Category Drinks

Root Beer Floats are the Stuff that Toasts are Made Of: Happy National Root Beer Float Day!

Root beer is a wholly American drink because colonists were the first to make it. If you want to believe this, then Charles Hires reintroduced it to America via the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. He discovered a way to mass-produce them, releasing Hires Root Tea. He likely changed the name from tea to beer to apply to the working class. Did you know that authentic Root beer is from about 16 roots and herbs? The primary ingredient was sassafras. Sassafras came to be known as a carcinogen in1960, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned its use. Root beer accounts for three percent of America’s soft drink market. The number one spot for best-selling root beer is A&W. There is a distilled version of root beer too.

DIY Root Beer Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 gallon filtered wate...
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Martinis Are the Only American Invention as Perfect as a Sonnet

Happy Martini Day! A classic martini is gin or vodka, a splash of dry vermouth and an olive or a lemon twist garnish. Many stories are surrounding the history of the martini.

Did you know that Italian immigrant bartender Martini di Arma di Taggia from New York City invented the drink around World War I? Many think the name martini came from a British-made rifle called a Martini & Henry. The English army used it around the 1870s because of its kick. There is also a fun story that John D. Rockefeller brought the martini to Wall Street, establishing the three-martini lunch. It’s a dated phrase used to describe a leisurely, indulgent lunch enjoyed by business people or lawyers.

And, contrary to how James Bond likes it, a shaken martini becomes ‘bruised’ or watered down...

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