A Sip of History: 3 Cocktails That Were Popular From 1900 to 1910 and How You Can Recreate Them at Home

We can learn a lot about our world through drinking. Bars and pubs have served as gathering places for time and millennia, where people would get together, share ideas and even start revolutions! The Green Dragon Tavern, for example, was where the Founding Fathers of the United States met, planned the Boston Tea Party and drafted the United States Constitution.

In short, drinking culture shapes the world, and the spirit of the times often informs which cocktails are being made behind the bar in a symbiotic relationship. Popular cocktails of an era say a lot about the climate and culture, and we’d like to take a deep dive into the most popular cocktails of the 19th Century as part of a new series exploring the history of mixology.

In this series, we will go back through the decades of the 1900s up until the 2000s, and shine a light on three popular cocktails. In this first installment, we’re covering 1900-1910.

Some of these cocktails are still made today, while some have been lost to history.

The Key Events That Shaped Drinking Culture From 1900-1910

Politically speaking, the 1900s were a volatile time for Americans. In 1901, U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, a self-proclaimed anarchist. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt replaced McKinley and served until William Howard Taft replaced him in 1909.

The 1900s were a time of innovation in America, and in 1903, The Wright Brothers took their maiden voyage in the first airplane, with the inaugural World Series to coincide that year. In 1904, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition took place in St. Louis, Missouri, to honor the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Nineteen million people attended the exhibition, and the prototype for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone was exhibited at the event. In addition to the telephone, the X-ray machine debuted at the World’s Fair with the first electric street car.

In 1906, The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, which aimed to protect the public’s health and safety. The U.S. Capitol shares that before the act of legislation passed, there was no way to ensure that food would be unadulterated with chemicals. Representative James Mann of Illinois shared in a speech at the U.S. House of Representatives in June 1906 why it was so important to pass this act of legislation by using a very disconcerting real-life example of an ingredient that would make one deadly Old Fashioned:

“Here is a bottle of cherries, originally picked green, so that they might be firm, with the green color all taken out with acid until they were perfectly white, and then colored with an aniline dye which is poisonous in any quantity.”

Thanks to the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act, consumers didn’t have to worry as much about food or drinks being tampered with — at least for the time being.

Another critical innovation that shaped the birth of cocktail culture was the fact that ice no longer needed to be cut from cold regions and transported to designated ice houses. The first commercial ice machine was invented in 1854, by Australian journalist and inventor, James Harrison, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Though the technology and infrastructure weren’t quite at the level of making ice machines widely available, commercial properties would have ice machines, giving rise to cocktail culture. The use of ice shifted dramatically, according to Alcohol Professor. It became a garnish, and the colder a cocktail could be served? The more impressive.

Before ice was as readily available, Alcohol Professor shares that water was used to dilute cocktails. Yet, as ice became more popular, it replaced the addition of water to cocktails. Bartenders were able to experiment with other ingredients, like simple and fruit-based syrups.

3 Popular Cocktails of 1900 to 1910 — and How to Make Them at Home

The Bijou

The Bijou was invented by whom some refer to as the “Father of Modern Bartending,” Harry Johnson. Johnson included the recipe in “The Bartender’s Manual,” which was published in the 1900s, according to Punch.

The Drunkard’s Almanac reports that Johnson was a well-known bartender in Chicago, who would routinely give lectures on his craft. Though his flagship bar burned down in the Chicago Fire in the 1870s, Johnson was still a prominent fixture in Chicago’s cocktail scene. In the 1890s, Johnson opened a consulting firm, making him the first bartending consultant in history.

This gin-based cocktail takes its name from the French word for “jewel,” due to the brightly-colored liquors in the drink. The Bijou includes gin for diamonds, vermouth for rubies and chartreuse for emeralds. With its strongly herbaceous and sweet flavors, this gem-inspired cocktail is best served in a Nick and Nora glass.

Johnson’s Bijou is a fairly easy cocktail to make, and the original recipe called for equal parts gin, vermouth and chartreuse. We suggest modifying it a bit for added balance.

