Booze Backstory

Americans have been mixing and downing fancy alcoholic concoctions—and writing about the experience—at least since 1803. On April 28 of that year, the Farmer’s Cabinet, an Amherst, New Hampshire, newspaper, featured a comic story about a “lounger” that included the comment “Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head.” Within a few decades, any American tavern worth its rail was offering a variety of mixed drinks, many with intriguing names such as “stone fence” and “Knickerbocker,” not to mention a plethora of slings, flips, juleps, smashes, and cobblers. Most of these have drifted into obsolescence, but before they did they established an American cocktail tradition.

inclined to crooking the elbow. Inheriting European habits, most early Americans avoided water, not only out of fear of pollution but also a conviction that drinking alcoholic beverages was more healthful. Brewing purified the water used in the process, and the result kept fresh longer than barreled water. The Pilgrims and other colonists packed their ships’ holds with beer and distilled spirits that would last through the voyage and, once settled, began brewing with local ingredients. To