink well, either. In one scene, he uses powdered creamer and mixes it with his finger. Little did they know they would turn it into an icon.
The Aperol Spritz is a wonderfully refreshing and flavorful drink. The mild herbal and medicinal flavors of the Aperol blend wonderfully with the prosecco, and the soda water cuts the strength just enough not to make the drink feel boozy.
History Of The Spritz.
The Spritz originated in the Veneto region of Italy in the mid-19th century. After the Napoleonic Wars (1803 to 1815), the Veneto region was annexed by the Austrian Empire, which it stayed with till it joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. During the annexation, Austrian soldiers occupied the region and found the local wine too alcohol for their liking. The soldiers would add a splash of water to bring the ABV down to levels more similar to beer. Wine served this way was referred to as a spritz, the german word for a splash. Eventually, wines would be spritzed with soda water and even Prosecco. The spritz cocktail structure is always:
2 oz (60 mLs) wine or apperitif
1 oz (30 mLs) soda water
3 oz (90 mls) prosecco
As you can see, there can be many different kinds of spritz cocktails. Any wine or aperitif can be used as the base. When ordering in English, the base is mentioned before the word spritz. A spritz with Aperol is an Aperol Spritz, or one with Cynar is Cynar Spritz, Campari Spritz, Pinot Grigio Spritz, Chardonnay Spritz, etc. If ordering in Italy, reverse it and say the base after the word spritz.
