−Jeffrey Morgenthaler publishes The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique.
−The Savoy celebrates its 125th birthday on August 6.
−In March, bartender Sheldon Wiley becomes the world’s fastest bartender by breaking the Guinness World Record for making the most cocktails in one hour. It is sponsored by Stoli vodka and the official rules are: each cocktail requires a minimum of three ingredients and no cocktail can be duplicated. He makes 1905 cocktails. The event is held at New York’s Bounce Sporting Club.
2015 − Salvatore “The Maestro” Calabrese publishes a second edition of Classic Cocktails.
−Cocktails & Classics is hosted by Michael Urie and celebrity friends who watch and critique classic films while sipping cocktails.
−David Wondrich publishes the second edition of Imbibe! Updated and Revised Edition: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to “Professor” Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar.
−Crown Royal rye, Amaro di Angostura, La Caravedo pisco, Tanqueray Bloomsbury, Cynar 70, Encanto pisco, Rieger & Co. Midwestern Dry gin, Rieger & Co. Kansas City whiskey, Highspire pure rye, Grey Goose VX, Sipsmith gin, Redemption Rye Barrel Proof, Stiggins Plantation pineapple rum, Fernet Francisco, Caña Brava rum, Balsam American Amaro, Mr. Lyan Bottled Cocktails, Bacardi tangerine rum, Portobello gin, and Small Hand Foods Yeoman tonic syrups are introduced.
−The owners of the award-winning New York City bar Dead Rabbit publish The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual: Secret Recipes and Barroom Tales from Two Belfast Boys Who Conquered the Cocktail World.
−Philip Greene publishes an updated version of To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion.
−Chris McMillian and his wife, Laura open their first bar, Revel Café & Bar in New Orleans.
2016 − Jamie Boudreau, owner of the award-winning Seattle bar Canon, publishes The Canon Cocktail Book: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bar.
−Jack Daniel’s 150th Anniversary; Three Olives pink grapefruit, pineapple, and pear vodka; Cockspur old gold rum; Life of Reilley Disco Lemonade; Clayton Bourbon; Bird Dog chocolate whiskey; Old Home maple whiskey; Don Q 151 rum; Jameson Cooper’s Croze; Mount Gay XO; Brooklyn gin; Crown Royal honey; Yukon Jack Wicked Hot; E. J. peach brandy; Pau Maui pineapple vodka; Uncle Bob’s root beer whiskey, Laphroig 15, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel rye are introduced.
−Robert Simonson publishes A Proper Drink.
−Owners of the award-winning San Francisco bar Smuggler’s Cove, Martin and Rebecca Cate, publish Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki.
−Billy Gibbons from the band ZZ Top introduces Pura Vida tequila.
−Chris McMillian and Elizabeth M. Williams publish Lift Your Spirits: A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans.
−Sasha Petraske’s Regarding Cocktails is published by his widow, Georgette.
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The Cocktail World Today—and Beyond
Between 2000 and 2010, the craft cocktail movement was in its infancy stage. Bar owners replicated the decor, style, fashion, and ambiance from either of two—significant—previous cocktail time periods: the first golden age of cocktails (1860–1919) or American Prohibition (1920–1933). Around 2010, bar owners had a light bulb moment and thought, “Hey! I don’t have to look like an 1800s saloon or a speakeasy to produce fresh quality cocktails because that’s the way cocktails should be made anyway.” That self-realization (the message pioneers were trying to communicate all along) was the spark needed for millennials to create fresh cocktails for all other types of bars. In 2005, there were only around thirty fresh craft bars in all of America, and in 2018, there are over 500. The craft cocktail pioneers should be very proud of this achievement. What does the crystal ice ball predict for the future toddler, teenage, and adult stages of the second golden age of cocktails? Will robots replace bartenders? Will future bartenders become eco-conscious exploring ways to recycle the massive amounts of straws, cups, pics, and bottles dumped in landfills every day? Can bartenders cease stoking the embers of their wannabe-famous egos and simply live balanced lives, be good at their jobs, and understand the bottom line of hospitality? Will bars with fresh crafted cocktails be commonplace for the masses? Well, as for robots, probably not, because humans are social beings. Even high-tech futuristic fantasy shows such as Star Trek, which have the technological advances to build robot bartenders, choose not to. As millennials take over the cocktail wheel, it is safe to assume that they will follow their bartender ancestors’ example—and boldly go where no one has gone before.
From Antiquity to America: The History of Alcohol
As far as we know, beer was first made in 8000 BCE, wine in 6000 BCE, and spirits for consumption in 1192. However, they are believed to have been consumed many years before.
Medicinal alcohol distillation was first discovered in 900 CE, and the first known word for a consumable distilled spirit was “aqua vitae” (AH-qua VEE-tee or sometimes pronounced VEE-tai), which translates from Latin to “water of life.” Arnaud de Ville-Neuve coined the word in 1310 after he distilled wine with an alembic still. The French translation is eau-de-vie (o-duh-VEE).
Vintage engraving of distillation. © Morphart Creation / Shutterstock
According to esteemed alcohol and cocktail historians Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown, thirty-three-year-old French explorer and missionary William de Rubruquis, a.k.a. William of Rubruck (1220–1293), was the first to mention a spirit called arrack (uh-RACK). In 1292, Marco Polo commented about arrack in his travel memoir Il Millione, and it is recorded that Genoese merchants brought arrack to Russia a century before. Arrack is distilled from molasses and water using dried cakes of red rice and botanicals containing yeast and other fungi spores that trigger the fermentation process. It was produced on the island of Java, Batavia, and the technique can be traced back thousands of years to China—and even predates the birth of distillation. The island went through many name changes throughout history, but today is named Ja.k.a.rta (or Dja.k.a.rta) and is located in Indonesia. Slowly through the years the distilled spirits vodka, gin, whisk(e)y, rum, tequila, and liqueurs each made a commercial appearance.
The Top Ten Things to Know about Alcohol
1.The first alcohol known to humankind is beer, then wine, and then spirits.
2.There are several types of alcohol, but ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is the only potable one.
3.Distilled spirits were first used as medicine.
4.Vodka, gin, and rum are allowed to be produced anywhere in the world. However, tequila must be produced in Mexico, Scotch whisky in Scotland, Irish whiskey in Ireland, Canadian whisky in Canada, Bourbon in America (and so on with the whiskeys), pisco in Peru and Chile, and cachaça in Brazil.
5.One twelve-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a five-ounce glass of wine and one-and-a-half ounces of a spirit.
6.Grain makes whisky and beer; fruit makes wine and brandy; grapes grown in the
