You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

The hurricane is a sweet and potent New Orleans cocktail made with rum, lemon juice and passion fruit syrup. The beverage is credited to Pat O’Brien, owner of what was called Mr. O’Brien’s Club Tipperary in 1940s New Orleans, Louisiana, (today, it’s just called Pat O’Brien’s). Because of World War II shortages on imported booze, New Orleans bars needed to buy a certain quantity of Caribbean-made rum from distributors before they could get their hands on the good stuff. O’Brien experimented with the less-than-popular spirit, eventually settling on the sweet concoction we know and love, served in a glass modeled after a hurricane lamp. It became an instant hit and has been a staple in the Big Easy ever since.

[Lee Stewart]

Multiple people claim to have concocted the very first margarita. The earliest and most widely-accepted account is from Carlos “Danny” Herrera, who reportedly made it for a client at his Tijuana-area restaurant, Rancho La Gloria, in 1938. Rumor has it the customer, actress Marjorie King, was allergic to all hard liquor except tequila. To make it more palatable for her, Herrera added lime and Cointreau, salted the rim and called it a day.

[Lee Stewart]

The mojito — often touted as one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite alcoholic beverages — was born in Havana, Cuba, although the exact location is disputed. One story dates back to 1586, when British privateer Francis Drake sent his men ashore to acquire medicine to remedy dysentery and scurvy. They reportedly came back with a concoction of aguardiente (a precursor to rum that literally translates to “burning water”), lime, sugarcane juice and mint, which remain the cocktail’s primary ingredients.

[Lee Stewart]

In the 1940s, Foynes in Ireland was Europe’s biggest airport for flying boats. Because celebrities and politicians flew in regularly, a new restaurant opened to welcome them. Weather in that part of the world can often be cold and rainy, so head chef Joe Sheridan mixed Irish whiskey into their coffee to keep guests warm and fuzzy. San Francisco writer Stanton Delaplane claims he brought it to the U.S. after drinking it at Shannon Airport. It was first served internationally at Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, California, on November 10, 1952.

[Lee Stewart]

As the name suggests, this drink is rumored to have originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s. Dr. Iain Marshall made it to serve at a banquet honoring then-governor and presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The first-ever recipe called for equal parts vermouth and whiskey, and a dash of orange bitters. Today, it’s made with two parts rye, one part sweet vermouth, a dash of bitters and a cherry garnish.

[Lee Stewart]

Though there are plenty of variations out there today, the classic daiquiri is a simple blend of rum, lime juice and sugar. It’s named after its place of origin in Daiquiri, Cuba, where it was invented by an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox in 1898. The beverage was intended to protect against yellow fever. In 1908, the cocktail was brought to America by a U.S. Navy medical officer, who introduced it at the staff at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C.

[Lee Stewart]

The exact lineage of the martini is unknown, but it may have evolved from another cocktail created in Martinez, California, during the mid-1800s gold rush . As the story goes, a miner who had struck gold mosied into a bar for celebratory Champagne, but there wasn’t any, so the bartender used what he had on-hand — gin, vermouth, maraschino liqueur, bitters and a lemon slice — and called it the Martinez Special.

[Lee Stewart]

The Negroni is a classy Italian cocktail made with gin, sweet vermouth and Campari, garnished with an orange slice. The most widely reported account of its origin takes place at Cafe Casoni in Florence around 1919. It’s alleged that French general Count Camillo Negroni asked the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, for his usual Campari and vermouth to be topped with gin instead of soda water.

[Lee Stewart]

The Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky, has long been touted as the old fashioned’s birthplace. Here, people asked for a cocktail “made the old-fashioned way,” which, to many, meant adding sugar and bitters to make harsh alcohol (in this case, bourbon) taste better. Over time, people started muddling oranges and cherries into it, too.

[Lee Stewart]

One might assume that the Moscow mule hails from Russia, but it was actually invented in Los Angeles, California. One night in 1941, a man named John Martin (president of liquor company Heublein) walked into his friend Jack Morgan’s bar, the Cock ‘n’ Bull. The bartender there, Wes Price, was trying to get rid of ginger beer because no one was buying it, and Martin’s company had just acquired Smirnoff, so he had a surplus of vodka. They put the two together and it was an instant hit. As for the famous mug, Morgan’s girlfriend, Osalene Schmitt, inherited a copper goods business, so they deemed it a match made in heaven (and very effective marketing).