National Cocktail Day Date in the current year: March 24, 2024

A cocktail is a mixed drink that consists of a hard liquor, wine or beer (or a combination of several alcoholic beverages) mixed with other ingredients (drink mixers) such as tonic waters, juices, bitters, flavored syrups, sugar, honey, cream, various herbs, coffee, iced tea, energy drinks, sauces, egg whites, etc. Non-alcoholic mixed drinks resembling cocktails are often called “mocktails” or “virgin cocktails”.

The origins of the word “cocktail” are unclear, but it has been used since the early 19th century. The first definition of cocktail as an alcoholic beverage can be found in The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York tabloid. It was published on May 13, 1806; the anniversary of the publication is now celebrated as World Cocktail Day.

Early cocktails were made with spirits, bitters, sugar and water. However, the list of cocktail ingredients expanded throughout the 19th century as cocktails evolved. Liquor-based cocktails became the dominant type of cocktails during the Prohibition era, when beer and wine were harder to come by than illegal distilled spirits. The popularity of cocktails took a dip after the Great Depression, but there has been a revival of the cocktail culture over the past decades.

There are hundreds of various cocktails out there: light and strong, sweet and sour, fruity and spicy. The International Bartenders Association (IBA) has a list of official cocktails that are recognized as the most requested mixed beverages. The original IBA Cocktail List, approved in 1961, included 50 cocktails. As of 2021, there were 90 cocktails on the list, divided into three categories: The Unforgettables, Contemporary Classics, and New Era Drinks.

National Cocktail Day was created in 2013 by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, a freelance author and editor who had been writing holiday articles for nearly a decade before starting to create holidays of her own. Since Shoemaker-Galloway is a cocktail enthusiast, it is not surprising that one of the holidays she came up with was National Cocktail Day.

National Cocktail Day is meant to celebrate the countless variety of cocktails and encourage people to create their own original mixed drinks and share them with others. It’s a great day to meet with your friends, relax with your favorite cocktail, and forget about your problems and troubles at least for a little while.

There are many ways to celebrate National Cocktail Day. You can go out to your favorite bar (and don’t forget to leave the bartender an extra tip due to the occasion), make your favorite cocktail, try a new recipe or even invent a cocktail of your own, throw a cocktail party for your friends, sign up for a mixology course, research the history of your favorite cocktails, stock up on cocktail ingredients and supplies so you can enjoy a delicious cocktail whenever you want, buy a book of cocktail recipes at your local bookstore, and post about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #NationalCocktailDay and #CocktailDay.