Drop by drop - distilling things down

Ancient still

So we've delved into the origins of the term "cocktail" and some early ideas about what construes a proper drink.

But we just may have gotten ahead of ourselves.

Knowing what a cocktail is made of and the many ways one can concoct a cocktail overlook one thing -- where the stuff that we make cocktails with, came from.

Cocktails wouldn't be possible without distilled spirits. 

Europe had a long tradition of creating local varieties of spirits that began long before the cocktail in the moderns sense, was born.

Both the Greeks and Arabs knew the art of distillation, but the earliest written record of alcohol distillation came from the School of Salerno in the 12th century. The production method was written in code, suggesting that it was kept a secret. Fractional distillation was developed by Tadeo Alderotti in the 13th century.

In 1437, burned water (brandy), made from wine, was mentioned in the records of the County of Katzenelnbogen in Germany. Records show that it was served in a tall, narrow glass called a “goderulffe.”

Consumption of distilled beverages rose dramatically in Europe in and after the mid 14th century, when distilled liquors were commonly used as remedies for the Black Death.

Then, around 1400 it was discovered how to distill spirits from wheat, barley, and rye beers, a cheaper option than grapes. This discovery began the "national" drinks of Europe: jenever (Belgium and the Netherlands), gin (England), schnapps (Germany), grappa (Italy), horilka (Ukraine), akvavit/snaps (Scandinavia), vodka (Russia and Poland), rakia (the Balkans), poitín (Ireland).

The actual names only emerged in the 16th century but the drinks were well known prior to that date.

And there we have it, the origins of some of the prime ingredients for cocktails.

A sober exploration. How did we come up with the word "cocktail" for a, well, for a cocktail?

Great question. But no one knows. The origin of the word cocktail is a mystery.

What we do know, is that the earliest known printed use of the word in the context of a drink was in The Farmer's Cabinet on April 28, 1803:

The Balance & Columbian Repository

"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."

Three years later, we find the earliest definition of the word in the May 13, 1806, edition of The Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York. A reader posed the question, "What is a cocktail?" The witty answer:

"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 any thing else."

Clearly, whatever the exact recipe, the effect was very similar to our cocktails today. Huzzah for that.