The History of the Cocktail taken from DrinkFocus.com

The History of the Cocktail

The true creation of a popular cocktail can be traced to the nineteenth century. One early written reference to the term "cocktail" (as a drink based on spirits with other spirits and additives) can be found in an American magazine, The Balance, published in May 1806. It stated that a "Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters..."

1860 to 1920 – California: The Birthplace of the First Cocktails
The cocktail's fragmented history begins in the nineteenth century. One of the first modern cocktails to be named and recognized is the martini. It can be traced back to an 1862 recipe for the Martinez. This American recipe consisted of four parts sweet red vermouth to one part gin, garnished with a cherry. "Professor" Jerry Thomas tended the bar of the old Occidental Hotel in San Francisco and reputedly made the drink for a gold miner on his way to the town of Martinez, which lay forty miles to the east. The recipe for the Martinez in Thomas' 1887 bartender's guide called for Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, a dash of maraschino and bitters, as well as a slice of lemon and two dashes of gum syrup.

A modern day dry martini consists of gin and dry white vermouth, garnished with an olive. Obviously, gin has changed a lot since then, when it would have been relatively sweet compared to modern gins. Some even claim the martini was named after the Martini-Henry rifle used by the British army around 1870, as both the rifle and the drink had a strong kick!

What we do know is that by 1900, the martini had become known nationwide and had spread to the other side of the Atlantic. This is said by some to be the beginning of the golden age of cocktails. During this time a basic list of cocktails emerged and steadily became more and more popular. 1920 to 1933 - Prohibition in the USA

On January 16, 1920, the National Prohibition Act became the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This meant it was illegal to manufacture, sell, transport, import, or export any "intoxicating liquors." Despite this, much of the general public still had ways to gain access to the illegal substance, often through speakeasies and private parties. Gangsters focused on bootlegging and moonshine, making Chicago a center of booze, gambling and prostitution. Al Capone was the most notorious crime boss and the power behind the illegal activities in Chicago during Prohibition. As a gangster and racketeer, Capone became one of the biggest bootleggers of all time.

The popularity of cocktails at that time was at least partly due to the need to cover up the bad taste of some of the crudely produced hooch smuggled by the bootleggers. Some of the cocktail recipes used today were invented in the days of Prohibition as cocktail recipes flourished in the illegal bars, parties and clubs of major American cities.

1934 to 1959 – The Margarita is Born
This period was one of great innovation. One of the most popular cocktails—the margarita—is said to have originated in 1948. A Dallas socialite named Margarita Sames purportedly hosted a poolside Christmas party at her vacation home in Acapulco, Mexico. The party game for Margarita was to mix drinks behind the bar and let her guests rate the results. When she mixed three parts tequila with one part triple sec and one part lime, it was such a success among her guests that it quickly traveled from Texas to Hollywood and the rest of the country, bearing her name.

Legend also says the drink originated in the early 1930s at the Caliente Racetrack Bar in Tijuana, Mexico. There is little evidence, though, for the story of showgirl Marjorie King who had an allergy to most alcoholic drinks and could only drink tequila. In 1938, she asked for a tequila cocktail rather than a shot at the Rancho Del Gloria Bar in Rosarita Beach, Mexico. The bartender, Danny Herrera, poured tequila over shaved ice then added lemon and triple sec. The drink was then named after Marjorie (or at least, the Spanish translation of her name).
1960 to Present – Commercialization and Innovation

In the second half of the twentieth century, the cocktail has taken on many guises as its popularity has flourished. Both literature and film have contributed to the images of wealth and class associated with the cocktail hour.

With the constant creation of new drinks (with some strange and interesting names), cocktails have become increasingly popular. With drink names such as the Freddy Kruger, pan galactic gargle blaster, Afternoon Delight and Sex on the Beach, it's no wonder cocktails are all the rage.

Just Me....

From my interview....BCCK-Newsletter Vol. 01

Murphy grew up within the close-knit longhouse community of Matop Paku, in the sleepy town of Betong located just 4 hours drive from Kuching.

He spent a few years unemployed, after graduating highschool, to find what he truly wants out of life.

