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Few drinks have come to symbolize a particular day like the Margarita on Cinco de Mayo. In truth the two have very little to do with each other. The day represents a victory by Mexican troops in an obscure battle with French troops in the 1800s.
The drink, on the other hand, was developed in the 20th century—nobody knows for sure but people generally agree in the 1930s-1950s timeframe—and may have been created in Mexico or just along the border with the United States (there are about 3-4 different origin stories).
However, the two have become synonymous with the early May fiestas that people throughout the US and Mexico throw. In the next few days every bar or liquor-serving restaurant will feature Cinco de Mayo specials that include some sweet/sour cocktail with a bit of tequila in it. They’ll call it a Margarita, but it’s far from it.
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This is the history of the oldest cocktail in history - or I guess the first cocktail in history according to who you talk to - the El Draque. And, as a way of CYA this is as far as we know, if we're wrong tell us in the comments!
The history starts over 425 years ago in 1586. You see at that time, people drank an incredible amount of alcohol every day, much more than we do now. They drank beer or other beverages for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then for periods in between. Children drank it, pregnant women drank it, monks and priests drank it. It touched every part of life.
There was a reason, of course, that we drank so much: water was typically not healthy to drink, and so boiling it to produce booze of some kind killed the germs that made people sick. So as long as alcohol of some kind was in supply, people were actually pretty healthy.
And this was especially true on board ships. Ships of the time would be at sea for months sometimes without seeing land or taking on new supplies. So rum, beer, wine and other beverages were really important to keep sailors healthy.
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Green beer has become a staple of the increasingly popular St. Patrick's Day celebrations the world over. Just about any bar you walk into on Monday, March 17th will be serving the festive favorite. But where did the tradition come from, who invented it and how do you make it right.....we'll give you a hint, it isn't with green food coloring.
St. Patrick's Day is upon us and with it comes a seemingly never-ending supply of Irish themed drinks--Irish Car Bombs, green beer, shots of Jameson--green outfits and stumbling party goers. This made us wonder--why do we make our drinks green on St. Patrick's Day? Is it simply because of the festive color or is there some other tradition behind it?The Crescent City is awash with great bars, saloons and dives to visit, but we've compiled a list of what we think are the oldest. There are a couple of "maybe's" here but it depends on how you define bars. For example, Antoine's is not here though Arnaud's and Tujague's are. But Antoine's is almost completely known as a restaurant, in fact that's what they want to be known as.
Arnaud's, however, has some great history in it's bars and has had the Richelieu bar since the beginning.
Tujague's, as you'll read later, has real history at its bar. In any case we present what we think are the five oldest bars in New Orleans. Cheers!
Laffite’s Blacksmith Shop 1761 (?)
941 Bourbon St, New Orleans, LA 70116 (504) 593-9761
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