No one is really sure of the name origin of this drink, or really even when it was invented. The Presbyterian is very likely a 20th century concoction, first made anywhere from as early as the 1890s when the first highballs were made to as late as the 1960s as one theory suggests.
The drink is a type of highball cocktail—a spirit with a larger body of non-alcoholic mixer—originally a simple scotch and soda. Thus, a Presbyterian is just whiskey, club soda, and ginger ale. Some recipes call for far more soda than whiskey, while others have the drink consisting of mostly whiskey.
One theory for the conception of the drink is that it arose from parties in which a small faction of people wouldn’t consume alcohol. These people were known as “Presbyterians” (so called because of the strict doctrines of Presbyterianism prohibiting alcohol consumption). Instead of alcohol, these people would drink a combination of soda and ginger ale, possibly to mock the color of other mixed drinks. Due to the similarities in appearance, drinks would have gotten mixed up, and a drinker would mistakenly take a Presbyterian’s glass and add more whiskey.
The word “gimlet” used to reference the cocktail was first printed in 1928. The description at the time stated simply that the drink was made of gin, lime, and soda. The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930 contained two versions of the drink. The Gimlet Cocktail was equal parts Plymouth gin and Rose’s lime cordial (stirred and iced if desired). The Gimblet, however, is closer to what people are familiar with today: 1/4 lime juice and 3/4 dry gin, shaken with ice and strained, topped with soda.
Recipes vary widely with regards to the Gimlet: some call for soda, some call for simple syrup, and even the lime flavor is up to contention—fresh lime juice, sweetened lime juice, and Rose’s lime juice being the main choices. As usual, cocktails are made to taste, and some will think the addition of sugar would make the drink too sweet. Seemingly, the only agreed upon ingredient in a Gimlet is the gin with the source of lime being battled over.
Etymology of the name is a bit less hazy. A surgeon for the British Royal Navy, Sir Thomas D. Gimlette, encouraged his shipmates to have lime with their liquor to ward off scurvy. This well could also be the invention of the drink, placing the date sometime between 1879 and 1913—the length of time Sir Gimlette served the navy.
Although some recipes call for soda water to be added to the cocktail, those may as well be Gin and Tonic drinks rather than Gimlets. The Gimlet should be kept simple and classic, with no soda.
Despite the name, this is actually a pretty good cocktail. There’s no history behind the Trailer Smash because it’s one of the new school cocktails from a place in Oakland called Flora, but you could probably get the bartender to tell you how it came to be. I’ve only had one opportunity to go to Flora since i’d heard about it, but it was closed the day i was there. Imagine my jealousy when i received a text message from my friend Debra last week saying that she wanted a Trailer Smash á là Flora “[b]ut add more smash!!”
I did a little research—very little, as there’s nothing on the internet referencing this drink except for the bar’s menu. Bourbon, mint, lemon, and maple syrup were the ingredients. This sounded like a variation on the basic Mint Julep, and a great opportunity to attempt a recreation of someone else’s drink.
A smash, i learned, is a julep on a smaller scale: mint, sugar, spirit. My friends were all surprised that a smash is a type of drink, and couple had reasoned that the “smash” part of the name had to do with the “trailer” part of it. The spirit could be anything—vodka, run, whiskey, even applejack—and the drink is meant to be shaken to awaken the mint. Any additional bitters or fruit are welcome at any point. With this knowledge, i set about making our drinks.
The Negroni has a history that is surprisingly straightforward, but that doesn’t make it any less questionable. The claim is that it was invented some time in the early 1920s in Florence, Italy. Count Camillo Negroni (a real person) wanted more kick to his Americano (not the coffee drink, but a cocktail made of sweet vermouth, Campari, and soda water), so his bartender replaced the soda with gin. An orange slice was dropped in the drink to signify that it was different from its fizzier counterpart.
Attribution of who decided to call the drink the “Negroni” is questionable. One version says the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, simply named it for the Count. The other version says that his friends saw him ordering this new drink and demanded their own “Americano the Negroni way”.
The drink could not be simpler in its construction: equal parts sweet vermouth, Campari, and gin, stirred over ice and garnished with orange. The standard glass is an old-fashioned glass, but some places will serve it in a cocktail glass.