For this cocktail, we recommend going with a gin that doesn’t lean too heavily on the juniper. Chartreuse is a potent, emerald-hued, herbaceous spirit, and a heavily aromatic, juniper-forward gin would throw your Bijou off balance. Consider trying Ford’s Gin. Not only is Ford’s plenty affordable — you can pick up a bottle for around $30 — but this 45%-ABV gin is versatile and a great workhorse spirit for cocktails.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Fords Dry Gin
• 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
• .75 oz Green Chartreuse
• Dash of orange bitters.
• Cherry or orange peel for garnish.

Directions:

Combine all ingredients with ice in a shaker. Stir, then strain into a Nick and Nora glass. Garnish with cherry or orange peel.

The Clover Club

The history of The Clover Club proves that pink was the thing to drink in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Chilled Magazine reports that this cocktail was created for the Clover Gentleman’s Club at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.

It was considered the “power drink” for businessmen back in the day. Though pink is now associated with all things feminine, Rachel Ford, a national gin ambassador for Diageo, shared with Chilled Magazine that pink was “once seen as masculine.”

As pink shifted to a more “girly” color, men began to shy away from this drink because it was too feminine. Interesting how times change, huh? We believe a good cocktail is a good cocktail and defies being gendered. If raspberries are your thing, and you have a penchant for all things sweet and sour — The Clover Club will be your jam.

A heady concoction of egg white, lemon juice and raspberry syrup go into a Clover Club if you’re looking for a refreshing fruity drink. We recommend making this drink with Barr Hill Gin, a Vermont-based craft gin brand that is made with raw honey. Though this gin hosts a bit of florality from the juniper, it’s beautifully balanced by that sweet, beeswax-y goodness.

We’ve decided to use Imbibe’s recipe for this one and make sure you have a shaker, strainer and coupe on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Barr Hill Gin
• .5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• .5 oz Dry Vermouth
• .5 oz Raspberry Syrup
• .25 oz Egg White

Directions for Raspberry Syrup:

This raspberry syrup recipe is simple syrup made from equal parts sugar and water, with the addition of muddled raspberries. Be sure to use equal parts of raspberries and water, yet double the ratio for sugar.

Directions for Making a Clover Club:

Mix gin, lemon juice, vermouth, raspberry syrup and egg whites in a shaker with no ice and shake for 10 seconds to emulsify the egg whites. Add some ice and shake it like a Polaroid picture (vigorously) for a minimum of 10 seconds. Use your strainer to strain it into a chilled coupe.

The Sazerac

The Sazerac has French roots, and it originated in the Deep South. The Sazerac House shares that a French cognac company began to ship its cognac to bars, which were called “coffee houses,” in New Orleans. The cognac was popular and considered a hit with Antoine Peychaud, the inventor of the famous Peychaud’s Bitters, according to The Sazerac House. Though the exact origins of the Sazerac are unknown, many believe it was at the turn of the 19th century that the Sazerac was first made. The cocktail was served at none other than the Sazerac house and took off by storm.

The Sazerac has seen many iterations in its lifetime. Eventually, cognac wasn’t shipped to the United States from Europe, so rye whiskey was used as a substitute. Absinthe was additionally used as a rinse before it was banned in the United States in 1912. After the spirit was banned, herbsaint was used as a substitute. In 2008, The Sazerac was crowned the Official Cocktail of New Orleans.

As far as recipes go, we recommend using Food & Wine’s recipe, as that version calls for Absinthe. As far as choices of whiskey go, we recommend using none other than Sazerac Rye. This appropriately named rye is a very affordable offering from Buffalo Trace, and it’s sweeter as far as rye whiskeys go. With its brown butter, caramel and pepper flavors, Sazerac Rye is a nice contrast to the herbaceous anise flavors of the Absinthe. As far as Absinthe goes, you can find a great offering from Pernod Absinthe, which is clean and citrusy with all that anise-driven goodness. Be sure to serve this in a chilled rocks glass.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Cognac
• 1.5 oz Sazerac Rye Whiskey
• 2 dashes Absinthe
• 3 dashes Peychauds Bitters
• 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
• 1 sugar cube
• 1 lemon twist

Directions:

Rinse out the chilled rocks glass with absinthe, then empty. Using a shaker, muddle sugar cube and both types of bitters together. Add ice, cognac and rye whiskey then stir until completely dissolved — Food and Wine recommends about 40 seconds. Strain into a pre-rinsed rocks glass. Twist a lemon twist over the glass for garnish. Enjoy!

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