“My life changed, when I heard about the project for the Hilton Batang Ai Resort that they were building, nearby. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.”
He applied for a scholarship to major in Hotel Management at the DCT International Hotel Management School in Lucerne, Switzerland, and it was approved. After spending three years in Switzerland, Murphy returned to Sarawak and immediately worked for the Resort.

He had spent 6 years there, before moving to Kuching Hilton. Thirteen years of experience later, he joined BCCK.

Suara Borneo recently caught up with Murphy for a short chat. The following, are excerpts from the interview.

Q 1 : If you could have a dinner with someone famous, who would that person be and why?
A : Hmmm, Al Capone? No, seriously speaking, it will be the former prime minister of Malaysia, Tun Datuk Seri utama Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It is because I admire and I have lived through what he has brought to the Nation.

Q 2 : With your years of experiences, what are you bringing to BCCK?

A : I am bringing all that I’ve got to BCCK. I have made a decision to join BCCK looking for a new challenge and I will inject my energy and passion into it.

Q 3 :Tell us something we do not know about Murphy Hillary.

A : My very first cassette bought was Pink Floyd's “Another Brick In The Wall”. Before you ask me to splice and explore and relate myself to the music, I must say that I bought it because it was really awesome to listen and sing along to.

Q 4 : Back to being called a Kampong Boy, do you take offense in that?
A : No, because literally speaking, I am from the kampong. I embrace that fact, and I like life’s simple pleasures. Through my extensive travels and exposures, there is still an Iban soul in this body, who longs for that particular calm that I can find in Sarawak, with my loved ones and friends.

Q5 : What are you looking forward to now?
A : BCCK’s Grand Opening, more children and a comfortable retirement fund which gives me financial flexibility to travel and a great quality of life. In my pensioning years, I look forward to breakfasts with my friends in the nearby coffeeshops debating current issues over bowls of Laksa Sarawak.

Test : Jimmy the Gent

No one that knew James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke ever doubted that it was his upbringing that led to his sociopathic lifestyle. Born on July 5, 1931 to a woman named Conway, Burke never knew his parents.

He entered foster care at the age of two and was shuttled from home to home experiencing beatings, sexual abuse and other unspoken horrors from a seemingly endless number of temporary parents.

In 1944, when Burke was 13 years old, he was in the backseat of a car driven by his latest set of foster parents. Burke did something to aggravate his foster father who was driving. The man, who had a short fuse to begin with, turned around to belt Burke and in doing so lost control of the car, crashed and was killed instantly. The man’s wife blamed Burke for the loss of her husband and gave him regular beatings until he was removed from her care.

Burke had gotten into so much trouble as a teenager and young adult that between the ages of 16 and 22, he spent a total of 86 days outside reformatories and jails. In 1949 Burke made a name for himself after refusing to rollover on a Brooklyn hood after he was arrested in a check-cashing scheme. Burke was given a savage beating at the hands of the police, but would not cooperate. When he arrived at Auburn Prison to begin a five-year stretch, word had already reached there that Burke was a stand-up guy. While incarcerated Burke was rumored to have committed murders for “mob chieftains” who were in prison with him.

Stories of Burke’s murderous reputation became almost legendary. In 1962, when he was planning to get married, Burke found out that an ex-boyfriend of his fiancée, Mickey, was giving her problems. Burke was said to have resolved this by chopping the man to pieces and leaving him “tossed all over the inside of his car.” In another tale that showed a bizarre side of Burke’s sense of justice, Jimmy gave an elderly woman $5,000 after he found out that her hoodlum son refused to repay her. Burke then was rumored to have murdered the son that same day.

Henry Hill would reveal in the book Wiseguy that “Jimmy was the kind of guy who cheered for the crooks in movies. He named his two sons Frank James Burke and JesseJames Burke. Later his daughter Cathy would marry Anthony Indelicato, one of three hitmen who carried out the murder of Carmine Galante in July 1979. Of Burke’s ruthlessness Hill claimed, “Jimmy had a reputation for being wild. He’d whack you. There was no question – Jimmy could plant you just as fast as shake your hand. It didn’t matter to him. At dinner he could be the nicest guy in the world, but then he could blow you away for dessert.

He was scary and he scared some very scary fellows.”