Of course, we do not
actually need an excuse to drink a cocktail. Let alone one special day in the
year. It’s a bit like the discussion that keeps coming back on October 4 (World
Animal Day): shouldn’t every day be animal day?
Although most people
will associate cocktails with festive events and nights out on the town,
cocktails can be enjoyed every day, really. There’s such a wide variety of
cocktails there’s bound to be a cocktail that will fit your mood or needs in
the evening (or earlier, if circumstances permit).
So why is World
Cocktail Day on the 13th of May?
It’s because on that
date, in the year 1803, the first definition of a cocktail appeared in print.
According to The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York newspaper, a
cocktail was “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar,
water, and bitters.”
It’s not the first
time that a cocktail was mentioned in print, but it does exactly define what a
cocktail used to be in the old days. Today we use the word cocktail for almost
every mixed drink. But in the early days it was a family of mixed drinks that
had the same structure. In this case, the structure of a bittered sling (it’s
not hard to puzzle out what a sling used to be, given the definition of a
cocktail).
So somebody decided
that this was reason enough turn May 13 in World Cocktail Day. And this year,
it’s on a Saturday. How very convenient… So let’s really let it rip.
Thornbridge, the
local pub which I haunt, is going to serve 17 cocktails on May 13. Normally
they don’t do cocktails (not counting the Irish Car Bombs on St. Patrick’s),
but on this special day (which also happens to be the birthday of one of the
bartenders) this English pub will be turned into a cocktail bar.
I’ve helped them to
assemble a cocktail menu which is very different from the cocktails its public
is acquainted with.
So who knows, maybe I’ll
see you on the 13th of May in Thornbridge. But in any case: make
sure to take at least one glass in celebration of the mixed drink.
Salud!
