Ask Margaret
A cocktail is an alcoholic drink
that combines a spirit or spirits
with other ingredients such as fruit
juice or cream. Technically, when
a mixed drink is only diluted with a
mixer such as soda or fruit juice, it is
known as a “highball.” If there is no
alcohol in a mixed drink, it is often
called a “virgin” or a “mocktail.”
Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate
Dictionary offers the broader
definition of a cocktail as “an iced
drink of distilled liquor mixed
with flavoring ingredients” with an
alternate suggested meaning of “an
appetizer (as tomato juice) served as
a first course at a meal.”
Although the term “cocktail” sounds
as if it could be referring to a rooster,
the term is actually used to describe a
horse or other animal, whose tail hairs
have been cut off or “docked.” The term
“cocktail” is also used to describe nonpurebred
Will you please explain
some of the drink lingo
I’ve heard, such as cocktail,
proof, age and even the
differences between the
horses, and may have been
used to refer to diluted, watered down,
or impure drinks.
Cocktails date back to the 1860s when
a bartenders’ guide called How to Mix
Drinks or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion
included ten recipes for cocktails, along
with directions for making punches,
some slings, cobblers, vinegar-based
shrubs, toddies, flips and other mixed
by Margaret Word Burnside
liquors themselves?
D.C., Odessa
drinks. According to this book, a drink
that includes bitters is called a cocktail.
This would recognize the Old Fashioned
whiskey cocktail, the Sazerac and the
Manhattan as true cocktails.
140 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2019
Some popular cocktails and bar
offerings also include the daiquiri,
whiskey sour, martini, margarita,
Moscow Mule and mojito. Cocktails
vary in their ingredients from
bartender to bartender, so don’t
expect every one to taste the same.
Besides “cocktail,” there are other
terms to learn such as “proof,” which
identifies a liquor’s alcohol content,
and is equal to twice the alcohol
percentage. Therefore, a 100-proof
vodka is 50 percent alcohol by
volume. This is important to know, as
the alcohol is what affects your ability
to think rationally and drive safely.
The higher the proof, the stronger
the drink.
Another word that is often mentioned
in connection with alcoholic beverages
is “age.” Although this may refer to the
legal age that one must be to be served,
it usually refers to how long the liquor
remained in a barrel, or cask, prior to
being bottled. Many believe the longer,
the better. “Whiskey” is derived from
a Gaelic term that means “water of
life.” Ironically, it was monks who first
distilled Irish whiskey. “Scotch,” a malt
or grain whiskey, is made in Scotland.
Varieties include single malt, single
grain, blended malt, blended grain and
blended Scotch whiskey.
If you have any questions about the
people, places or things in the Tampa
Bay area, please send them to
“Ask Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine,
2531 Landmark Drive, Suite 101,
Clearwater, Florida 33761.
We regret that not all questions
can be answered.