Of course, everyone wants to be known as a cocktail connoisseur but do you really know your mixed drinks if you don’t know the weird legends attached to their origins? Fear not, we’ve got you covered, and these stories are worth a read.
Zombie
Don the Beachcomber, who created the first tiki bar in America, is also the father of this cocktail. It is said that the recipe was kept secret from everyone, with just parts of the recipe shared with different bartenders. This led to various different versions of the drink, and what we have today, as a result, is probably nowhere close to what the Zombie used to be like.
Screwdriver
Although this cocktail might be a simple splash of vodka with some orange juice, its history is quite hazy. Some say blue collar workers who enjoyed their fair share of the cocktails took to mixing their drinks with the screwdrivers they used, hence the name. Others credit John Martin who was promoting Smirnoff vodka at the time, and even filled a tanker with screwdrivers to hand out to pedestrians once.
Bloody Mary
This legend is more gruesome than you think. The name apparently comes from Queen Mary, who is known for her quite brutal ways of instilling Catholicism as a way of life in the masses of England. The tomato juice is supposed to denote the blood. But a more plausible history, is that this simple yet effective drink was created by a bartender in the 1900s.
Mojito
While you might think the Cuban Mojito has had an easy breezy past, one of its origin stories begs to differ. The Mojito is said to have cured scurvy in sailors and with the generous helpings of lemon juice in it, this story might not be all wrong. Guess we know why sailors preferred this drink so much.
Pina Colada
Don’t you just love it when something you love turns out to be a marketing gimmick that’s just stuck over the years? No? Well, I hate to break it to you but the Pina Colada was just a creation in the promotion of cream of coconut! Businessman Don Ramon Lopez handed his cream of coconut drink Coco Lopez to bartenders so that they could create a unique cocktail with it. We’re guessing someone hit the mark with the Pina Colada and stuck to it.
