5 Cocktails With Legendary Origins

With Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar’s Margarita With A Straw hitting theatres this weekend, we thought we’d shine some spotlight on some other less fortunate cocktails that didn’t make it to the title of a Bollywood film.

1. Bloody Mary

This super famous vodka-based cocktail doesn’t need an introduction. It is popularly known as an effective cure for a hangover. Although the drink is believed to be the creation of a restaurateur in the early 1900s, legend has it that this drink derives its name from Queen Mary who was famously infamous for her brutal attempts to return Catholism to England.

2. Gin & Tonic

A favorite at innumerable dinner tables, the Gin & Tonic was actually created to cure British soldiers, fighting in the Indies, of malaria. The high content of quinine in the tonic water made it an extremely effective cure, but on the flip side caused it to taste utterly bitter. So to make the liquid more drinkable, the soldiers added gin to it. Sadly, the modern day tonic water isn’t all that quinine rich to fight malaria anymore.

3. Irish Coffee

The Irish love their alcohol, so when we hear that someone dumped alcohol in their coffee, we’ll just assume that it must’ve been an Irish fella. But the fact is that the Irish are mostly tea drinkers. Heart breaking isn’t it? And no, there is no such thing as Irish Tea! Long ago on a delayed flight from Ireland, the bartender put some whiskey in the stranded passengers’ coffee. The passengers delighted by all this “warmth”, asked if the coffee was Brazilian to which the bartender retorted that it was Irish. Rest is history.

4. Mojito

Ever heard of scurvy? No it’s not a snake trying to say curvy, but actually a physical condition caused by the lack of vitamin C. Lemons are known to be rich in vitamin C, and what is rich in lemons? Mojitos, that’s what. Way before all the fancy medicines and treatments, sailors to cure scurvy consumed this Cuban cocktail.

5. Screwdriver

The screwdriver as a simple yet brilliant combination of orange juice and vodka is as easy as a cocktail can get. This drink is said to have originated when miners and other blue collar workers mixed orange juice and vodka with their screwdrivers. What did we tell you? Simple yet brilliant.