Grenadine is a juice-based (usually pomegranate) mixer used in many cocktails. Indeed, one oft cited origin of the word grenadine is the French grenade, which means “pomegranate” (the other origin story saying that grenadine comes from Granada). Despite the distinct flavor of pomegranate and black currant found in real grenadine, many commercially produced versions are made with corn syrup and artificial flavorings and colors with a less than desirable flavor.
This syrup is quite easy to make in the home—being that it’s only juice and sugar—and it tastes much better than store-bought corn syrup grenadine. Most recipes will use pomegranate juice in a hot or cold process, but actual seeds can be used as well.
Hot Process (Juice)
2 parts pomegranate juice (2 cups)
1 part sugar (1 cup)
Bring the pomegranate juice to a boil and simmer until reduced by half. Stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Cold Process (Juice)
1 part pomegranate juice (1 cup)
1 part superfine sugar (1 cup)
Pour juice and sugar into a jar or large bottle, shake until the sugar has dissolved.
Hot Process (Seeds)
4 parts pomegranate seeds (seeds from 2 whole pomegranates)
1 part honey (1/4 cup)
Purée the seeds to release the juices, this should yield about 1 cup of liquid. Simmer in a pot for 15 minutes with the honey. Strain through a cheesecloth.
Whichever method you go with, allow the grenadine to cool completely before transferring to a container (jar or bottle). To help preserve the syrup, add .5 ounce vodka (80 proof) for every 8 ounces of syrup, or store in the freezer (the sugar content will keep it from freezing).
David A. Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks names the Jack Rose as one of the six basic drinks, and while popular in the 1920s and ’30s, it has largely fallen out of recognition in this day and age. This cocktail first appeared in print in 1905, but is probably not much older.
As with any old cocktail, the inventor and date of invention is a bit hazy, and the origin of the name isn’t much clearer. One theory goes that Frank J. May, also known as Jack Rose, invented the drink and named it after himself. Another says that Jacob “Bald Jack” Rose/Rosenzweig, notorious gambler of the 1910s, either invented it or had the cocktail named for him. But the simplest explanation, and probably the most accurate one, states that the drink is made with applejack and is rose colored.
Original printings call for lemon juice, but many also say limes are an option. The basic recipe is applejack, lemon juice, and grenadine. Not many bars will know what a Jack Rose is, and just as many will be confused over applejack. In fact, only one other old cocktail calls for applejack—a variation on the Star Cocktail—and there is only one American distillery that still makes applejack: Laird & Company of New Jersey.
The Martini dates back to at least the mid-1800s, and variations range from sweet to very dry. The claim to invention can be found on both coasts of this country—in the west we have the Martinez originating from San Francisco, and in the east we have the Martine/Martini from New York.
The San Francisco origin places the Martinez in the hands of “Professor” Jerry Thomas, the father of American mixology, during the Gold Rush era. In the old town of Martinez, a miner had struck gold and to celebrate, the man wanted champagne, but the bar was lacking. The Professor, instead, mixed up what he called a “Martinez Special” to commemorate the occasion.
In New York, the claim to fame goes to the Manhattan Club and a certain Judge Randolph B. Martine. However, many drinks at the time used vermouth in a combination with gin or whiskey, resulting in different names for all sorts of gin/whiskey and vermouth drinks, such as the Martini, Manhattan, the Turf Club and the Jockey Club (both places that also claim responsibility for the drink).
Whichever the case, the Martini (Martinez/Martine) first came to print in 1884 and continues to be the quintessential cocktail over 100 years later. Most old cocktail books mix up a Martini with equal parts gin and sweet (French) vermouth, some venturing only as far as 2 parts gin to 1 part vermouth, whereas today the typical Martini contains an even lesser concentration. The Dry Martini was introduced with the advent of dry vermouth—dry meaning dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth, but these days a Dry Martini refers to the sparing use of (dry) vermouth, if any is used at all—some bartenders will make a show of it by simply waving the vermouth bottle over the drink. Remember that all cocktails should be made to taste and that ratios are approximate.
A Martini should be garnished with a green olive or a twist of lemon, and should never be shaken, but always stirred with ice.
