Perhaps one of the cocktail’s greatest mysteries is who drank the first one. But if people had to guess, I think most would probably assume that the first cocktails were drunk by a bunch of wealthy white American men who had enough money to sit around and joke with members of the same sex while they sampled exotic spirits. Naturally, these spirits were served by overly educated barmen as their customers sipped with the utmost sophistication and pontificated the meaning of their often meaningless lives. At least that’s what I used to think. But when reading through archives of the past, it seems this has been an ongoing theory in cocktail evolution for quite a while. But I began to realize that this conception is thanks to wealthy American white men, who all perpetuated this image over and over (and over) again. But is it really the truth?
In 1908 the Baltimore Sun printed an article detailing the extraordinary circumstances that led to the first cocktail being served and consumed. The article included a portrait of “the man who drank the first cocktail,” John A. Hopkins, Esq. In it he appears quite distinguished, his hair flowing in waves, his bowtie neatly wrapped around his neck and his shirt collar popped for extra pomp. (yes, they popped collars back then too) According to the Sun, whose editor was a man named H.L. Mencken, the cocktail was created April 17, 1846, on a sunny afternoon in Baltimore. It states that earlier in the day, two men, Baron Colono and the noble John Hopkins, met for a duel. Unfortunately, although John Hopkins had the balls to shoot Baron Colono, he did not have enough stuff to bear the gruesome sight of blood. Because of this, Hopkins was rushed to the nearest hotel (I guess no one cared about the guy who was bleeding) so he could be treated immediately before he passed out like the many corset-wearing ladies of his day. The bartender took this request seriously. He rummaged around the bar, mixed some things together and made the first Manhattan. After drinking the cocktail in one brave gulp, it is said that John A. Hopkin’s health was fully restored.
After its publication in the Baltimore Sun, this article managed to make headlines in other news sources throughout the United States, affirming that the cocktail was indeed invented in the editor’s hometown of Baltimore, and was first drunk by a man who was an aristocratic wimp. I’m just going to go ahead and say now, I hate this story. My main reason is because it automatically associates the cocktail as an upper-class leisure that was no doubt invented on American soil to ease the pain of living life as a wealthy white man without a spine. Which just isn’t true. I also don’t think I have all too much respect for H.L. Menken’s opinions on anything. But my personal feelings aside, there are other more factual issues with this story.
For one, the men named in the article? Turns out there’s no record of them ever being born. So, I am pretty sure they were made up. It’s also pretty clear that the cocktail is older than this story suggests. In fact, its first definition appeared in the Balance and Colombian Repository forty years earlier in 1806. And if we’re really being picky, the actual word cocktail appeared on a bar tab eight years earlier in 1798. But the bar tab wasn’t from a tavern or saloon in the United States. The tab was from a pub in England. Which leaves many curious historian’s wondering, where exactly does the cocktail come from?
The cocktail has surely been an American pastime. And wherever it was ‘invented’ it’s clear that the States has had a love affair with the drink ever since. But that doesn’t mean the origin of the cocktail is American. In fact, I’d say it’s highly likely that it isn’t. This is why.
From 1731 to 1776, a man named James Ashley ran a business called The London Punch-house in Ludgate Hill, London. At the time, this punch house was controversial, primarily because it advertised the unthinkable, cheap punch. Because some of his customers just couldn’t afford to purchase a giant vat of punch, Ashley began selling the concoction in single-serve glasses so that everyone, not only the wealthy could enjoy. He called these serves, sneakers, tiffs, or rubs. But the term that ended up sticking was the sling. And as a result, the drinking world was changed forever.
This would make sense since the 1806 definition of a cocktail was labelled a ‘bittered sling.’ In that case, if the London Punch-house was indeed the earliest of its kind, it was likely serving the first cocktails in the world. That would mean that the first cocktails were not drunk by rich white men of America but by the poor and emerging middle classes of England.
This is a challenge to the often proselytized myth that the first of these sorts of drinks were guzzled by uber wealthy men who sipped spirits through their moustaches with their pinkies out. I think this notion only came about when the rich upper classes tried to hijack this tradition, so they could be thought of as edgy and cool. But truthfully all evidence points to the fact that the first cocktails were not originally drank by the aristocracy. And wait for it, I’ll blow your mind even further. Ashley’s London Punch-house was known to have Miss Gaywood as the server, not Ashley himself. This means it is also likely the world’s first cocktails were indeed mixed and served by a woman.
** What do you think. Do you think the middle classes were drinking cocktails before the rich? Do you think a single serve of punch could be considered the first cocktail? I want to know! Share your thoughts in the comments/chat below!