Talk:Sombrero (cocktail)

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Is this actually a cocktail...

...or just a mixed drink? Does a cocktail have to be made with a distilled spirit? Should this go on Hayford's cocktail list? Aleta Curry 01:39, 23 August 2007 (CDT)

It looks to me as if a cocktail is something that is drunk *before* a meal. Or at a cocktail party. When do you drink a Sombrero? Before a meal? Late at night in a bar? Granted, "cocktail" is a slippery term.... Hayford Peirce 23:03, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
I want to stress something extremely important for a minute. I know some of us here are drinkers, so my question is: where are the photos?? --Robert W King 23:05, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
Hard to track down, but I'm working on it. If I had my digital camera handy I would take photos of a King Alphonse and post them.... Hayford Peirce 23:21, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
I was implying the D-I-Y route, because after all, why would you just make a drink for the purposes of photographing it and then toss it down the drain? Consumption is 90% of the fun. --Robert W King 23:23, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
More like 110%, I would say.... Hayford Peirce 23:38, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
Don't get me wrong Hayford--I am not encouraging anyone to drink (after all there are legal ramifications behind that), but I am alluding to something... --Robert W King 23:39, 5 September 2007 (CDT)
Going back to Hayford's first posted reply--yes, my understanding is the same as yours: cocktails are drunk before meals or at cocktail parties (which seem to have gone the way of all flesh; my parents used to go to cocktail parties often, but I don't). However, I seem to recall reading somewhere that in order to be properly called a cocktail a drink has to be contain at least one distilled (clear?) spirit. 'Course, this could just be something someone made up; but I know I've read it, because that's the way my brain works.... Aleta Curry 17:13, 6 September 2007 (CDT)
The "distilled" requirement *sounds* reasonable, and I'm sure that someone has said it from time to time. But I certainly remember going to fancy receptions (a bank opening, for instance) in Tahiti that were called either "une reception" or "un cocktail", and being offered nothing more than wine or champagne. But those, of course, are French, so what do *they* know? I wonder where a "kir royale" would fit in? This is a wonderful French cocktail made from champagne into which some creme de cassis is added. That's from currents, I believe, and is either a very fortified wine or a lightly distilled spirit. And words, as you said earlier, also change their meanings. "Pousse cafe" -- literally "push coffee" -- apparently originally meant a layered drink of various liqueurs in which all the layers remained separate and visible. Today, in France, at least, if the waiter asks if you want a pousse-cafe, he's just asking if you want a brandy or some other liqueur.

What the OED says

I got out my magnifying glass and on page 579 found "3. A drink, consisting of spirit mixed with a small quantity of bitters, some sugar, etc. Chiefly U.S. (A slang name, of which the real origin appears to be lost.)" -- the first citation is apparently from Washington Irving, "They lay claim to be the first inventors of those recondite beverages, cock-tail, stone-fence, and sherry-cobbler." Apparently 1809, but it isn't clear in the OED.... Hayford Peirce 18:47, 6 September 2007 (CDT)