The History of Cocktail Culture: How the Cocktail Conquered the World
SR
Sofia Reeves
6 min read
The history of cocktail culture begins with a simple premise: spirit alone is too much for most occasions, too little for others, and the interval between those two extremes is where every bartender who has ever done interesting work has chosen to operate. The first recorded use of the word cocktail in its modern sense dates to 1806 — a spirit, sugar, water, and bitters — and in the two centuries since, the variations on that formula have multiplied into an entire civilisation of drinks, techniques, and rituals. Here is how that happened, and where you can still taste the different chapters.
Jerry Thomas and the First Golden Age
Jerry Thomas published The Bartender's Guide in 1862, the first comprehensive cocktail manual in history, and in doing so established the profession of bartending as something worthy of documentation and codification. Thomas was famous in his lifetime — he toured Europe performing his signature Blue Blazer, a flaming whisky drink thrown between two cups — and his book defined the canon of American mixed drinks for the 19th century. The Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, the Whisky Sour, the Tom Collins: these drinks were already understood as classics by the time Thomas was writing about them.
This first golden age of cocktail culture was distinctly American, driven by the abundance of rye whisky, the growing quality of American spirits production, and a bar culture in cities like New York and New Orleans that was sophisticated enough to have opinions about technique. Prohibition ended it. When the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920, many of America's best bartenders left for Europe, taking their knowledge with them and planting the seeds of what would eventually become the international cocktail culture.
01
Old Absinthe House
French Quarter, New Orleans$$Historic / 1806
The Old Absinthe House has been operating since 1806 and is the most direct physical connection to American cocktail culture's first chapter. The bar's marble fountain was used to drip cold water over sugar and absinthe before the French Quarter had ice, and the current bar is built around the same mechanics. The Absinthe Frappe here is not a performance — it is the original drink, made as it was made when the building was new. The walls are covered in business cards from a century of visitors.
Order: The Absinthe Frappe — the original preparation, cold water drip method
02
Tujague's
French Quarter, New Orleans$$Historic / Second Oldest Bar in America
Tujague's opened in 1856 and claims the title of second oldest bar in America. The bar mirror behind the counter was imported from Paris in the 19th century and has never moved. The Grasshopper cocktail was invented here in 1918 and is still the house drink, though the bartenders make the full range of New Orleans classics with equal competence. Coming here is less about any individual drink than about standing in a room where cocktail culture happened continuously for over 160 years.
Order: The Grasshopper, for historical context, then whatever Ramos Gin Fizz variation they are running
The full cocktail bar guideOur editors have reviewed over 500 cocktail bars across 60 cities — every era of the history is on tap somewhere.
When Prohibition drove America's best bartenders to Europe, they found a continent that was already developing its own cocktail culture through different channels. The American Bar at The Savoy in London, where Harry Craddock published The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, became the centre of gravity for exiled American cocktail expertise combined with European ingredients and sensibility. The result was a distinctly international cocktail culture that would outlast Prohibition and ultimately influence the American renaissance decades later.
The Sidecar, the White Lady, and the Corpse Reviver were all codified during this period. The Dry Martini evolved from a sweet vermouth-dominant drink into the gin-forward, vermouth-restrained version we recognise today. The history of cocktail culture during Prohibition is largely the history of what American bartending looked like when it was forced to adapt to European ingredients and European palates.
03
The American Bar at The Savoy
Strand, London$$$$Landmark / Formal
Harry Craddock mixed drinks at this bar from 1920 until 1938, and the room's current programme is built around that legacy with enough modern sophistication to make it feel earned rather than merely nostalgic. The Savoy Cocktail Book remains one of the most referenced cocktail texts in print. The bar still makes every drink in it, and the White Lady here is the benchmark version. If you are visiting London for the first time and can afford one expensive drink, this should be it.
Order: The White Lady or the Hanky Panky — both Savoy originals, both still excellent
04
Harry's New York Bar
Opéra, Paris$$$Historic / Expatriate
Ted Sloan opened Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1911, originally by shipping an entire Manhattan bar across the Atlantic and reassembling it. The Bloody Mary was allegedly invented here in 1921, and the bar was a central institution of American expatriate culture through the 1920s and 1930s. The drinks are made today with the same reference points as they were in 1925: careful measures, good ice, and no theatrical flourishes. This is not a museum. It is a bar that understands its own history.
Order: The Sidecar — the bar's most historically connected drink and consistently well made
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The Modern Renaissance: 1999 to Now
The modern cocktail renaissance is usually dated to Sasha Petraske opening Milk and Honey in New York in 1999. Petraske's bar operated by strict rules — no standing, no name-dropping, reservations required, no obnoxious behaviour — and made cocktails with the precision and seriousness that had been absent from American bar culture since the pre-Prohibition era. The effect was immediate and far-reaching. Within a decade, serious cocktail bars were opening in every major city in the world, all drawing on the same tradition of craft, precision, and respect for the historical canon.
05
Death & Co New York
East Village, New York$$$Landmark / Essential
Death and Co opened in 2006 and within a year was producing some of the most influential cocktails being made anywhere. The Oaxacan Old Fashioned, which Phil Ward invented at Death and Co, is the single most copied cocktail of the modern renaissance and the drink that introduced mezcal to American cocktail culture. The current programme is as strong as it was in 2007. The room is dark and serious and exactly right for the drinks being made in it.
Order: The Oaxacan Old Fashioned — the cocktail that changed American drinking habits
06
The Bon Vivant
Edinburgh New Town$$$European Renaissance / Intimate
Edinburgh was an unlikely city to produce one of Europe's best cocktail bars, but The Bon Vivant has been making the case since 2008 with a programme that takes the full history of cocktail culture as its reference point. The bar is small and the menu rotates seasonally, drawing on Scottish spirits alongside the international classics. The Scotch Old Fashioned here is one of our editors' favourite drinks in Europe — built on a peated single malt that changes the entire character of the format.
Order: The Scotch Old Fashioned — peated malt, the house combination of bitters
07
Low Blow
Ginza, Tokyo$$$$Japanese Precision / Intimate
The Japanese chapter of cocktail history deserves its own article, but Low Blow is where the story is most concentrated. Japanese bartending developed its own aesthetic in parallel to the Western tradition, prioritising technical precision, ingredient purity, and the relationship between bartender and guest over innovation or novelty. The Japanese highball here is one of the most technically perfect drinks we have been served anywhere, and the house whisky selection covers both Japanese and Scotch expressions with equal seriousness.
Order: The house highball — Japanese whisky, ice shaved to a specific texture, carbonation timed carefully
New York cocktail barsOur guide to the best cocktail bars in New York — from the pre-Prohibition roots to the current renaissance.
The history of cocktail culture is the history of how a practical solution to the problem of unpleasant spirits became an art form. Jerry Thomas made it a profession. Prohibition scattered it across the world. The modern renaissance brought it back with more historical knowledge and technical precision than any previous generation of bartenders had possessed. The bars in this guide are where that history is actively maintained rather than merely commemorated.
If you want to understand where cocktail culture came from, visit New Orleans and order a Sazerac. If you want to understand where it is now, visit Death and Co in New York or The Connaught Bar in London. Both chapters are essential, and the line between them is shorter than it seems.
The classic cocktails every drinker should knowThe drinks that connect every chapter of the history — our guide to the cocktail canon.
