Cocktail Families

Where it started

Punch is the grandparent: the word appears in a 1632 letter from an English East India Company man in India.² The Cock-Tail, spirits with sugar, water and bitters, was defined in print in 1806.¹ Jerry Thomas's 1862 guide sorted drinks into classes, cobblers, cocktails, fixes, juleps, punches, sours, slings, smashes and toddies, plus a catchall of "fancy drinks."³ David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948) reduced the canon to six basic drinks: Martini, Manhattan, Old-Fashioned, Daiquiri, Sidecar and Jack Rose.⁴ Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology (Clarkson Potter, 2003; revised 2018) helped to jumpstart the cocktail renaissance.⁵ The International Bartenders Association approved its first official list of 50 cocktails in 1961.⁶

Where and how it's made

Old-Fashioned. Spirit, sugar, bitters, ice: the 1806 formula with the water frozen. The name arose when drinkers who disliked the new vermouth drinks of the 1870s asked for an "old-fashioned" cocktail.⁸ The IBA version starts with a sugar cube soaked in bitters and a few dashes of water.²³

Vermouth drinks. The Manhattan, from the 1870s or early 1880s, added vermouth to the whisky cocktail and fathered the Martini and the Rob Roy.⁹ Today's common Manhattan is 60 ml whisky, 30 ml vermouth and two dashes of bitters, nicknamed the "212."¹⁰ The IBA Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, 30 ml each.²⁴

Sours. Spirit, citrus and sweetener, an American class of the 1850s first mentioned in print in 1857.¹¹ The IBA Daiquiri is just white rum, fresh lime and sugar.²⁵ Embury's Sidecar ran 8 parts cognac, 2 lemon, 1 Cointreau;¹⁰ the recipe first appeared in print in two London books in 1922.²¹ The Jack Rose is applejack, lime and grenadine.²² The IBA Margarita takes an optional half salt rim.²⁶ A Daisy is a sour sweetened with a liqueur or flavored syrup and lightened with soda.¹² The Crusta, created in New Orleans in the 1850s by Joseph Santini, added a dash of lemon juice and a sugared rim to the fancy cocktail.¹³

Long drinks. A Highball is spirits, sparkling water and ice.¹⁴ A Collins adds lemon juice and sugar in a tall glass; it traces to John Collin, head waiter at Limmer's Hotel in London.¹⁵ The IBA's John Collins becomes a Tom Collins when made with Old Tom gin.²⁷ A fizz is shorter and originally had no ice in the glass; it first appeared in print in 1876.¹⁶

Juleps and swizzles. The julep, spirits, sugar, water, mint and ice, is the oldest canonical American mixed drink, with ice first attested in Virginia in 1807.¹⁷ A swizzle is defined by technique: crushed ice whisked with a swizzle stick.¹⁸ Tiki began with Don the Beachcomber's, which opened in Hollywood a few weeks after Prohibition ended.¹⁹

How to taste it

Taste one family side by side: a Daiquiri, a Margarita and a Sidecar share one sour skeleton. Pairings: sours with fried food, vermouth drinks with cured meats, highballs with anything crisp.

Styles and what the label means

The IBA list sorts its 102 drinks into three equal groups of 34.⁷ - The Unforgettables — Negroni, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Daiquiri, Sidecar, Last Word.⁷ - Contemporary Classics — Margarita, Mojito, Cosmopolitan, French 75, Pisco Sour.⁷ - New Era — Espresso Martini, Penicillin, Paper Plane, Bramble, Paloma.⁷ - Royale — any drink topped with champagne; a Kir Royal swaps the Kir's white wine for Champagne.²⁰²⁸ - How each family is mixed. bar-technique →