It is estimated that people have been drinking alcoholic beverages for at least 10,000 years. The first such adult beverage is thought to have been a type of mead made from honey, water and yeast with grains or hops occasionally mixed in. In the thousands of years since people first began quaffing that gnarly proto-beer their choices as far as alcoholic drinks didn't change much. Which raises the question: where did cocktails originate and when?
In this post, the team behind our CBD beverages peel back the curtain and reveal the origins of that most modern of indulgences, the cocktail.
A Brief History of the Cocktail
We tend to think that things that are (for better or worse) common today have more or less always been with us. But consider this: no Roman ever smoked a cigarette and, from the time Rome was founded in the 8th century BC to the time the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) fell in the 15th century AD no Roman ever enjoyed a cocktail.
So when did cocktails first appear and who is responsible? Those of us who make Sparkling CBD Soda decided to find out. Here’s what we discovered.
No One Knows for Sure Where the Name Came From
One of the first things we discovered when researching this topic is that it is one that is shrouded in mystery. In fact, almost no one can even agree on the origins of the word itself.
There are those who believe the word "cocktail" can be traced to the 15th-century Old English word "cocktay” which was a translation of the French term “coquetier” or “egg cup”.
Others think the word originated as a reference to a horse with a “docked” or cut tail. Though how we get from that to what is served in bars the world over today is not clear.
Still others believe the word is derived from “cockerel” and was applied to adult mixed beverages because of how some men would behave when they had too many. But the truth is, no one knows for sure.
Cocktails are More Modern Than Most People Realize
As for the drink itself, some are convinced that it can trace its origins to 18th century Great Britain when some public houses began offering punch bowls that combined fruit juice, spices, various flavorings and, when they could get their hands on it, whiskey.
The story goes that people became so enamored of these mixed drinks that they began creating their own at home, while pubs began trying to outdo one another with different recipes, which led to the birth of mixology.
True? While there is little doubt the pubs of 300 years ago were serving such beverages it’s impossible to know with absolute certainty if those early spiked punches actually morphed into today’s cocktails. But since it seems the most plausible potential origin story we uncovered we’re going to run with it.
The Role of Ice
Being able to enjoy our Sparkling CBD Soda or other CBD drinks on ice is something countless people take for granted these days. But ready access to ice cubes is actually a thoroughly modern phenomenon. Until the invention of modern refrigeration in the 20th century, there were no ice cubes.
If people in 1850s London wanted to put ice in their drink they would either have to wait until winter or wait for a shipment of ice to arrive from New England or Norway. "The ice trade" was a huge international business wherein crafty entrepreneurs in cold regions harvested tons of ice from frozen lakes and ponds, transported it to harbors like Boston, and then shipped it around the world to eager customers.
The rise of commercially available ice no doubt helped fuel the development of cocktails, and when modern refrigerators became available it seemed the sky was the limit. Surely, there would be no stopping the ability of bartenders to dream up whatever kind of mixed drink they wanted, and the world seemed poised for a cocktail explosion.
Enter Prohibition
Just as refrigeration technology was beginning to take off and bartenders everywhere started to gain access to cheap, plentiful ice with which to make their signature cocktails the Volstead Act - also known as the 18th amendment to the constitution, or simply “prohibition” - went into effect on January 17, 1920.
The amendment made it a crime to produce drinks that contained more than 0.5% alcohol and as a result bars from coast to coast closed their doors for good. For well over a decade about the only place you could get a cocktail was in a speakeasy. But most Americans did not have access to those illicit clubs.
On December 5, 1933, prohibition was formally repealed and the moribund bar and club scene in the US slowly lumbered back to life, along with the public's taste for cocktails.
Into the Future
It took a while for cocktails to make a full recovery in the US. First, the Second World War happened which undermined the bar and club recovery, then in the post-war years, young people began to turn away from mixed drinks in favor of recreational drugs.
The 1980s, however, saw a revival of the cocktail scene and since then the number and variety of cocktails has increased dramatically.
If you are a professional or amateur mixologist looking for a way to ramp up the quality of your cocktails our CBD beverages like our CBD Sparkling Soda are a great place to start.
The 1980s, however, saw a revival of the cocktail scene and since then the number and variety of cocktails has increased dramatically.
If you are a professional or amateur mixologist looking for a way to ramp up the quality of your cocktails our CBD beverages like our CBD Sparkling Soda are a great place to start.