Forget all the balderdash that you hear about cocktails being an effeminate drink. What’s more macho than James Bond’s oozing sex appeal as he sips his ‘shaken, not stirred’ martini? We all know of Ernest Hemingway’s fondness for his tipple and you can be assured that a cocktail would be described in glorious detail somewhere in the midst of his intellectual ramblings.
Most of you may have seen a picture of Winston Churchill with his cigar, but did you notice that there’s always a glass of martini next to him? Long story short, cocktails are not necessarily a ladies’ drink. You’ll agree if you hear how they came to be called what they’re called. If you’ve wondered at some point why Long Island Iced Tea or Sex on the Beach are named as they are, who the heck is Tom Collins or why Mai Tai sounds more Maharashtrian than Hawaiian, read on.
So, the Long Island Iced Tea is largely attributed to Robert Butt, but it is believed to have been around before he entered the business. It was apparently a drink concocted by ladies in the US, to drink in public or parties so the men or children present didn’t judge them. The Irish coffee has an interesting story too. An American flight apparently was stranded in Ireland due to some technical problem. An intrepid bartender at the airport, in order to warm the freezing passengers in the bitter Irish cold, added whiskey to their coffee. They loved it so much that the recipe of the Irish coffee flew home with them.
Now for Tom Collins. Tom Collins was the result of a hoax that started in New York in 1874. Guys used to go up to an acquaintance and mention to them that a person by the name of Tom Collins was saying slanderous things about him in the pub. When the acquaintance would approach the bartender (who was part of the prank) he used to tell him that he has moved on to the next bar, thus sending the man on a merry chase. When the joke grew stale, bartenders started serving a drink by the name.
Another famous drink that bears a man’s name — Harvey Wallbanger — is more literally inspired. It was actually named after a surfer called Harvey who used to flop all over the place and bang into walls after indulging in one too many. Moving on to the curiously named Screwdriver, workers on the oil rigs in the Persian Gulf in the 1950s used to relax by making a drink of vodka with orange juice. The tool of choice to stir the drink was a screwdriver, thus giving the drink its name.
Possibly the quirkiest named drink, Sex on the Beach was named in 1987 by a bartender on one of the beaches in Florida because he thought that those — sex and beach — were the only two reasons why people would visit his town. And lastly, if you are wondering, the Manhattan comes from Manhattan but the Polynesian sounding Mai Tai comes from California!
The writer is a corporate executive chef for Mars Enterprises, Mumbai
