On New Year’s Eve, people traditionally welcome the upcoming year by popping the cork of a bottle of sparkling champagne. But equally as celebratory is toasting the new year with a colorful, cordial cocktail. So for the occasion, we take a look at some of the world’s most popular cocktails and explore the lore behind who dreamed them up and how they acquired their intriguing names.
Many cocktails have varying explanations regarding how their names originated. Thus, appropriately, there is a “cocktail” of back stories, each one as palatable as the next. To wit, the word “cocktail” itself.
In New Orleans in the mid-1800s, a Creole apothecary named Antoine Amédée Peychaud served a mixed brandy beverage in a French egg cup called a coquetier. Over time, fans of the drink Westernized the pronunciation to “cocktail.” Alternatively, some etymologists believe that the word refers to mixed drinks that were made from the leftovers of empty liquor casks. Those remnants, called tailings, were mixed in a smaller cask, and then tapped with a spigot, otherwise know as a cock. It is thought that cock-tailings were later shortened to “cocktails.”
A cocktail is essentially an alcoholic beverage consisting of a spirit or several spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as fruit juice or cream. Some of the most widely used intoxicating ingredients are whisky, vodka, gin, rum, tequila, brandy, and cognac.
So now that we have the basics, let’s get this party started.
Industrial strength
The names of some cocktails emanated from blue-collar circles. The Screwdriver, for example, is a classic cocktail made with vodka and orange juice. One popular narrative is that American oil workers in the Persian Gulf in the mid-20th century discreetly added vodka to their orange juice during long work hours. Lacking a spoon to stir the mixture, they used a screwdriver, giving the drink its name.
The Boilermaker contains a shot of whiskey with a beer chaser. The name is derived from 19th-century industrial workers, especially the boilermakers who built steam engines and boilers, who’d drink this potent combo to unwind after hard shifts.
The Cement Mixer is a shot made with Irish cream liqueur and lime juice, designed to be swallowed quickly. It is so named because the Irish cream and the lime juice curdle into a thick, cement-like sludge in the mouth due to the acid in the lime reacting with the cream, creating a challenging texture to imbibe in one gulp.
A classic Gimlet contains gin, lime juice, and syrup. In keeping with the industrial imagery, one theory is that its name comes from the gimlet tool, a small drill used in puncturing spirit casks, or a reference to the drink’s sharp, piercing nature. Another suggestion is that it was named after British Royal Navy surgeon Sir Thomas Gimlette (1857-1943), who mixed lime with gin to help sailors prevent scurvy. Which brings us to the next category.
Name your poison
Some cocktails bear the names of the people associated with them.
For example, the Margarita. According to some sources, the drink was created by Dallas socialite Margarita Sames for a holiday party she threw in 1948. She combined tequila and Cointreau to make a soothing drink that was neither too sweet nor too sour. She later added lime juice and a little salt on the rim of the glass to give the cocktail an extra kick.
Several stories surround the origin of the Martini. One version is that during the Gold Rush, a miner who struck it rich celebrated his good fortune at a saloon in Martinez, California. The bartender mixed gin, vermouth, bitters, and maraschino and called the celebratory drink the Martinez Special. Some believe that the name arose from people ordering “a Martini,” referring to the brand of Martini & Rossi Vermouth. Others credit bartender Martini di Taggia at New York’s Knickerbocker Hotel with inventing the cocktail in 1911.
Similarly, stories abound about the Bloody Mary. One theory suggests that the vodka, tomato juice, and hot sauce cocktail was named after Mary, a server at The Bucket of Blood bar in Chicago. On the other hand, comedian George Jessel claimed to have named the cocktail in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1927. He named it for socialite Mary Brown Warburton who, after accidentally spilling the drink on her white dress, quipped, “Now you can call me Bloody Mary.”
The Harvey Wallbanger is a mixture of vodka, orange juice, and Galliano liqueur. According to an urban legend, a surfer in California named Tom Harvey lost a surfing competition. Bemoaning the loss, he got very drunk on his favorite drink. Upon leaving the bar, he staggered out, banging his surfboard against the walls in the process. His friends nicknamed him “Harvey Wallbanger,” and the moniker was transferred to the cocktail.
The expression “name your poison” originated in the mid-1800s as slang for ordering an alcoholic beverage. An1864 newspaper article noted it as a fashionable phrase for bartenders to use when asking patrons what drink they wanted.
Come here often?
While some cocktails are named after people, others are named after places.
For example, the Manhattan. A bartender known as “Black” at the Hoffman House hotel on Broadway is credited with inventing the drink in the 1860s. The popular cocktail is made with rye, sweet vermouth, and Angostura bitters. The social club The Manhattan Club gave the beverage its enduring name.
The Daiquiri is named after a town in Cuba. In Santiago in 1898, American mining engineer Jennings Cox reputedly devised a mixture of local rum, lime juice, and sugar for his workers and named the drink after the nearby village of Daiquiri.
Remaining in Cuba, the Cuba Libre originated in Havana around 1900 when American soldiers, toasting Cuba’s independence from Spain, mixed Cuban rum with American Coca-Cola and lime, shouting, “Por Cuba libre!” (“For a free Cuba”), turning the popular rum and Coke cocktail into a symbol of Cuban freedom and US-Cuba collaboration.
