Among them are:Colonial taverns kept their spirits (rum, brandy, whiskey, gin, applejack) in casks, and as the liquid in the casks lowered, the spirits would tend to lose both flavor and potency, so the tavern keeper would have an additional cask into which the tailings from the low casks could be combined and sold at a reduced price, the patrons requesting the "cock tailings" or the tailings from the stop cock of the cask. This was H.L. Mencken's belief. Cocktails were originally a morning beverage, and the cocktail was the name given as metaphor for the rooster (cocktail) heralding morning light of day. This was first posited in 2004 by Ted Haigh in "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails".

and can be distinguished from the theory "take two snips of the hair of the dog that bit you", which refers to consuming a small bit of alcohol the morning after a "binge drinking night" to curb the effects of the symptoms of the hangover, in the belief that these symptoms are the result of a form of withdrawal. A cock's tail has many varied feathers in exciting colours as a cocktail has varied exciting alcoholic drinks mixed together. Further the cloaca in the tail of cock is the exit hole for many impure substances. 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 egg-cup which was used to serve the beverage in New Orleans in the early 19th century. The beverage was named for a mixed breed horse, known as a "cock-tail" as the beverage, like the horse, was neither strictly spirit nor wine — it was a mixed breed.

After cokstele or cock-stick, a type of weighted stick used for throwing at cocks as a sport. See Cock throwing. The word could also be a distortion of Latin aqua decocta, meaning "distilled water". In the village of Elmsford in Westchester County, New York a local bar ran out of stirrers and resorted to use a cock's tail feathers to stir the drink.citation needed In the book, Under the Mountain, by Margaret Robson, published in 1958, the author states, "James Fenimore Cooper stayed (at Hustler's Tavern) in Lewiston, New York in 1821 while writing The Spy. Cooper used the owners, Thomas and Catherine Hustler in his story as the models for Sergeant Hollister and Betty Flanigan. According to Cooper, it was Catherine Hustler who invented the gin cocktail, stirring it with a feather from a stuffed rooster's tail." Catherine Hustler described her drink by saying, "it warms both the soul and body and is fit to be put in a vessel of diamonds." Hustler's Tavern, which stood at the northeast corner of 8th and Center Streets in Lewiston, NY, is no longer standing.

Cocktail personalities: This list may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.Please help improve this list. It may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. (November 2007) Living:Daniel Rogers - Founder of 5 Senses Cocktail Course, Sydney Australia. Website: http://www.developmentinmotion.com.au Adam Freeth - Founder of Shaker BarSchools, UK and South Africa. Author of 'Professional Bartending'. Website: Nick Mautone - Author of "Raising the Bar; Better Drinks Better Entertaining". Beverage Expert and food service consultant, former Managing Partner of Gramercy Tavern, NYC and partner in Trina Lounge in Fort Lauderdale. Simon Difford — UK drinks expert and author of 'sauceguide to cocktails' and 'diffordsguide to cocktails', now in its 7th ion. Wayne Curtis — rum expert and author of And a Bottle of Rum.

Cocktail
A cocktail is a style of mixed drink. Originally a mixture of distilled spirits, sugar, water, and bitters, the word has gradually come to mean almost any mixed drink containing alcohol. A cocktail today usually contains 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.Until the 1970s, cocktails were made predominantly with gin, whiskey or rum, and less commonly vodka. From the 1970s on, the popularity of vodka increased dramatically, and by the 1980s it was the predominant base for mixed drinks. Many cocktails traditionally made with gin, such as the gimlet, or the martini, may now be served by default with vodka. History: "Flaming" cocktails contain a small amount of flammable high-proof alcohol which is ignited prior to consumption.The earliest known printed use of the word "cocktail," as originally determined by David Wondrich in October 2005 , was from "The Farmer's Cabinet", April 28, 1803, p : "11.

Drank a glass of cocktail — excellent for the head ... Call'd at the Doct's. found Burnham — he looked very wise — drank another glass of cocktail."The second earliest and officially recognised known printed use of the word "cocktail" (and the most well-known) was in the May 13, 1806 ion of the Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York , where the paper provided the following answer to what a cocktail was:"Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters — it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else." The Sazerac, which is one of the oldest known cocktails, dates back as far as the 1850s.The first publication of a bartenders' guide which included cocktail recipes was in 1862: How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion, by "Professor" Jerry Thomas.

In addition to listings of recipes for Punches, Sours, Slings, Cobblers, Shrubs, Toddies, Flips, and a variety of other types of mixed drinks were 10 recipes for drinks referred to as "Cocktails". A key ingredient which differentiated "cocktails" from other drinks in this compendium was the use of bitters as an ingredient, although it is not to be seen in very many modern cocktail recipes.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. During Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933), when the sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal, cocktails were still consumed illegally in establishments known as speakeasies.

The quality of the alcohol available was far lower than was previously used, and bartenders generally put forth less effort in preparing the cocktails. Etymology: Piña Colada with pieces of coconutThere are several plausible theories as to the origin of the term "cocktail".