Cocktail
What is a Cocktail? Drinks akin to cocktails first appeared sometime during the 16th century, but cocktails, as we know and use the term, was first introduced by American bartenders in the 1920ies. The reason the cocktail made it big in the happy '20ies, was the prohibition, when producing and imbibing of alcohol was made illegal. As good as all spirits available was of a rather dubious quality and tasted accordingly. Thus, the bartenders, accommodating as always, started to mix the spirits with various fruit juices and other flavorings to make it more palatable. Later, the cocktail lost its popularity most places, the United States being the main exception. The last few years, however, the cocktail has reclaimed lost ground everywhere, especially in southern Europe and other places that are full of tourists. Cocktails usually consist of three different 'classes' of ingredients. • The first, the base, is most often some sort of spirit, like vodka, whiskey, ...