Cock-Tail , a simple mixture of spirits, sugar, bitters, and water, is the primitive ancestor of the vast class of mixed drinks that travels today under a streamlined version of its name. While the drink first appears under its name in the United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, its formula can be traced back to seventeenth-century London, and to Richard Stoughton, creator of the first patent bitters. See Stoughton’s Bitters. One of the ways Stoughton suggested in his prolific advertisements that his bitters be used was added to beer, wine, or even brandy as a way to settle the stomach in the morning, particularly after a night of excessive drinking. With brandy (which was generally sweetened before being sold) or (sweet, fortified) Canary wine, it must be noted, this produces something practically indistinguishable from the early-nineteenth century American Cock-Tail, itself primarily an eye-opener or morning drink. All it really lacks is the name.
By the middle of the 1700s, the combination of Stoughton’s Bitters and sweet wine, brandy, or even gin (which was sold even more heavily sweetened than brandy) was well established in Britain and its American colonies, as either eye-opener or preprandial tonic. Indeed, in 1783, when negotiating the surrender of New York City with the city’s British governor, General George Washington “pulled out his watch, and observing that it was near Dinner Time, offered Wine and Bitters”—the first cocktail hour on record. See Washington, George.
Over the following twenty years, drinkers in a rough triangle between New York City; Albany, New York (150 miles / 240 km to the north); and Boston, Massachusetts, attached a name to this formula: “Cock-Tail.” This was a bit of sporting-life British slang denoting a stimulant or pick-me-up, derived from the horse-trader’s practice of covertly inserting a “feague” of ginger or cayenne pepper in an old or tired horse’s anus to make it cock its tail up and act lively (its earliest figurative use dates to 1790). The first unambiguous appearance in print of the formula and name together is in the river town of Hudson, New York, in 1806, when a local newspaper defines Cock-Tail as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” (There exists a 1798 mention of a drink called “Cock-Tail” in a London newspaper, but its price indicates that it could not be based on spirits or wine and was probably a nonalcoholic ginger decoction; indeed, as late as 1828 the name was still being used in Britain for ginger extract added to a drink.)
Sling. By 1830, it had spread throughout the United States. Indeed, the Cock-Tail was, along with the Mint Julep and the Apple Toddy, one of the canonic drinks that would bring the American art of the bar into global repute. See Mint Julep and toddy.Recipe: In a small Old-Fashioned glass, muddle 1 cube of raw sugar with 10 ml water and 3 dashes bitters; add 60 ml brandy, genever, or young whisky and cold water to taste. Stir.
See also cocktail.
“Journal of a Tour through the Eastern States, by an English Woman.” St Tammany’s Magazine, December 17, 1821.
Croswell, Harry. “Communication.” Balance & Columbian Repository, May 13, 1806.
Grose, Francis. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London: 1785, s.v. “feague.”
Smith, William. William Smith’s Historical Memoirs, 1778–1783. Edited by William H. Sabine. New York: New York Times & Arno Press, 1971.
Veritas [pseud]. “In the Clerical Line.” Ipswich Journal, June 29, 1790.
By: David Wondrich