#185 Cocktail: Moscow Mule

      The cocktail was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., an American East Coast spirits and food distributor based in Hartford, Connecticut, and "Jack" Morgan, President of Cock 'n' Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of the Cocks 'n' Bulls restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, which was popular with celebrities.
      The Moscow mule is almost always served in a copper mug. The popularity of this drinking vessel is attributable to Martin, who went around the country to sell Smirnoff vodka and popularize the Moscow mule. Martin asked bartenders to pose with a specialty copper mug and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, and photographed a Polaroid picture of them. He took two photos, leaving one with the bartender for display. The other photo would be put into a collection and used as proof to the next bar Martin visited of the popularity of the Moscow mule. The copper mug remains, to this day, a popular serving vessel for the Moscow mule, primarily due to tradition and aesthetic reasons (Wikipedia)

2 ounces vodka

3 ounces ginger beer

#184 Cocktail: Mamie Taylor

    This is a drink with a little history. It used to belong in a category of drinks known as Bucks, but aside from the Gin Buck, Mamie Taylor is more oor less the last survaving member of the family. Gaz Regan took the liberty to have the Highball family adopt Miss Mamie.
     "It was while Miss Taylor was the prima donna of an opera company playing at Ontario Beach, near Rochester, in 1899," he said, "that she was asked with a number of other members of the company to go out sailing on the lake. As the day was hot and the breeze rather strong, the party returned after a few hours longing for some cooling refreshments. When Miss Taylor was asked what she would have she expressed the wish for a long but not strong drink--in fact, a claret lemonade. When the drink was served it was very evident that it wasn't a claret lemonade, for it looked like a delicious long drink of sparkling champagne. On tasting it Miss Taylor found itmuch to her liking, but asked to have the flavor softened with a piece of lemon peel. When this was done the new combination drink was declared a complete success. Bystanders had been watching the proceedings and noticing the evident enjoyment with which Miss Taylor and a few of her friends relished in new drink they finally asked the hotel keepr what drink it was that was being served to them and without hesitation the hotel man replied "a Mamie Taylor" and the name seemed to meet with instantaneous favour and has become famous all over the country."  "The Post Standard", 7th March 1902

2 ounces scotch 

3 ounces ginger ale

1 lime wedge

#183 Cocktail: Manhattan

    This one is one of the 3 cocktails that are my all time favorite. The other 2 are Martini and Old-Fashioned.
     A popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was invented by Dr. Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring to the name of the club where it originated—"the Manhattan cocktail". However, Lady Randolph was in France at the time and pregnant, so the story is likely a fiction.
     However, there are prior references to various similar cocktail recipes called "Manhattan" and served in the Manhattan area. By one account it was invented in the 1860s by a bartender named Black at a bar on Broadway near Houston Street.
     The original "Manhattan cocktail" was a mix of "American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth and Angostura bitters". During Prohibition (1920–1933) Canadian whisky was primarily used because it was available.
      An early record of the cocktail can be found in William Schmidt's "The Flowing Bowl", published in 1891. In it, he details a drink containing 2 dashes of gum (gomme syrup), 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2/3 portion of whiskey and 1/3 portion of vermouth.

2 ounces bourbon or straight rye whiskey

1 ounce sweet vermouth

2 dashes orange bitters

#182 Cocktail: Martini

   This cocktail doesn't need any introduction. I think there is no person that doesn't know about this cocktail. The most iconic cocktail of them all. When you think of Martini cocktail, you think of elegance , gentlemen in sharp suits, elegant ladies and some piano in the backround in a 1920's bar.
    The exact origin of the martini is unclear. Numerous cocktails with names and ingredients similar to the modern-day martini were first seen in bartending guides of the late 19th century. For example, in the 1888 Bartenders' Manual there was a recipe for a drink that consisted in part of half a wine glass of Old Tom Gin and a half a wine glass of vermouth.In 1863, an Italian vermouth maker started marketing their product under the brand name of Martini, and the brand name may be the source of the cocktail's name.
   There are a number of variations on the traditional Martini. The fictional spy James Bond sometimes asked for his vodka Martinis to be "shaken, not stirred," following Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which prescribes shaking for all its Martini recipes. The proper name for a shaken Martini is a Bradford. However, Somerset Maugham is often quoted as saying that "a Martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."

2 1/2 ounce Gin or Vodka

1/2 ounce dry vermouth