Letters and Liquor

©2017

Letters and Liquor illustrates the history of lettering associated with cocktails. From the 1690s to the 1990s, I’ve selected 52 of the most important drinks in the cocktail canon and rendered their names in period-inspired design. Each post features a detailed history plus photos and recipes.

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52. BARREL-AGED NEGRONI: 2009

Within a year of the Barrel Aged Negroni’s debut, every bar that took itself seriously had a barrel on their backbar. I doubt the phenomenon will ever be r...

51. OAXACA OLD FASHIONED: 2007

Today it’s hard to imagine a time when mezcal wasn’t part of the cocktail canon- the Oaxaca Old Fashioned is the drink that put it there.<br>Phil Ward was too rough ...

50. PENICILLIN: 2005

The cocktail’s Renaissance helped usher in a rise in distilling culture as well, and the Penicillin capitalized on both these movements.<br>As charismatic as he w...

49. CHARTREUSE SWIZZLE: 2003

For the most part, the Renaissance was about bringing back the classics, but there were also bartenders crafting crazy combinations that challenged convention,...

48. RED HOOK: 2003

While “borough drinks” spread the cocktail phenomenon in the pre-Prohibition era, “neighborhood drinks” took up the mantle in the Renaissance, led by Vincenzo Erri...

47. TRIDENT: 2000

While the Trident was based on a classic, it was created in a decidedly non-classic manner—the person who invented it wasn’t a bartender.<br>When the first few sti...

46. GIN GIN MULE: 2000

Gin was a pillar of Classic Age Cocktails, but it wasn’t until the Gin Gin Mule that it was restored back to its proper place in contemporary mixology.<br>The m...

45. MOJITO: 1992

A Prohibition-era favorite of island-hopping Americans, the Mojito disappeared after Castro took over. But when Paul Harrington started making them in 1992, he...

44. COSMOPOLITAN: 1988

The Ritz cocktail broke through with New York’s cultural elite, the Cosmopolitan broke through on a hit TV show.<br>There are still bartenders who think they’re too ...

43. RITZ COCKTAIL: 1985

The various components of the Ritz cocktail already existed when the drink became a sensation, but it took the right person, at the right time, in the right place...

THE REVIVAL: 1985 - 2010

I sometimes wonder if the return of the cocktail was inevitable. But the efforts of those who restored cocktails to their lost glory left nothing to chance.<br>To...

42. APPLETINI: 1999

Of all the candy-like imposters to usurp the name “tini” in the 1990s, the Appletini stands out as the one that fooled the most people into believing they were dri...

41. TEQUILA SUNRISE: 1972

While popular music has always made reference to drinking, few cocktails have been immortalized in song. So it’s no small feat that the Tequila Sunrise was made f...

40. LONG ISLAND ICED TEA: 1972

While drunkenness has been part of cocktail culture since the days of spruce beer and toddy sticks, the Dark Ages embraced it with an openness not found in...

39. FROZEN MARGARITA: 1971

As the Dark Ages treated cocktails like candy, it’s only fitting that one of the Classic Era’s icons would find new life, transformed by the whirling magic of a 7-...

38. HARVEY WALLBANGER: 1969

The 1960s saw American culture shift from being adult-oriented to youth-driven, and no cocktail phenomenon better embodies this change than the cartoon character...

37. WHITE RUSSIAN: 1961

Human beings have a primal relationship with milk. It’s our first source of nourishment, giving us life in our most vulnerable days. So it’s only appropriate that ...

THE DARK AGES: 1960 - 1990

Craft bartenders, the extra crazy ones who think nothing of spending their rent money on cocktail thermometers and pyrex mixing glasses, are oft-compared to...

36. GIN AND TONIC: 1950s

Back in the Colonial days, the Americans usurped the development of the cocktail from the British by injecting fun and experimentation into the stodgy old...

35. PIÑA COLADA: 1954

Hate it or love it, the Piña Colada was a watershed moment in cocktail history, signaling a shift toward confectionary cocktails that relied on commercially ...

34. MOSCOW MULE: 1941

Technically speaking, the drink is a “Vodka Buck” but no one wanted to drink one, or the spirit that gives it its kick, until it was christened with the name “Mo...

33. BLOODY MARY: 1920s

Originally consisting of just canned tomato juice and vodka, the Bloody Mary has somehow achieved more status than the Screwdriver, its direct relative. Maybe...

32. THE MAI TAI: 1944

If the Zombie is the drink that put Tiki (and Donn Beach) on the map, the Mai Tai is the drink that cemented its lasting place (and Trader Vic’s) in America’s coc...

31. THE ZOMBIE: 1934

How do you get people to drink rum when they think of it as being cheap, poorly made, and beneath their station? Create a whole new story, one so fantastic that...

30. THE VESPER: 1953

While literary lions were promoting proprietary...