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Originally a cocktail implied a mixture of distilled spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. Today the term has gradually come to mean just about any mixed drink containing alcohol. Traditional cocktails are made using a base of either gin, whiskey, rum, tequila, brandy, or vodka. Many gin based cocktails, such as the gimlet, the martini, or Tom Collins are now commonly made with vodka. A cocktail should also contain one or more types of liquor and flavorings, and one or more liqueurs, fruit juices, sugar, honey, water, ice, soda, milk, cream, herbs, bitters, etc. There are numerous theories as to the origination of the term 'Cocktail', you can take your pick from any of the following: - Barrel taps are known as cocks and the term tails usually referred to the dregs of distillate left at the end of a run in a distillery or at the bottom of a cask. Colonial taverns kept their spirits (rum, brandy, whiskey, gin, applejack) in casks, and as the liquid in the casks lowered the tavern keeper would combine the tails into an additional cask kept for that purpose, to be sold at a reduced price. The patrons would request the "cock tailings" or the tailings from the stop cock of the cask.
- Fighting cocks were given a mixture of spirits by their trainers before a fight. This mixture was known as a cocks-ale.
- In Campeche, Mexico, local bartenders used wooden spoons carved from a native root known as cola de-gallo (cocktail) to stir the local spirits and punches before serving.
- A tavern near Yorktown, New York was popular with the officers of the Revolutionary soldiers of Washington and Layfayette. The American troops preferred whiskey or gin, the French preferred wine or vermouth. All enjoyed a bit of brandy or rum. Sometimes late in the evenings, in a spirit of camaraderie, the spirits were mixed from one cup to another during toasts. A soldier stole a rooster from the tavern owner's neighbor, who was believed to be a Tory supporter of King George of England. The rooster was promptly cooked and served to the customers, with the tail feathers used to adorn the accompanying drinks. The toasts accompanying this meal were "vive le cocktail" and the mixed drinks were so called ever after.
- Cocktails were originally a morning beverage, and the cocktail was the name given as metaphor for the rooster (cocktail) heralding morning light of day.
- A cock's tail has many varied feathers in exciting colours as a cocktail has varied exciting alcoholic drinks mixed together.
- Some say that it was customary to put a feather, presumably from a cock's tail, in the drink to serve both as decoration and to signal to teetotalers that the drink contained alcohol.
- Another etymology is that the term is derived from coquetier, a French double-ended egg-cup which was used to serve the beverage in New Orleans in the early 19th century.
- In the 1800s it was customary to dock the tails of good horses of mixed breeds. These horses were referred to as cock-tails. The beverage known as a "cock-tail", like the horse, was neither strictly spirit nor wine — it was a mixed breed, but a good horse nonetheless.
- The word could also be a distortion of Latin 'aqua decocta', meaning "distilled water".
The first "cocktail party" ever thrown was allegedly by Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1917. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her mansion at noon on a Sunday. The party lasted one hour, until lunch was served at 1pm. The site of the first cocktail party still stands. In 1924 the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis bought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Blvd., and it has served as the local archbishop's residence ever since.
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