The following article was submitted by Tourism Vancouver staffer, Sonu Purhar.

Fancy infusions, liquid nitrogen and inventive ice… these days, it’s par for the course to find your coupe filled with a (damn delicious) work of art – but let’s not forget from whence they came. Yes, I’m talking about The Classic Cocktail.

As with any historical certainty, no one is certain when and where the cocktail originated. What we can agree on is that these stimulating brews traditionally consisted of spirits, sugar and bitters. By the mid-1800s, liqueur had joined as the fourth horseman. And shortly thereafter, the first genuine “cocktails” were born, including our friends the Sazerac, Old Fashioned and Manhattan. If it weren’t for these forerunners, you’d be sipping on bitter bathtub gin.

Continue reading:
Elegant and Intoxicating: An Ode to Classic Cocktails in Vancouver