craft cocktail is the most common contemporary term for drinks made according to the standards ushered in by the cocktail renaissance of the early twenty-first century. See cocktail renaissance. A cocktail counts as “craft” when it is mixed from quality, consciously chosen liquors, fresh citrus juice and the like, and dense, cold ice. (Some might add, gratuitously, that it must be mixed by a bartender with tattoos.) It can be as simple and classic as a well-stirred rye Manhattan or as complex and innovative as a coconut milk fat-washed bourbon-yuzu sour topped with amaretto air.
The term entered wide use only in 2008, when the cocktail renaissance had become established enough to need a concise term for what it was doing that was more inclusive than “retro cocktails” or “culinary cocktails,” terms that saw some use previously. The term probably stems from the widely used “craft beer,” with a very strong boost from Dale DeGroff’s seminal 2002 book The Craft of the Cocktail. After DeGroff’s book one began to hear of bartenders “crafting” their drinks, and it was a short step from describing the process to describing its result.
See also -tini.
By: David Wondrich