Although people tend to call anything in a V-shaped glass a cocktail, the drink traditionally is required to have spirits, sugar and bitters. Some other facts about the drink:
-Originally the cocktail was considered a morning eye-opener. Some speculate that's how it got its name - a metaphor for a rooster (cock) heralding the light of day.
-In New Orleans, legend has it Antoine Peychaud served his blend of bitters and brandy in eggcups, known as "coquetiers" to the French-speaking residents. The word later was corrupted to "cock-tay," and finally to cocktail.
-In the 1800s, bitters were used as medicine. Peychaud's Bitters' label still reads, "Good for what ails one irrespective of malady."
-Martinis and Manhattans were not developed in the United States until vermouth began being imported from Europe.
-Two of the earliest recorded enhancements to the cocktail were a sugar-crusted glass lip with fruit peel (called a crusta), and the addition of absinthe.
Source: Ted Haigh, curator, Museum of the American Cocktail.
