World Cocktail Day

World Cocktail Day on March 24 each year celebrates the tasty alcoholic drinks we have come to know and love.

“No party is complete without cocktails! My friends all have different preferences when it comes to choosing their drinks, so I like to maintain a bar full of different wines to keep everyone happy.” ~ Khloe Kardashian

One of the best ways to bring people together and live together is through drinking. For a fun night out, cocktails offer a variety of aromas and flavors to keep things interesting and have a long history of being a staple in everyone's lives. Therefore, let's dive in and see what World Cocktail Day is all about.

History of World Cocktail Day

In 1806, The Balance and Columbian Repository published the term called "cocktail" as an aphrodisiac with a variety of sweet, watery and bitter. Originally, the Oxford English Dictionary defined the term with a different set of connotations, describing it as a horse with a tail like a rooster, with its tail pointing up instead of down.

The cocktail as a drink, however, began as an English invention in the 19th century and has since become an American innovation when a Connecticut-born bartender, Jerry Thomas, wrote the book "The Bartender's Guide". The Guide to Bartenders basically handed out an encyclopedia of drinks and recipes on some of the best drink and flavor combinations.

During the 1920s in America it was banned, many blended cocktails existed and are still loved today. With so much high-quality alcohol not readily available, cocktails are the perfect way to make that smuggled rum, gin or whiskey a little easier to drink. Enter cocktails; rum mojitos, Sidecar, and Tom Collins all thrived at a time when recreational alcohol was illegal.

The 'Bee's Knees' cocktail was actually created to mask and sweeten the flavor of illegally brewed bath gin. Vibrant twenties have taken the cocktail and shaken it up into some of our most popular modern cocktails. Drinking alcohol non-stop during prohibition, people simply go underground. Many illegal pubs sprang up, serving jazz-style cocktails.

Post-Prohibition has seen the invention of the drink still grace the pages of your favorite cocktail bar menu. 1954 saw the blending of Pina Colada in Puerto Rico when Ramon Marrero created delicious pineapple at the Caribe Hilton. 1988 saw much-loved Cosmopolitan enter our lives, thanks to Toby Cecchini and his desire to share drinks with his fellow bartenders in San Francisco.

One space during the cocktail era in America is the Rainbow Room. Opened after the ban in 1934, the Rainbow Room is an upscale club where New York A-listers can celebrate in style with post-prohibition cocktails. The Rainbow Room has been revived and renovated in various forms over the years, closed during World War II and for various restorations.

The 1987 reopening saw up-and-coming mixologist Dale DeGroff create a pre-ban list of cocktails that revived some of the company's favorites and spearheaded the modern cocktail revolution. has made cocktail bars more and more popular.

The holiday is celebrated every year by Drinkaware, a UK-based charity that raises awareness about the effects of drinking and aims to reduce the harmful effects of drinking on the people and families. The website provides facts and information about alcohol consumption, alcohol poisoning and alcohol abuse. Drinkaware's World Cocktail Day page features worldwide events you can join, a blog you can follow about your favorite recipes and how you can drink it Safe yet fun.

Some things about Cocktail

• Ernest Hemingway has a recipe

Hemingway found and made a kind of cocktail for himself called 'Absinthe and Champagne' or 'Death in The Afternoon'.

• There's one with a toe

The Sourtoe Cocktail, which can be found in Yukon, Canada, is famous for having a real human toe in it.

• Stir well, do not shake

The Martini cocktail is traditionally stirred, not shaken, no matter how James Bond likes to drink it.

• Take a cocktail and get some Chinese wisdom

Cocktail umbrellas traditionally contain hidden scrolls of Chinese newspapers that you can read like fortune cookies.

• A drug or a drink?

Some cocktails can help heal or alleviate some ailments, like the Atomic Cocktail, which can cure mild fevers, headaches, and depression.

Some reasons for World Cocktail Day being loved

• We love delicious buzz

Wine is notorious for being bitter, but cocktails will ruin the mold. You can have all sorts of wonderful fruits when you get your attention with a cocktail. Cocktails keep you refreshed with deliciously flavored drinks.

• It allows us to start our party

On National Cocktail Day, every hour is cocktail hour (don't tell the boss). World Cocktail Day is all about having a good time with great people. When you have a cocktail in hand, you can let your hair down and be really happy.

• Variety is the spice of life

One of the great things about cocktails is that there are so many choices. Although the International Bartenders Association only recognizes 77 cocktails, there are at least 300 different cocktail recipes in the world. With cocktails, there are many options to choose from and you can enjoy the true joy of diversity in life.

How to Celebrate World Cocktail Day

• Make a cocktail

On World Cocktail Day, you can create your cocktail from any of the hundreds of recipes available online. Even better, you can test your creativity by coming up with your own cocktail recipes.

• Party cocktail party

Gather some of your closest friends and throw the ultimate cocktail party. Cocktail parties are famous for being great for good times with friends.

• Appreciate a bartender

Not all of us can become master mixologists. On World Cocktail Day, take the time to appreciate your favorite bartender. You can write them a thoughtful note, get them a nice gift, or leave them a large sum of money.