From Daiquiris to a Bloody Marys, Here's How 10 Famous Cocktails May Have Gotten Their Names(2020)

If you are a booze lover then you must be aware of the millions of cocktails there are but do you know the origin of the word cocktail? According to some, cocktail is a horse with a clipped short tail which were racehorses without thoroughbred pedigrees, they were mixed breeds therefore it is believed that the term cocktail comes from mixing different spirits like the mixed breed horses. The word cocktail was first published in the 'Oxford English Dictionary' on May 13, 1806 stating that it is a 'stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind- sugar, water and bitters'.

So, next time when you take a sip of your favourite cocktail with your friends ask them where the drink got its signature name. Most of them would be able to tell you the ingredients but only a few will tell you the origin of the drink. So, drink and get smarter people.

You might not like the taste of this drink but saying the name out loud sends a chill down a person's spine.  Sex on the Beach is made with peach schnapps, vodka, orange juice, pineapple and cranberry juice.  It is a popular drink and there are a dozen different stories of how it got the name.

After an announcement of a contest a bartender, Ted Pizio in Florida used schnapps to make this cool drink and figured that "sex" and "beach" are the two major reasons why people came to Florida each year and decided to call the drink, Sex on the Beach.  Most of the people believe this story but historians have found examples of this concoction in recipe books from 1982 therefore they feel that it was created earlier than this story.

A classic cocktail with white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water and spearmint is loved by all. Although it has low alcohol content buys it is quite popular.  According to the 'Oxford English Dictionary,' the name comes from mojo, a Spanish name for a Cuban sauce made with citrus fruit.  

Another story says that Mojito was created by African slaves while they worked in the fields of Cuba.  The name Mojito comes from the word 'mojo' which means 'to cast a spell'.

Another great tasting cocktail, the Bloody Mary has millions of fans. It is said that Harry's bartender 'Pete' experimented with drinks mixed with vodka in 1920. He mixed Worcestershire, black pepper and lemon and gave birth to Bloody Mary. Some say that the drink got its name after Queen Mary Tudor and her violent reign over England in the 16th century but Esquire says that entertainer George Jessel gave this name after her friend Mary Geraghty in 1934 ad.

Like other cocktails, the Daiquiri also has many stories behind how it got its name. According to one legend an American mining engineer, Jennings Cox started mixing rum with crushed ice, lime juice and some sugar and called it the Daiquiri which was also the name of a small town near Santiago, Cuba.

Another one says that later Jennings Cox's granddaughter says that the drink was invented by Cox for his American guests. He did not have a gin and did not want to use dry rum so he added these ingredients to make it.
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Most people think that Margarita is a Mexican cocktail but the legends say that Carlos Herra, the owner of Tijuana restaurant invented it in 1938 for one of his dancers who was allergic to all spirits but tequila.  Another story says that Dallas socialite, Margarita Sames created the concocted drink for her friends during a vacation in Acapulco in 1948. Her, friend, Tommy Hilton put the recipe for the menu of the Hilton hotel chain and rest is history.  

The margarita is often hailed as the quintessential “Mexican” cocktail, but just like Cerveza, the origins of the drink are not definitively Mexican. Simply put, no one knows who dreamed up this delicious cocktail – but the stories behind the invention of the margarita are pretty colourful, even though only some of them actually take place in Mexico.

There are many stories about the origin of The Manhattan but the most prominent one is that in early 1880s Dr. Iain Marshall created it at the Manhattan Club, New York, with Lady Randolph Churchill but it is said that during that time she was pregnant with Winston Churchill, therefore, she was in England not partying in New York.  Some say that a man named, Black created it at the Hoffman House in New York.  Whatever the story is The Manhattan Club claims to be the owner of the recipe and it is one of the most ordered cocktails in the world.

It is believed that the drink, Buck's Fizz was invented in 1921 in London using champagne and orange juice; it has larger quantity of wine in it and in 1925 a bartender at Ritz in Paris created Mimosa using equal parts sparkling wine and juice. Some say that director Alfred Hitchcock invented Mimosa in 1940s.

Pina Colada is probably the most popular drink and was born in Puerto Rico. A luxury hotel in San Juan called The Caribe Hilton claims to serve this drink in 1954. It is believed that it took three months of experimenting with tons on combinations to invent a perfect mix of rum, cream of coconut and pineapple juice. Another bartender from the same hotel stated that due to the strike by coconut cutters union in 1954 he decided to serve the mix of rum, cream of coconut and crushed ice in a hollowed-out pine which was name Pina Colada meaning 'strained pineapple'

”What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Quote from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare), therefore, let’s not worry about where these famous cocktails got their names because if you know how to make them perfectly they would all taste wonderful regardless on the stories behind them.