in courtesy of esquire.com I had a look into my statistics - and it seems, that most of you, my readers, are interested in cocktail recipes. My Mojito post is doing still very well in the hit-statistics - even more surprisingly - the post about the El Diablo is strong - actually the post with the most hits ever [of my blog]. So I decided to write up a post about my absolutely favorite. I think this drink is not only the forebear of all cocktails - it is also more than the king - it is the emperor of bar-drinks. Check out the first quote in print which was published in 1806: "a mixture of spirits of any kind, water, sugar and bitters, vulgarly called a bittered sling." Looks like an Old Fashioned - doesn't it? But where is the name coming from. We can be quite sure, that there was in the mid 1800's a new breed of drinks coming up. Those mixed with wine aperitifs - which were most of the time vermouth. The predecessors of Manhattan and Martini [or Martin...