1925 Drinks Long & Short by Nina Toye and A H Adair

INTRODUCTION

The derivation of the word "cocktail" seems to be shrouded in mystery and though there are several stories connected with the origin of this delicious and subtle little aperitif, these stories differ so widely that none of them seem worth quoting. But it is interesting to know that the cocktail habit was more or less established in America so early as 1869 and in a manual on the subject of mixed drinks, written about that time and now relegated to the Dead Language Depart ment of American bookshops, one finds an amusing paragraph concerning ice; "Of late years, artificial ice has taken to some extent, largely in the Southern States, the place of the natural product." Things have changed since those days and icebergs, like solitude, are becoming elusive. The method of mixing a cocktail has altered too, for the shaker was unknown at the time of the first cocktails, which were mixed in a glass and stirred with a spoon, a process far less satis factory than that of our present day.