Cultural development

Although Western societies have embraced cocktails, if not by name, since the 17th century, today’s recognisable cocktail culture properly evolved from three distinct eras in North America. The first was the mid-to- late 1800s with, for example, the 1862 publication of Jerry Thomas’ Bar Tenders Guide; the 1882 Chicago Tribune reference to the Old Fashioned as a cocktail and the 1888 creation of the Gin Fizz cocktail, by renowned barman, Henry Ramos, at the Imperial Cabinet, his New Orleans bar. The second era (starting early 1900s) saw the birth of the world-famous New York Bar in Paris following the purchase of the one-time bistro by US jockey, Todd Sloan in 1911; the banning of absinthe in the US in 1812 and three years later in France, and creation of the Negroni cocktail in Florence, Italy in 1919. The third era – arguably the most vibrant in spreading the culture – was the 1920s; the Roaring ‘20s or the Jazz Age. This (ending 1933) was the period of American Prohibition. Giants of bartending, Harry MacElhone, purchased the New York Bar, 1923, and Harry Craddock became head barman at the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar in London, 1925. This was also the era of the American Speakeasy – fashionable yet illegal drinking dens, fostered by most US cities. It was also a prosperous era in which society sought greater freedom in all aspects of life – not least in its pursuit of leisure pleasures, and cocktails were used as a lubricant of those pursuits.