Cocktails 1911 to 1920

Continuing our journey, after looking at ‘Cocktails of the 1800s’, and ‘Cocktails 1900 to 1910’ and traveling into the final group of the fifty-year period between the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), a period considered by many as the ‘Golden Age of Cocktails’.

Let’s take a look at the second decade of the 1900’s, at cocktails created and popular in this early part of the 20th Century.

The World was starting to get smaller, and successful Cocktails no longer existed in small geographic areas, but began to spread around the modern world. Certainly with strong cross-Atlantic travel moving recipes, bartenders and customers between Europe, the USA and other parts of the world.

This travel was perhaps exemplified, in the worst way, by the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. This decade also saw colonialism come to its close, with international tensions rising, and eventually the outbreak of the First World War on 28 July 1914. This was perhaps the dominant social and political event of this decade, lasting until 11 November 1918, resulting in almost 10-million military deaths and more than that again in lost civilians. Dwarfed unfortunately by the Spanish Flu, also known as The Great Influenza Pandemic, somewhere between 20-million and 100-million people died between 1918 and 1920, as much as 5-percent of the World’s total population of the time.

The World was forever changed by this challenging decade, and the seeds were sewn for Prohibition in the United States, which started in 1920 and a return to war at the end of the 1930’s. For the most part, the Cocktail innovation that had started in the mid-1800’s was coming to a close.

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BOOKS – THE RECORD OF EARLY 1900’s COCKTAILS

We largely understand the cocktail history of the period from the books and articles published in the early 1900’s, as well as early movie appearances. Some of the historical references for this period are included in the list below:

1895 – George J Kappeler, Modern American Drinks, How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups and Drinks, has a cocktail called the ‘Dundorado’ which is very similar to a ‘Negroni’ lock-tail #021

1908 – Jacob Abraham Grohusko, Jack’s Bar Manual (First Edition), has the first surviving printed recipe for the ‘Jack Rose’, lock-tail #025.

1916 – Hugo R. Ensslin, Recipes For Mixed Drinks, has the first printed recipe for an ‘Aviation’ lock-tail #024 and an invention of Ensslin, as well as the ‘Southside Fizz’, a pre-cursor to the famous Prohibition Era ‘Southside’, lock-tail #027.

1927 – Judge Jr., Here’s How, which has the first version of Harry MacElhone’s ‘French 75’ with the currently accepted recipe, lock-tail #029.

1930 – Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book, the first appearance of so many pre-Prohibition cocktails, including those mentioned in previous era summaries 1800’s and 1900-1910, as well as the ‘White Lady’, lock-tail #026 claimed by both Harry Craddock and Harry MacElhone, and in addition the ‘French 75’ a little after Judge Jr. in 1927.

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COCKTAILS FROM THE 1911 TO 1920 – THE 10 REMIXES (LOCKTAILS #021 TO #030)

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FULL INGREDIENT LIST (from the 1911 to 1920 Cocktail Remixes)
* items below with asterix have also been used in the previous (1800’s or 1900-1910) cocktail mixes.

For the ingredients for the next 10 cocktails (1921-1930), see ingredients.

For the full index of future (and past) cocktail mixes, see index.