World Cocktail Day

World Cocktail Day is celebrated on the 13 May each year and is the day when the first definition of a cocktail was publicised in 1806. The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York taboid, coined the term 'cocktail' as a stimulating liquor with a wide variety of sweets, waters, and bitters.

A cocktail can be either alcoholic or non-alcoholic and is normally a combination of several spirits mixed together with other ingredients like juices or syrups along with tonic or lemonade. A non-alcoholic cocktail is usually called a mocktail.

So what is the difference between a cocktail and a mixed drink?

Well a cocktail is also a mixed drink but a mixed drink isn't necessarily a cocktail. This is because a mixed drink is usually a drink of one spirit and one mixer ie gin and tonic or vodka and coke.

What is your favourite cocktail?

Here are a few classic cocktails which have stood the test of time. Is yours amongst them?

Cosmopolitan
Daiquiri
Espresso Martini
Martini
Manhattan
Margarita
Mojito
Negroni
Old Fashioned
Aperol Spritz

If I had to choose it would be the Espresso Martini and not the Aperol Spritz.

The story behind the Espresso Martini which is from the UK

The Espresso Martini was created in London in the 1980s by bartender Dick Bradsell and has a simple story to its creation.

The story goes, a young model walked into the bar where Dick was working and asked him to make her a drink with coffee, something that would “wake her up”.

That was the moment he combined vodka, sugar, coffee liqueur and a shot of espresso and the Espresso Martini was born.

So why does an Espreso Martini have 3 coffee beans?

There are several variations to the espresso martini cocktail but the garnish is the same with 3 coffee beans floating on the top. This is the cocktail's trademark and said to represent health, wealth and happiness.


How to make an Espresso Martini

Ingredients:
50ml Vodka
25ml Coffee liqueur
25ml Fresh Espresso
Sugar syrup to sweeten to taste
3 coffee beans to garnish

Method:
Mix the ingredients together in a shaker full of ice and shake hard for 30 seconds.
Strain into a Martini glass, you should get a nice froth on top
Garnish with coffee beans.

So let's raise a glass to World Cocktail Day!