Mojito; Cocktail (again)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon Jul 24 01:28:14 UTC 2000


MOJITO

     The OED (in search of "M") doesn't have "Mojito."
     From COCKTAIL: THE DRINKS BIBLE FOR THE 21st CENTURY (Viking, NY, 1998)
by Wired's Alchemist Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead, pg. 124:

     The Mojito was born in Cuba during this century's teen years.  Simple
enough and old enough to be claimed as the creation of more than a few
bartenders, this classic is most closely tied to Cuba's famous La Bodeguita
del Medio bar.  This establishment's bartenders worked hard to popularize the
drink during the '30s and '40s--often resorting to name-dropping, most
notably that of Ernest Hemingway.  Their efforts paid off.  Soon popular with
Havana's hipsters, the Mojito lifted fresh mint out of its bit part as a mere
cocktail garnish.  An easy blend of sugar, mint leaves, lime juice, RUM, ice,
and soda water (strictly in that order), a Mojito (pronounced "moe-HEE-toe")
is served in a tall glass sparkling with bublles and greenery, garnished with
a sprig of mint on top.

     From THE OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK (Dood, Mead & Co., NY, 1934--but
containing pre-prohibition recipes) by Albert Stevens Crockett, pg. 136:

     MOJITO
     Same as Bacardi Rickey, with little Sugar and few sprigs of Mint added.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
COCKTAIL (continued)

      I'm going to check Virginia sources and try to verify this often-cited
etymology, which appears in MIXOLOGY: THE ART OF PREPARING ALL KINDS OF
DRINKS (Press of the Sunday Star, Wilmington, Del., 1898) by Joseph L.
Haywood, pg. 49:

     _THE COCKTAIL._
     The cocktail, by the way, was the invention of Colonel Carter, of
Culpeper Court House, Va.  Many years ago in that locality there was a
wayside inn named "The Cock and Bottle," the semblance of an old English
tavern, and which bore upon its swinging sign a cock and a bottle, meaning
thereby that draught and bottled ale could be had within--the "cock," in the
old vernacular, meaning the tap.  He, therefore, who got the last and muddy
portion of the tap was said to have received the "cocktail."  Upon one
occasion, when Colonel Carter was subjected to the indignity of having this
muddy beverage put before him, he threw it angrily upon the floor and
exclaimed: "Hereafter I will drink cocktails of my own brewing," and then and
there inspired evidently by the spirit of Ganymede, he dashed together
bitters, sugar, the oil of lemon peel and some old Holland gin, and thus and
then there was the original cocktail concocted.

    I checked both Making of America databases for "Carter" near the word
"cock" or "cocktail," but came up empty.  There are five hits for "Cock and
Bottle," all for the London tavern, with HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE
stating on October 1881 "the Cock and Bottle, commonly called the Cock
Ale-House, at Temple Bar."



More information about the Ads-l mailing list