5 Delicious Pieces of Cocktail Trivia You Didn’t Know
At the Greengate, we’re renowned among locals for concocting the most delicious drinks. In celebration of the start of summer, here are 5 fabulous cocktail facts:
1. What’s in the word ‘Cocktail’?
There are a number of theories on where the word ‘cocktail’ originates from. A popular suggestion is that the word comes from the cocked tail of a horse, and the idea that early cocktails were intended to perk up drinkers.
Another idea is that the word came about as mixed drinks in Mexico were stirred with a chickens feather.
2. Hemmingway’s Cocktail
Ernest Hemmingway claimed to have invented the ‘Death in the Afternoon’ cocktail, a mixture of only absinthe and champagne
3. A drink named from art
The Bellini was created by Giuseppe Cipriani sometime between 1934 and 1948. Cipriani named it as such because the pink colour reminded him of a saint’s toga that was seen in a painting by 15th century Venetian artist, Giovanni Bellini.
4. The world’s most expensive cocktail
In 2013 Joel Heffernan at Club 23 in Melbourne made and sold a cocktail called ‘The Winston’ featuring 60ml of Croizet’s 1858 ‘Cuvee Leonie’ cognac. The cocktail sold for AUD$12,500 and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Most Expensive Cocktail.
5. A medicinal drink
Gin and Tonic was first used by the British Empire to treat malaria in India. Malaria can be treated with quinine, the main component of tonic water. As tonic water has a bitter flavour on it’s own, the soldiers would add gin and later lemon and lime. Winston Churchill once said that “Gin and Tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the empire”.
6. Shaken, not stirred.
A martini cocktail should be always stirred. The proper name for a shaken martini is a actually Bradford, which is why Bond has to specify that he would like his martini to be made non-traditionally.
The Greengate
The Greengate Hotel has been part of the North Shore community for over 190 years. Standing on the site of the original stone cottage built in 1833, it was known as “Ye Olde Greengate Inn”. The early structure lives on in the hotel identity — a five-barred gate painted green — which is still in existence today. These days, The Greengate Hotel is the perfect place to catch up with mates over a drink, enjoy great food and live entertainment, or host a special occasion.
Phone
enquiries@greengatehotel.com.au
Website https://www.greengatehotel.com.au/