The Cocktail Companion - Cheryl Charming

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and in 2018, there are over 500. The craft cocktail pioneers should be very proud of this achievement. What does the crystal ice ball predict for the future toddler, teenage, and adult stages of the second golden age of cocktails? Will robots replace bartenders? Will future bartenders become eco-conscious exploring ways to recycle the massive amounts of straws, cups, pics, and bottles dumped in landfills every day? Can bartenders cease stoking the embers of their wannabe-famous egos and simply live balanced lives, be good at their jobs, and understand the bottom line of hospitality? Will bars with fresh crafted cocktails be commonplace for the masses? Well, as for robots, probably not, because humans are social beings. Even high-tech futuristic fantasy shows such as Star Trek, which have the technological advances to build robot bartenders, choose not to. As millennials take over the cocktail wheel, it is safe to assume that they will follow their bartender ancestors’ example—and boldly go where no one has gone before.

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      From Antiquity to America: The History of Alcohol

      As far as we know, beer was first made in 8000 BCE, wine in 6000 BCE, and spirits for consumption in 1192. However, they are believed to have been consumed many years before.

      Medicinal alcohol distillation was first discovered in 900 CE, and the first known word for a consumable distilled spirit was “aqua vitae” (AH-qua VEE-tee or sometimes pronounced VEE-tai), which translates from Latin to “water of life.” Arnaud de Ville-Neuve coined the word in 1310 after he distilled wine with an alembic still. The French translation is eau-de-vie (o-duh-VEE).

      Vintage engraving of distillation. © Morphart Creation / Shutterstock

      According to esteemed alcohol and cocktail historians Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown, thirty-three-year-old French explorer and missionary William de Rubruquis, a.k.a. William of Rubruck (1220–1293), was the first to mention a spirit called arrack (uh-RACK). In 1292, Marco Polo commented about arrack in his travel memoir Il Millione, and it is recorded that Genoese merchants brought arrack to Russia a century before. Arrack is distilled from molasses and water using dried cakes of red rice and botanicals containing yeast and other fungi spores that trigger the fermentation process. It was produced on the island of Java, Batavia, and the technique can be traced back thousands of years to China—and even predates the birth of distillation. The island went through many name changes throughout history, but today is named Ja.k.a.rta (or Dja.k.a.rta) and is located in Indonesia. Slowly through the years the distilled spirits vodka, gin, whisk(e)y, rum, tequila, and liqueurs each made a commercial appearance.

      The Top Ten Things to Know about Alcohol

      1.The first alcohol known to humankind is beer, then wine, and then spirits.

      2.There are several types of alcohol, but ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is the only potable one.

      3.Distilled spirits were first used as medicine.

      4.Vodka, gin, and rum are allowed to be produced anywhere in the world. However, tequila must be produced in Mexico, Scotch whisky in Scotland, Irish whiskey in Ireland, Canadian whisky in Canada, Bourbon in America (and so on with the whiskeys), pisco in Peru and Chile, and cachaça in Brazil.

      5.One twelve-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a five-ounce glass of wine and one-and-a-half ounces of a spirit.

      6.Grain makes whisky and beer; fruit makes wine and brandy; grapes grown in the Cognac region of France makes Cognac; grapes grown in the Champagne region of France makes champagne; honey makes mead; sugarcane makes rum; agave makes tequila; Brazilian sugarcane makes cachaça; the discarded leftovers from Chilean and Peruvian wine making makes pisco; and anything can make vodka.

      7.When you take a drink of alcohol, it passes through the walls of your stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream. Your blood then takes the alcohol to your brain, and then the liver filters out the alcohol from your blood.

      8.The discovery of distillation provided convenience, portability, and preservation. No longer did one need to worry about spoilage (like with beer and wine), and traveling with a bottle of brandy—or port, sherry, and Madeira—was much easier than lugging a barrel of it.

      9.Most spirits range around 80 proof (40 percent). The highest legal limit for spirit proof is 190 (95 percent), but who would want to drink that is up for debate.

      10.The most popular alcoholic cocktails in the world today include Martini, Margarita, Mojito, Manhattan, Old-Fashioned, Daiquiri, Bloody Mary, Mint Julep, Piña Colada, Cosmopolitan, Whiskey Sour, Sazerac, Tom Collins, Caipirinha, and Negroni.

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      Distilled Alcohol Timeline

      776 − At age thirty-nine, Persian alchemist and chemist Al-Jabir (Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan) invents the al-ambiq still as part of his laboratory equipment.

      830 − Muslim Arab philosopher, physician, and polymath Al-Kindi (801–873) distills a digestible elixir from an alembic still.

      900 − Persian polymath, philosopher, and physician Al-Razi (854–925) discovers many compounds and chemicals in his medicinal experimentations—and one of them is alcohol.

      1000 − The Moors (the name given to a large population of Arabs, Berber North Africans, and Muslim Europeans) introduce alembic distillation methods in France and Spain.

      1144 − Englishman and Arabic translator Robert of Chester translates the written works of distillation from Al-Jabir, Al-Kindi, and Al-Razi from Arab to Latin.

      1192 − Genoese merchants bring an India spirit called arrack to Russia.

      1250 − German friar and Catholic bishop Albertus Magnus (also known as Saint Albert the Great) documents his experiments in making aqua vitae.

      1253 − King Louis IX of France sends William de Rubruquis to convert the Tartars to Christianity. During his journey, he becomes the first European traveler to mention koumis (distilled female horse milk) and arrack.

      1269 − German poet Jacob van Maerlant publishes twenty books in his lifetime and Der Naturen Bloeme mentions juniper-based tonics and medicines.

      1280 − English philosopher and Franciscan friar Roger Bacon translates Al-Razi’s distillation process into Latin.

      1292 − While traveling home from Beijing to Italy, Venetian merchant Marco Polo discovers a spirit indigenous to Samara in Indonesia called “arrack,” which is made with sugar palm juice. He records the spirit in the second volume of The Travels of Marco Polo (II Milione in Italian).

      1297 − Philosopher and writer Ramon Llull explains the secrets of distillation to Britain’s King Edward II.

      1310 − Physician Arnaud de Ville-Neuve distills wine with an alembic still and coins the term “aqua vitae.”

      1320 − In 2008, The Red Book of Ossory (published in 1320) becomes the first book to be digitalized at the RCB Library in Dublin, Ireland—aqua vitae is documented in the book.

      1404 − A grain-based aqua vitae that is produced throughout Poland is mentioned in Poland’s Sandomierz Court Registry.

      1411 − Armagnac goes into full-scale production in France.

      1414 − Armagnac is registered as a commercial product in Saint-Sever, France.

      1426 − Geneose merchants pass through Russia and give the Grand Prince of Moscow a bottle of their arrack. It’s believed that within a few years, monasteries are ordered to produce a grain-based version called bread wine.

      1455 − Austrian-born and Viennese-trained physician Michael Puff von Schrick writes A Very Useful Book on Distillations, which describes eighty-two herbal liquors. In 1466, it is printed and published. Even though Schrick dies in 1473, the book goes through thirty-eight editions from 1476–1601.

      1478 − Arnaud de Ville-Neuve’s Liber

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