The first known use of the word 'cocktail' to describe a drink was New York in 1806, when the editor of the Balance and Columbian Repository defined cocktail as:
"... a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters".
However, it is unknown where this term came from originally, and some of the many suggestions include:
- A 'cocked tail' describes a horse displaying high spirits, so it may stand to reason that a drink seen to raise people's spirits could be called a cocktail.
- An old French recipe containing mixed wines, called coquetel, was carried to America by General Lafayette in 1777.
- Coquetier is the French name for an egg-cup, in which a Frenchman in New Orleans is said to have served mixed drinks to his guests. In time, this name became corrupted to cocktail.
- A woman in Viginia named Betsy Flanagan is said to have served a handsome soldier a mixed drink containing all the colours of a cock's tail, which he named a 'cock-tail'.
- The 18th century racing term 'cock-tailed' was used to describe a non-thoroughbred horse. These horses usually had their tails docked, which made their tails look like that of a cockerel. As these horses were of mixed blood, it stands to reason that the term may have then been used to describe a drink of mixed fluids.
However the name derived, cocktails were originally made according to the 1806 description, of spirits, sugar, water and bitters. By the late 19th century, the term had come to encompass an ever widening class of beverages, and in modern day usage cocktail may be used to describe any type of mixed drink.
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