Undoubtedly the trend sweeping bar-rooms across the globe and thought by many to be a modern creation, this advert from 1910 should be of interest;
Consultancy, training and events - www.evo-lution.org
Boker's Bitters and Dandelion & Burdock Bitters - www.bokersbitters.co.uk
The Jerry Thomas Project - www.thejerrythomasproject.blogspot.com
Nice find!
Martin Doudoroff: Nice find!
Here's another from 1912;
I've also found one from the same company that talks about mellowing/aging in bottles, just trying to find a higher quality image.
This ad from 1940 talks about bottle-aged cocktails;
Also worth noting that John Martin was President of the Heublein company. That be the same John Martin of Smirnoff and Moscow Mule fame...
The window at Legendre's Drugstore with bottled Sazerac Coctails, around the time J.M. Legendre sold Herbsaint to The Sazerac Co. in the late 40s.
...but then you begin to wonder where the dividing line between 'matured/aged in barrel/bottle' and 'pre-mixed for your convenience' is?
Is 'bottled Sazerac' towards the end of a tradition of barrel-aged cocktails and bottled punches, or is it the beginning of the much reviled RTD ('ready to drink') market?
Also see there is a 'bottled Daiquiri' listed in one of the above adds. Some what perishable one would have thought unless it is something other than a classic Daiquiri and not made with real lime juice at all.
I agree that there is a line between barrel aged and bottle aged. One that is probably crossed by marketers trying to take advantage of perception. I mean if you had your choice between a freshly made cocktail, or one that is pre-mixed and simply kept in a bottle for a while, which would you pick? A bottled cocktail has convinience on its side, but little else. However, if you were to start refering to this as "bottle aged" suddenly it takes on a different allure, without any change at all it its actual quality.
Barrel aged on the other hand would appear to be a process which was intentionally trying to enhance or otherwise alter the cocktail's flavor.
I'm not sure that in the time-frame we are discussing that bottled products would necessarily have been perceived as less-desirable. Marketing notions of not just "convenience" but also access to the non-local (and therefore more sophisticated/desirable) would certainly have been forming at this time and it's possible the bottled products had greater allure than the more ubiquitous and familiar locally-available (and therefore mundane) alternatives. We find ourselves in a cultural moment when the made-to-order is rare and special- but to someone in the first decades of the 20th century novelty and specialness could instead have been associated with the "pre-made" and packaged.
Keith
Robert Hess: Barrel aged on the other hand would appear to be a process which was intentionally trying to enhance or otherwise alter the cocktail's flavor.
The 1940 ad does talk about the drink mellowing in the bottle, which is no different to what people are doing now with their aged cocktails. Of course there is a level of convenience applied to such a product but is that really a bad thing considering the era in which these were being sold (just years after Prohibition, the Great Depression and at the beginning of World War II)?
I wrote a wee article about this if anyone's interested.
Its an RTD!!!!
Why the long face?
I do loves me some barrel-aged spirits & cocktails. There's something so novel and interesting about taking...say, mezcal or a negroi and setting it in a barrel for six weeks to five months (depending on what's in the barrel and how large is the barrel). What happens when it is reborn is really, really interesting. The result is...dare I say it...an improved spirit? Maybe not "improved", but damned do I enjoy this approach.
At Liberty, we have a Barrel Aged Cockail For The Masses program, where we allow our customers to decide what we put in our barrels, and we age them for ~six weeks, and then put those cocktails on our menu. In fact, we have ten going right now, so we built a rack over our door for the barrel. Our own rickhouse.
So, while the history sure is interesting...tasting them is what really is exciting.
And, as I always say - thanks to Tony Conigliaro & Jeffrey Morganthaler for making this happen.
Liberty Bar :: Seattle, WA :: Alcohology