The Singapore Sling originated in 1915 at the Long Bar in Singapore’s iconic Raffles Hotel. Bartender Ngiam Tong Boon designed it as a pink, fruity drink to look like juice so women could discreetly drink alcohol in public during a time when it was considered improper for them to do so. The gin-based cocktail, featuring pineapple, lime, cherry liqueur, and Benedictine, remains a signature drink of the hotel
Long Island Iced Tea is a powerful mix of rum, vodka, tequila, whiskey, gin, and maple syrup, topped with cola and citrus. According to sources, its origin dates back to the Prohibition era and the Long Island community in Kingsport, Tennessee, where in the 1920s a moonshine distiller named Charles Bishop craftily created the potent cocktail to resemble iced tea to avoid detection by law enforcement.
In the late 1940s, American ambassador to Luxembourg Perle Mesta often frequented the bar at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels. The bartender, Gustave Tops, decided to make a signature drink for her. The Cold War was just starting, so he created a dark, mysterious cocktail by mixing Russian vodka with Kahlúa. And thus was born the Black Russian.
Here’s looking at you
Like Charles Bishop’s “iced tea,” some cocktails are named for their appearance.
For example, the Mimosa, which is made with sparkling wine and orange juice, derives its name from a mimosa plant whose yellow flowers resemble the color of the cocktail.
Even more colorful is the Tequila Sunrise. The layering of the tequila, orange juice, and grenadine ingredients creates a visual gradient of colors, from deep red at the bottom to orange and yellow at the top, which resembles a rising sun.
The Grasshopper is made with equal parts green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and cream. The cocktail’s distinctive bright green color makes it resemble its namesake insect.
As for the The Pink Lady, a frothy cocktail made of gin, grenadine, applejack, and lemon juice, known for its delicate pink hue and balanced sweet-tart flavor, the most popular theory is that it was named in honor of the 1911 Broadway musical The Pink Lady, or more specifically, for its star actress, Hazel Dawn, who was known as “The Pink Lady.”
The toast “Here’s looking at you” originated from the 18th-century practice of drinking alcoholic beverages from glass-bottomed tankards, which allowed a tippler to see an approaching enemy when his tankard was in the “bottoms up” position. The same position, assumed in the course of a friendly toast, enables the toaster to look directly at the toastee.
Social comment
In certain cases, the names of cocktails are derived from people’s verbal response to them.
For instance, the name of the Mai Tai comes from the Tahitian word maita’i, which means “good” or “excellent,” derived from the phrase maita’i roa ae, which means “out of this world.” That’s what Tahitian friends of Victor Bergeron, aka Trader Vic, declared when they tasted the rum, citrus, and sweet almond cocktail he invented in Oakland, California, in 1944.
Drambuie is a sweet, golden colored liqueur made from Scotch whisky, heather honey, herbs, and spices. The name Drambuie comes from the Scots Gaelic phrase an dram buidheach, which means “the drink that satisfies,” a claim that was made by the Drambuie Liqueur Company, established in 1914.
The origin of the Cosmopolitan’s name is debated, but popular theories link it to a Minneapolis bartender in 1970 exclaiming, “How cosmopolitan!” upon tasting a Kamikaze cocktail (vodka, triple sec, and fresh lime juice) infused with cranberry.
The Zombie got its name in 1934 from its creator, Donn Beach, aka Don the Beachcomber, at his Hollywood bar. A customer claimed that the multi-rum drink turned him into a “zombie” for days. After having one too many on a business trip, he said he felt like the “walking dead.” The name stuck because the cocktail’s fruity taste masks its extreme strength, leading Beach to limit customers to two of the potent potables per visit. Recipes vary, but the core of the cocktail consists of multiple types of rum, juices, sweeteners, and spices.
Fruit that packs a punch
There are some cocktails that derive their name from the fruit they contain.
In Spanish, piña colada means “strained pineapple.” This refers to the fresh, pressed pineapple juice used in the Piña Colada cocktail, in conjunction with white rum and coconut cream.
The Sloe Gin Fizz gets its name from its ingredients of English gin macerated with sloes, which are wild, bittersweet blackthorn fruit.
And the Appletini, a vibrant green cocktail known for its sweet-tart flavor, is typically made with vodka and sour apple schnapps.
Years ago, a friend recounted to me that on an afternoon outing with his young daughter, they stopped to have a burger and Coke for lunch. As they “clinked” their plasticized paper cups, he said, “What should we drink to?”
She replied, with that guileless charm of a six-year-old, “To the bottom.”
So, as the new year draws near, cheers, bottoms up, and here’s to a happy, healthy, and cordial 2026.
Step up to the bar
The classiest advice I ever received came from a bartender.
In my heyday, when I was living in Montreal, my favorite drink was rye and ginger ale. One evening at a cocktail party, after enjoying my beverage of choice, I walked up to the bar, put my glass on the counter, and said to the barman: “I’d like another rye and ginger ale, please.”
To this, he responded, “I’m going to tell you two things. First of all, a lady doesn’t come up to the bar with an empty glass. Second of all,” he continued, “never use the word ‘another.’ No matter how many drinks you’ve had, you walk up to the bar empty-handed and say, ‘I’d like a rye and ginger ale, please.’”
That sage advice has stood me in very good stead at many an ensuing social event. =